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The Bachelor 13th Edition

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RealityFreakWill:
From L.A. Times...

'The Bachelor's' Jason Mesnick: 'Everyone thinks I’m dragging Melissa over the coals'

It’s going to be a rough week for “The Bachelor’s” Jason Mesnick.

On Monday night, rampant online rumors concerning the show’s twist ending –- one that would potentially brand Mesnick a cad -– were confirmed when he retracted his proposal to Melissa Rycroft, delivered in the last moments of the finale, in favor of the runner-up, Molly Malaney.

What’s worse for Mesnick –- but good for ABC -– is that more than 17.6 million tuned in to watch Melissa get the shaft on the “After the Final Rose” special, making it the most-watched in the franchise’s seven-year history.

Jimmy Kimmel kicked off the roast early. “Is your arm sore from handing out and taking back roses?” he asked.

In an interview with The Times on Tuesday afternoon, Mesnick explained that he had, in fact, ended his relationship with Rycroft on the phone a week before the taping. “If you watched carefully, she wasn’t wearing her ring,” he said.

Either way, the jilted Rycroft seems quite unhappy, and though she might have been able to turn her sympathetic position into even more camera time as the next “Bachelorette,” ABC confirmed that second runner-up Jillian Harris would wear that mantle.

But back to Mesnick. While “The Bachelor” has been at the center of controversy before -- Season 11’s Brad Womack, for instance, rejected all of his options and was booed by the audience throughout his “After the Final Rose” -- but dumping a girl you just proposed to on national TV? Mesnick better have his flak jacket ready. Here he goes:

Was there any discussion between you and Melissa about how this might play out on TV since you say you had ended things on the phone beforehand?
No. Her response had been, “How do you want me to react to that?” I wasn’t going to coach her. I just told her that we were going to talk about things again [on the show] and however she felt is how she was going to react. I’m never going to tell anyone what to say.

Are you surprised by the backlash against you?
I don’t know if the public expected me to just pretend like I’m in a good happy relationship. I mean, is that what people really wanted to see? Because that was the other option, but never a real option for me. It sucks that everyone thinks I’m dragging Melissa over the coals right in front of everybody because it’s not true. What’s funny is that everybody loves the fact that I break up with somebody every week in the regular part of the show ... and now I'm being judged.

Why ultimately didn’t you ask Molly to marry you the first time?
What scared me the most about Molly is that we had this young, fun, friendship relationship with a lot of passion, and people who have been together for a long time all say, "The passion is the first thing to go." In my regular everyday life I wouldn’t have stopped dating any one of [the final three]. I would have gone and tried to experience more with each of them.

At what point did you change your mind about Melissa? What was the turning point?
It was right after the holidays. We spent a week together during Christmas and I felt differently. She didn’t do anything wrong, but we had this great communication style where we could talk about anything while we were on the show, and then all of a sudden we’re together for longer periods of time afterwards and we just couldn’t talk about stuff. ... I was realizing that we didn’t have a great friendship, and that was hard for me to face.

Why did you go on a TV show to find love in front of millions? Why not just use match.com?
It sounded like the ultimate dating experience. I mean, if they’re going to go across the country and find 25 great matches -– if you’re going to talk about match.com –- it’s better than that! It’s very unique.

What do you think your 4-year-old son, Ty, who met both Melissa and Molly, will learn about how to treat women from watching “The Bachelor”?
I don’t know. I think that I want him to look at me and just say, "My daddy had this crazy experience and it’s OK to do some things differently from other people. It’s OK that relationships don’t work because that’s part of real life." I want him to see how real it was and how hard it was for me and that how much all that pain was worth it in the end.

Would you advise he find love the same way?
Would I recommend for Ty to do this? I hope Ty would be the type of person to think about doing something different, absolutely. I wouldn’t say necessarily a TV show.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2009/03/the-bachelors-j.html

RealityFreakWill:
Jason's myspace blog posted 3/3/09...

Thank you to those who have voiced their support

I just want to say 'thank you' to everyone who's been supportive throughout the entire Bachelor process (especially over the last 24 hours!).  I can't tell you how much I appreciate the encouragement.  Reality TV and reality are sometimes worlds apart, so again...thank you for understanding that and for sticking with me.  Molly and I are incredibly happy together and your well wishes mean so much right now.  For those of you who've been asking what I'm up to next, I'm working on starting a new resource/organization for single moms and dads - something I'm obviously very passionate about.  Check back in a couple days for more details. 
Talk to you soon, 
Jason

http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=379276576&blogId=474441956

RealityFreakWill:
FYI......Reminders

TV Appearances/Interviews

Wed 3/4

ABC Teleconference with Jason & Molly

Chris Harrison on Ellen Degeneres Show

Thurs 3/5

Melissa Rycroft on Ellen Degeneres Show

Fri 3/6

Jason Mesnick & Molly Malaney on Ellen Degeneres Show

Mon 3/9

Jason Mesnick on Bonnie Hunt Show

RealityFreakWill:
Chris Harrison blogs 'The Bachelor': After the Final Rose, part 2

Not sure if it's safe to come back in here, but I wanted to come back today and give you my final thoughts now that everything is out in the open. I completely understand that many, if not most, of you are upset at what went down. It's not up to me to judge whether Jason was right or wrong in doing what he did. That's for you guys to decide and debate. I hate that he hurt Melissa like he did but I also see the other side. I spent time with him and Molly and have talked to both of them several times since we shot After the Final Rose part 1. I don't know if it makes it any easier for you to swallow but they are in love and are fighting like hell under an extreme amount of pressure to make this work. I told him that he must really love Molly to have done this. The easy thing for him to have done was break up with Melissa and just let it all go away, but that's not the choice he made and that's what we showed you.

I found it very interesting to hear what the bachelorettes who came back had to say. Most of them are very good friends with Melissa, but they saw firsthand what really happened this season. I can tell you now that we all thought it was Melissa from the start. I remember thinking that first night that it was going to be hard for us to hide the fact that Jason was so in love with her. Even the other women could tell it was Melissa. But they also said that they could see his feelings for Molly grow stronger toward the end. It will be debated for some time to come what was right and what was wrong, and I'm happy to hear all of your opinions. I really am. I find it fascinating to hear how you feel about all this. We all bring our own baggage into this discussion and that definitely helps shape our thoughts and feelings. I'm not here to apologize or excuse anything that Jason said or did, but let me say this publicly about everybody involved: I consider all three of them to be friends. I've talked to Melissa and know she's doing fine. You'll see her this week telling her story to Ellen and in the magazines. By the way, I will also be dishing on Ellen's show Wednesday. I wish Melissa the best and know that we'll keep in touch and that she'll be fine. I also consider Molly and Jason to be friends now and wish them nothing but the best. After taping the special Friday night, Jason, Molly, Jillian, my wife, and my friends all hung out in my dressing room and had a cold one. We talked about what was about to happen this week. Jason and Molly are well aware that many don't appreciate what happened and hold ill feelings toward them. They are going to have a lot of pressure on them and all they can do is just rely on each other and do the best they can. I wish you all could have hung out with us and just seen that these are real people going through life just like you and I are. It just so happens that what they do is magnified times a thousand because they are on TV.

There will be a lot said and written about this season of The Bachelor. For better or worse, it's one for the history books. I can't do much about the rumors and flat-out lies that are being told out there. I have been as honest and as detailed with you as I could possibly have been. I am sorry that this is hurting some of my friends but they are strong people and will come out on the other side of this just fine. I've never been a part of anything like this before and will be perfectly happy if it never happens again. Ratings aside and contrary to what some of you may believe, I didn't enjoy one bit of what happened. I would love to show you a great love story every time but that's not how life works, and in the end we may have indeed brought you a love story after all. Five years down the road, when Jason and Molly are married, I wonder if many of you will feel different about this.

Let me just wrap this up by saying, I'm very excited to announce Jillian as our next Bachelorette. I think it always speaks volumes about our show when the good people like Jillian decide to come back. I think it also helps that I showed her the script for next season, and although she's not happy about having octuplets, she does like the guy we picked for her so she's all good. Seriously, Jillian is the best. We couldn't have found a more down to earth, funny, thoughtful woman. I hope she finds what she's looking for but be warned  – even if she does, we just learned it may not happen exactly how you like!

A quick thank you to the wonderful crew I work with on The Bachelor year in and year out. I love you all like family. My thanks to my new friends at EW. When I started this I had never blogged before and now that it's done it's safe to say I'll never do it again. Kidding...I'll be back blogging about Jillian when we premiere in May. Until then, thank you for watching.

For everyone who's been a part of this one, I'm Chris Harrison. Good Night!

http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2009/03/chris-harriso-1.html#comment-150424693

RealityFreakWill:
To read Reality Steve's latest blog, or his other blogs as well, go here...

http://realitysteve.com/

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