Hit Reality Show Sinks To Horrible New Lows

Instead of seeing the proposal, we get accounts from both Jenn and Devin about what apparently went wrong between the proposal and the present time. According to her, Devin–always so lively and affectionate onscreen–went completely cold toward Jenn when the cameras weren’t rolling and shockingly dumped her in a 15-minute phone call where he revealed that he never loved her in the first place. As for Devin, he claims his earlier feelings for her were authentic, but otherwise didn’t deny her accusations and even admitted to following previous show contestant Maria on Instagram.

So far, all of this is shocking and sad, but these kinds of last-minute twists are, sadly, a primary feature of reality television. However, what The Bachelorette did next took things to new heights of cruelty. Producers showed footage of the previous happy proposal and included clips of Jenn discussing how happy she is, all while the now-dumped contestant watched all of this unfold.

This most recent season of The Bachelorette seemed like it would be the same old formula with some new faces. In this case, Jenn Tran had to choose which beau she would marry, and she had narrowed her choices down to two fellows, Marcus and Devin. As you might expect, the men were very different: Marcus was chillier and more reserved, and Devin was an expressive life-of-the-party type who notably seemed head over heels for Tran.

Given those two choices, The Bachelorette contestant chose Devin, which seemed to be a very logical choice. She then revealed that she planned to do what audiences had been furiously hoping she would do: propose to Devin. Afterward, audiences were expecting to see that proposal … instead, we got the beginning of what would be a horrific new low for The Bachelorette and for reality TV as a whole.

ABC’s parent company Disney is known for family-friendly fare, but what we saw next wasn’t friendly to anyone, Jenn least of all. You see, The Bachelorette producers put her face in the corner of the screen so everyone could watch her live reaction to the happy proposal after she had already been dumped, and she spent the entire time sobbing. This may be a genre where many of the biggest moments are completely staged, but as each painful second crawled by, it became clear that all of Jenn’s wracking sobs were completely genuine.

This finale of The Bachelorette was certainly a ratings hit for ABC, but it also highlights how ruthlessly far the network will go to secure such ratings. For the most part, audiences tune in because they want to see a beautiful young woman find the love of her life. Instead, the finale made us watch her cry every tear out of her body while watching footage of her joyous proposal right after the man she loved dumped her and allegedly said he never loved her in the first place.

The whole thing was physically painful to watch, and we can’t help but wonder what awful lows subsequent seasons of The Bachelorette will sink to in the rush for ratings. Will the venerable reality TV show start treating its contestants better or continue to sacrifice them in the most brutal way? If it’s the latter, count us out … we’d rather go watch fictional victims be physically tortured in movies like Saw than watch real people be emotionally tortured for another second on network television.