Latest / The Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous Podcast / Ashley Reacts To The "She’s All Bach" DRAMA!

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Ashley Reacts To The "She’s All Bach" DRAMA! · The Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous Podcast

0:00
Speaker 1: This is the Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous podcast
0:03
Speaker 1: with iHeartRadio.
0:06
Speaker 2: Hey guys, welcome back to the Almost Famous podcast.
0:09
Speaker 3: It's Ashley. We're here for a quick episode. I'm with
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Speaker 3: Heather and.
0:13
Speaker 2: We wanted to talk about what happened on another podcast.
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Speaker 2: Actually it was Stephanie from the She's All Badge podcasts.
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Speaker 2: She's been on our podcast, We've listened to hers, we've
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Speaker 2: gotten juice from hers, we appreciate her work. So she
0:28
Speaker 2: had an interesting episode come out yesterday.
0:31
Speaker 3: We wanted to.
0:32
Speaker 2: Discuss it because it has to do with ABC. They
0:34
Speaker 2: sent her a legal letter. I feel like Ben might
0:39
Speaker 2: be the only one who's like, never received illegal letter
0:42
Speaker 2: from ABC. We know Caitlin has, Jared and I did
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Speaker 2: years ago, not for over divulging, not for over divulging,
0:56
Speaker 2: and behind the scenes, more so for a creative idea
1:01
Speaker 2: for a show that we had, like a concept and
1:04
Speaker 2: sort of like a mini series that we had.
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Speaker 3: They didn't. I don't know, I see here.
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Speaker 2: I am stumbling trying to figure out how to word
1:13
Speaker 2: something when it comes to ABC legal, right, But Stephanie
1:17
Speaker 2: just went on air or whatever you want to call it,
1:21
Speaker 2: on the podcast waves and she read the letter and
1:25
Speaker 2: we're gonna do a little breakdown. We have it, We
1:27
Speaker 2: have a summary, so I'm just gonna tell you guys
1:30
Speaker 2: what happened. It's a sixteen minute podcast. You can listen
1:33
Speaker 2: to it. She's super articulate, She had great thoughts. Here
1:38
Speaker 2: is the sum of it. Stephanie reveals that she received
1:41
Speaker 2: a letter from ABC claiming that her interviews with former
1:43
Speaker 2: Bachelor contestants may be encouraging them to violate their NDAs
1:47
Speaker 2: and their confidentiality agreements. The letter also states that some
1:51
Speaker 2: of the contestants are required to get ABC approval before
1:54
Speaker 2: appearing on outside podcasts, and suggests booking them without approval
1:58
Speaker 2: could interfere with their contract. Okay, that is a fact,
2:03
Speaker 2: but we'll come back to some extres.
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Speaker 3: We have more to say on this, but that those
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Speaker 3: are facts.
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Speaker 2: Stephanie pushes back, saying that she has never signed an
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Speaker 2: ABC contract, also a fact, it doesn't know the details
2:15
Speaker 2: of the contestants agreements and simply asks questions as an interviewer.
2:19
Speaker 2: She explains that she's always asking guests if they can
2:23
Speaker 2: decline anything, any question and you can have it removed
2:26
Speaker 2: from the interview, and she argues that contestants are fully
2:29
Speaker 2: in control of what they choose to share. She also
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Speaker 2: addresses samples cited in the letter, including her interviews with
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Speaker 2: mel Owens, Peg Munson, and Zoe McGrady. Stephanie says that
2:40
Speaker 2: mel and Peg reached out to her first for an interview,
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Speaker 2: much like they did with US. Peg asks whether ABC
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Speaker 2: approval was needed, and she advised her.
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Speaker 4: To speak to ABC.
2:52
Speaker 2: Stephanie advised her to speak to ABC directly. She also
2:56
Speaker 2: argues that ABC took one of her comments to Zoe
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Speaker 2: McGrady out of con text, insisting that she was reiterating
3:02
Speaker 2: Zoe's point about social media because Zoe said something along
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Speaker 2: the lines of social media really will reveal a contestant's
3:09
Speaker 2: true authentic personality. It'll show their friend group. And then
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Speaker 2: Zoe was like, yeah, it will show that, I mean,
3:16
Speaker 2: and then Stephanie was like, yeah, it will show that.
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Speaker 2: That's basically all she said, Yeah, it will show that,
3:22
Speaker 2: And they were insinuating that that was encouraging her to
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Speaker 2: break contract.
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Speaker 3: That was a wild that's a wild reach. In my opinion.
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Speaker 5: That one was more so about Zoe saying and this
3:35
Speaker 5: is an abbreviation, but Zoe was alluding to that. The
3:40
Speaker 5: edits make them look to fit a specific narrative sometimes
3:45
Speaker 5: and then you get to know them on social media
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Speaker 5: and you realize, wait, that was all the power of editing.
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Speaker 4: That was not true exactly.
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Speaker 2: So Stephanie's final point is that she she.
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Speaker 3: Says that.
4:00
Speaker 2: The franchise has is this is now contract over in
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Speaker 2: the conversation, but this is Stephanie's words, arguing that the
4:07
Speaker 2: franchise has failed to evolve with modern reality TV.
4:11
Speaker 3: I agree with this.
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Speaker 4: We'll talk about this in a minute.
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Speaker 2: She says that audiences want authenticity, they want behind the
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Speaker 2: scenes insight, while ABC continues to tightly control her contestants narratives.
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Speaker 2: She believes that approach has contributed to the show's declining
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Speaker 2: relevance and questions whether their legal letter is really about
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Speaker 2: protecting contracts or silencing former contestants who have criticized the franchise.
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Speaker 2: She concludes that she's not going to stop interviewing reality
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Speaker 2: TV personalities, but the letter has made her reconsider how
4:38
Speaker 2: much Bachelor content she wants to produce moving forward. Because
4:41
Speaker 2: she's consulted with her own lawyer, and she considers this
4:45
Speaker 2: response to ABC, but she's like maintaining that she wants
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Speaker 2: the franchise to succeed, but she does think that they
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Speaker 2: need to kind of come up with a new belief
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Speaker 2: system when it comes to transparency, and they need to
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Speaker 2: let go of all the control of the conversations happening
5:02
Speaker 2: around the franchise. And I mean, in some for me,
5:06
Speaker 2: like I agree if I were to compare the Bachelor
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Speaker 2: PR legal versus Bravos, Yes, please do compare.
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Speaker 4: I'm interested to hear this.
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Speaker 2: It's funny because like me and some of my friends
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Speaker 2: will be in an interview and we'll be there with
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Speaker 2: the PR person and we'll say something that we're like
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Speaker 2: kind of side eyeing.
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Speaker 3: Them at, like should I say? Can I say this?
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Speaker 2: And they let us say it, which is crazy because
5:37
Speaker 2: I'm Bachelor. In some of the cases on this podcast,
5:41
Speaker 2: we'll get some scoop and then they will be a
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Speaker 2: PR person listening in the background because this person is
5:46
Speaker 2: still under contract, and they will say they'll call Heather
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Speaker 2: and they'll say, hey, we need you to take this out.
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Speaker 2: And I'm not saying that Bravo is never going to
5:55
Speaker 2: do it, but Bravo definitely likes a lot of I
5:59
Speaker 2: think and I'm still new to it all, but I
6:02
Speaker 2: think they like the chatter out there. They like the
6:05
Speaker 2: different storylines, and like they like the fans trying to
6:10
Speaker 2: figure out what actually may have happened and how it
6:13
Speaker 2: was summarized on the show.
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Speaker 5: Yes, well, I mean a perfect example would be that
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Speaker 5: early on in your season, Kelsey went out, was doing press,
6:23
Speaker 5: talked about you, and then that narrative that she was
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Speaker 5: saying out in the press that you guys didn't hang out,
6:30
Speaker 5: you didn't respond to her dms, those kinds of things
6:33
Speaker 5: then got brought up a couple more times. You were
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Speaker 5: given the opportunity to address that. I think it was
6:38
Speaker 5: brought up at the reunion as well, so they understand
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Speaker 5: that this is just helping to keep the conversation going
6:48
Speaker 5: and they know that, you know, the point is is
6:50
Speaker 5: to have you guys constantly being talked about when the
6:53
Speaker 5: show is airing or not. As an outsider, I would
6:57
Speaker 5: love to say that something that Bravo does really well
7:01
Speaker 5: and why I think they're so successful at creating stars
7:06
Speaker 5: is that they really do champion you guys. They champion
7:09
Speaker 5: you guys to do things outside of the show. They
7:15
Speaker 5: champion you to then feature those things on the show.
7:18
Speaker 5: They want you to be on their other shows, their
7:21
Speaker 5: other spinofs, like all those kinds of things. I have
7:25
Speaker 5: watched the Bachelor franchise four years not allow their stars
7:32
Speaker 5: to continue to rise post show.
7:35
Speaker 2: So there's a theory on this, tell me, and I
7:38
Speaker 2: think it goes far back. So we know that Mike
7:41
Speaker 2: Flies doesn't have control of the show anymore, hasn't for
7:46
Speaker 2: a few years when he was there and when Jared
7:52
Speaker 2: and I were there, and I don't even know if
7:54
Speaker 2: it came directly from Mike or who the heck it was,
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Speaker 2: but the idea was, you guys signed up for a
8:01
Speaker 2: show to find love because social media wasn't a thing,
8:04
Speaker 2: you know, like when Jared and I are the perfect example,
8:07
Speaker 2: because we are truly the first two seasons, the first Bachelor,
8:10
Speaker 2: in the first Bachelorette seasons where the contestants got followings
8:14
Speaker 2: from social media and you got to see their personality
8:17
Speaker 2: of you know, outside of the actual show.
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Speaker 3: This was of.
8:22
Speaker 2: Course a turning point for them where they had people
8:24
Speaker 2: signing up for the wrong reasons because they wanted to
8:27
Speaker 2: be famous for social But before there was social and
8:29
Speaker 2: influencing and all that, you still got your fifteen minutes
8:32
Speaker 2: of fame if you got far enough and their idea
8:37
Speaker 2: when the show first came about, and I would say,
8:40
Speaker 2: you know, for the first twelve years. I don't think
8:43
Speaker 2: the show was on for like twelve fifteen years before
8:45
Speaker 2: I was on it, because it's in what twenty five
8:48
Speaker 2: seasons and it's been eleven years for me, almost twelve years.
8:51
Speaker 2: So they wanted people to go find their love. They
8:58
Speaker 2: wanted to create it happily ever after, and they wanted
9:01
Speaker 2: people to go back with the couple in an ideal world,
9:05
Speaker 2: the couple to go and live a normal life. They
9:08
Speaker 2: were never supposed to become celebrities. They never wanted their
9:11
Speaker 2: contestants to become celebrities. So when social media gave the
9:14
Speaker 2: power to people becoming celebrities from the show, even when
9:18
Speaker 2: you were in a lead, that got them into their
9:21
Speaker 2: control freak zone.
9:23
Speaker 4: I think it has to do with money.
9:25
Speaker 3: Maybe it has to do with the money.
9:27
Speaker 4: Why, Yeah, Because.
9:30
Speaker 5: Once you know how the sausage is made, so you
9:33
Speaker 5: come in super blind that first season, you're willing to
9:37
Speaker 5: do anything XYZ. Most of the time, not everybody, but
9:40
Speaker 5: I think a lot of contestants are willing to play ball.
9:43
Speaker 4: They want to be liked by producers.
9:46
Speaker 5: Maybe you don't have a great edit and you're not
9:50
Speaker 5: happy with the results, but you know you struck a
9:53
Speaker 5: chord with the fans. Oh we want you to come back,
9:57
Speaker 5: or we want you to make an appearance. Oh I'll
9:59
Speaker 5: come back when, And there's more zeros on the end
10:01
Speaker 5: of that check because I mean, tell me, I still
10:06
Speaker 5: feel I am still flabbergasted by this. The show does
10:11
Speaker 5: not pay you during filming correcting a.
10:14
Speaker 2: Bachelor or the bachelorette, but they do pay you during
10:17
Speaker 2: paradise that is in insane in the scene you coming
10:22
Speaker 2: in as a casting producer, which is why this is
10:25
Speaker 2: a fun conversation to have with a casting producer and
10:28
Speaker 2: then an actual contestant.
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Speaker 5: You can't say you can't be mad at people for
10:35
Speaker 5: dropping their lives to go on a television show where
10:38
Speaker 5: they don't get paid, and then the old and then
10:42
Speaker 5: they are unlikely to find love because the numbers are
10:45
Speaker 5: just not in their favor. One guy, twenty five girls,
10:48
Speaker 5: You're more than likely not going to find love. And
10:51
Speaker 5: then she gets a bad edit or something's like, let's
10:55
Speaker 5: hope she gets a following out of this, Like, if
10:57
Speaker 5: she's not getting paid, let's hope she gets something see.
11:01
Speaker 2: I don't know what the emotion is, but I don't
11:05
Speaker 2: think that they want their contestants to make money for
11:08
Speaker 2: some reason.
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Speaker 5: And I'm not sure because I think you start to
11:11
Speaker 5: talk back. I think you start to not just like
11:14
Speaker 5: play ball all of a sudden, and I know that you're, like,
11:18
Speaker 5: you know, still fairly.
11:19
Speaker 4: New in the housewives world.
11:21
Speaker 5: But some of the gals that have been at it
11:23
Speaker 5: for a really long time, they're not doing it for peanuts,
11:28
Speaker 5: and they're not necessarily from what I hear through the
11:31
Speaker 5: grape vine and have worked with other ones, some of
11:35
Speaker 5: them aren't necessarily the easiest to work with because know
11:38
Speaker 5: and they look at it as a job, you know,
11:41
Speaker 5: to get in and get out. So I think that
11:43
Speaker 5: it just creates a different dynamic. Right when everybody's treated
11:48
Speaker 5: the same and not paid and then spit back out
11:51
Speaker 5: into the world and not given the stardom or the
11:54
Speaker 5: special treatment. It allows the train to keep moving. But
11:59
Speaker 5: if somebody is well liked, it is, you know, being
12:02
Speaker 5: asked to come back. Oh she's making more than that person.
12:05
Speaker 5: I heard that this person was making this. It starts
12:07
Speaker 5: to create a snowball of things that you have to
12:12
Speaker 5: be more involved with the talent, negotiating of contracts, like
12:16
Speaker 5: all that kind of stuff.
12:18
Speaker 4: I just think it.
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Speaker 5: I think at the end of the day, it has
12:21
Speaker 5: nothing to do with not wanting them to be celebrities,
12:24
Speaker 5: and I think it has everything to do with money,
12:26
Speaker 5: because this is a business first and foremost interesting.
12:31
Speaker 2: Okay.
12:31
Speaker 5: I think it's strange though, that, you know, for Dancing
12:36
Speaker 5: with the Stars for instance, that for the longest time, right,
12:40
Speaker 5: we didn't actually see like Bachelor contestants like getting the
12:44
Speaker 5: chance to like be on Dancing with the Stars.
12:47
Speaker 3: There was a drought there.
12:48
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, but that's like again, like I don't think
12:50
Speaker 2: that they wanted clout. I think that they just didn't
12:52
Speaker 2: want they didn't want to give them any clout. And
12:54
Speaker 2: I don't know what it is.
12:55
Speaker 5: It's crazy, though, because that's built in promotion for the show.
12:59
Speaker 4: When you do things like that.
13:00
Speaker 2: They seem to not like a lot of built in promotion.
13:04
Speaker 2: They want everything to be super secretive. When it's fun
13:09
Speaker 2: to get little tidbits about the behind the scenes, it
13:12
Speaker 2: makes people feel even more attached to their contestants, and
13:15
Speaker 2: the more attached they feel, the more they're going to
13:17
Speaker 2: be fans.
13:17
Speaker 4: Of the show.
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Speaker 5: I think that that's a wrong move, and I do
13:21
Speaker 5: think that is what's contributing to the decline in the
13:24
Speaker 5: viewership of the show.
13:37
Speaker 2: Not to like say this, because I've always wanted them
13:40
Speaker 2: to do it, and I would have loved to be
13:41
Speaker 2: part of it, but I always thought that there was
13:43
Speaker 2: a lack of creativity when it came to using their
13:47
Speaker 2: legacy characters totally in spin offs, Like they didn't want
13:54
Speaker 2: us to do a Survivor or a Amazing.
13:59
Speaker 3: The Love Island.
14:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, like the game shows between I just thought that
14:03
Speaker 2: there'd be some sort of game show that they could
14:06
Speaker 2: have done, a competition, game show whatever you want to
14:08
Speaker 2: call it, with the married couples.
14:10
Speaker 4: Oh, with the married couples, Got you? Got you?
14:13
Speaker 3: Yeah?
14:14
Speaker 5: I mean, listen, the show has been on enough where
14:17
Speaker 5: they could have taken bigger swings at different times and
14:20
Speaker 5: tried different things, and for whatever reason, they opted not to.
14:25
Speaker 5: I think that it's a shame now that the Legal
14:30
Speaker 5: Team is coming after a creator who promotes talks about
14:35
Speaker 5: the show even when the show's not airing, because if
14:38
Speaker 5: I'm correct, we have not had an episode to talk
14:41
Speaker 5: about since November of twenty twenty five. So the fact
14:46
Speaker 5: that this creator Stephanie is out here still talking about
14:50
Speaker 5: the show, giving it publicity, keeping it in the zeitgeist.
14:54
Speaker 5: That to me is not the person you go after.
14:57
Speaker 5: The person you go after is your talent who signed
14:59
Speaker 5: up contract is clearly breaking the rules. And and just
15:05
Speaker 5: so anybody knows, these are very standard across all television shows.
15:11
Speaker 5: There's always a hold on talent and it's usually pending
15:18
Speaker 5: the finale of the show, so that's when it starts
15:21
Speaker 5: the holding pattern.
15:22
Speaker 2: So for typically with Bachelor, you guys, it will be
15:26
Speaker 2: a year from the season airing, the start of the
15:29
Speaker 2: season airing, or the start at the end of your season,
15:32
Speaker 2: so I think it's from the finale, okay, from your finale,
15:35
Speaker 2: a year from the finale. You have to kind of
15:37
Speaker 2: ask for approval from the Warner ABC team to go
15:41
Speaker 2: on any interviews. And I know that they have strict
15:44
Speaker 2: guidelines again for social media collaborations. That's another thing, the
15:48
Speaker 2: money thing. Weird, weird, weird. Thank goodness for my own sake,
15:53
Speaker 2: they didn't have any of those restrictions on social media
15:56
Speaker 2: ads back in those days. Because now I believe that
15:59
Speaker 2: you can't even post an advertisement for six months despite
16:05
Speaker 2: your following, like I don't get it, like, why do
16:08
Speaker 2: you guys care if your contestants are making money? Why
16:11
Speaker 2: do you care if they're making money? It has nothing
16:13
Speaker 2: to do with you.
16:15
Speaker 4: It feels archaic.
16:16
Speaker 2: Controlled, It feels I don't know, they just want to
16:19
Speaker 2: exert the control.
16:20
Speaker 5: It's weird though, because your peers, and by peers, I
16:23
Speaker 5: mean other networks are not doing that. They are not
16:28
Speaker 5: kind of keeping a thumb over their talent. I mean, look,
16:33
Speaker 5: the Love Island season finale, excuse me, the Love Island
16:38
Speaker 5: reunion hasn't aired yet. It comes out I think next month,
16:44
Speaker 5: and the final episode was last week. We've already seen
16:50
Speaker 5: a contestant go on call her daddy. We've already seen
16:54
Speaker 5: all of them get their phones back post post post talking, talking, talking,
16:59
Speaker 5: snapping pictures with each other. And I'm sure they want
17:03
Speaker 5: some stuff kept for the reunion for them to talk about,
17:07
Speaker 5: but it seems like, I mean, two of them, the
17:10
Speaker 5: winning couple did a full blown interview with People magazine,
17:13
Speaker 5: which I'm sure was arranged by the show. But they're
17:15
Speaker 5: not keeping them locked up. They're letting them go out
17:19
Speaker 5: there and capitalize on the press. The relevancy of the
17:24
Speaker 5: show because there were eyeballs on the show up until
17:28
Speaker 5: last week.
17:29
Speaker 2: Yep, yep, doesn't make any It's very strange. I don't
17:33
Speaker 2: know what needs to be upheaved over there. Maybe it's
17:37
Speaker 2: because it's one of the original Well yeah, okay, it's
17:40
Speaker 2: the legal PR team.
17:41
Speaker 3: They just need to chill out.
17:42
Speaker 5: But no, I think that you have to have I'm
17:46
Speaker 5: concerned that the talent is not really understanding the lengths
17:52
Speaker 5: of the contracts they are signing. I don't know how
17:55
Speaker 5: explicitly clear it's being made to them. You cannot go
18:00
Speaker 5: so do a podcast interview till this date, you cannot
18:04
Speaker 5: do X Y Z oh.
18:05
Speaker 2: I think it is clear. I always knew. I sometimes
18:10
Speaker 2: was like.
18:12
Speaker 5: D I don't want to, but wouldn't that be scary,
18:15
Speaker 5: Like wouldn't you be scared to do that? Like that
18:17
Speaker 5: they're gonna come and hit you with the C and D.
18:19
Speaker 3: Well, that's why I'm the I don't do it.
18:21
Speaker 2: That's why I never did do it like I I
18:24
Speaker 2: but they were.
18:25
Speaker 3: They were.
18:26
Speaker 2: They were more lax than and I know they've gotten
18:28
Speaker 2: more controlling as time goes on. And because we've been
18:30
Speaker 2: on this podcast, we know how hard it is to
18:32
Speaker 2: get a current contestant of yes, that the guys, there's like,
18:36
Speaker 2: there's reasons as to why, like we don't have the
18:38
Speaker 2: person we want on the week that we want them on.
18:41
Speaker 3: When they this show is airing.
18:44
Speaker 2: But as far as the legal like because because Stephanie
18:48
Speaker 2: has all the good points when it comes to like
18:50
Speaker 2: the overarching what's going on at the Bachelor, why can't
18:53
Speaker 2: you promote your contestants in the way that others do.
18:56
Speaker 2: Totally agree with her there, and I also agree with
18:58
Speaker 2: her when she says, like, why are you sending to me?
19:00
Speaker 2: You should be reiterating these points to your cot to
19:04
Speaker 2: your contestants.
19:05
Speaker 5: My favorite thing she pointed out was Taylor Frankie paul
19:10
Speaker 5: put In writing online spoiling her entire season?
19:15
Speaker 4: Are you coming after her?
19:17
Speaker 3: Well, they could be, we don't know these things.
19:19
Speaker 5: They could be, but it doesn't it doesn't seem to
19:23
Speaker 5: be like they are right now.
19:25
Speaker 2: Well, the funny thing is I think that they were
19:27
Speaker 2: trying to be Lucy Goosey cool modern when they did
19:31
Speaker 2: when they asked for Taylor to be the Bachelorette, and
19:34
Speaker 2: they were like, oh, we want to leak things through
19:37
Speaker 2: her social we want people to speculate, We want her
19:40
Speaker 2: to tease, and then maybe this has freaked them out
19:44
Speaker 2: all over again and they're just like, never mind, going
19:46
Speaker 2: back to the old ways.
19:48
Speaker 5: I will say, not to not to be caddy or anything,
19:52
Speaker 5: but obviously we just did a bunch of stuff with
19:54
Speaker 5: Fox with Farmer Wants a Wife. Here on the podcast recapping,
19:59
Speaker 5: I was actually shocked, as was Bob Guinea, at some
20:03
Speaker 5: of the things the contestants said to us during interviews, saying, oh,
20:07
Speaker 5: that was all editing.
20:09
Speaker 4: They actually said, X y Z, you.
20:11
Speaker 5: Didn't get to see this, this happened on camera. They
20:13
Speaker 5: told us so much stuff that I was like, I'm
20:17
Speaker 5: bound to get a phone call.
20:18
Speaker 4: I'm going to get a phone call.
20:19
Speaker 3: The publicist sitting there or listening back.
20:21
Speaker 4: Yep, nothing absolutely nothing. And I and.
20:26
Speaker 5: I was, I was happily surprised about how honest and
20:31
Speaker 5: open they let their contestants be.
20:33
Speaker 2: So sometimes just to play devil's advocate. When you do
20:36
Speaker 2: have contestants out there talking about edits, it takes a
20:39
Speaker 2: little bit of the magic away. It breaks down the
20:42
Speaker 2: magic away where you're just where people are speculating every
20:46
Speaker 2: time they're watching a show, if that's really what happened
20:48
Speaker 2: or that's really what people are feeling.
20:51
Speaker 3: So I understand.
20:52
Speaker 2: I realized why The Bachelor has always hated reality reality
20:56
Speaker 2: Steve spoilers, like, I get that, like taking the weight,
20:59
Speaker 2: like the big the big ending is one thing for
21:03
Speaker 2: like tidbits on, Like yes, that is how it was,
21:08
Speaker 2: but you didn't see this part to like give extra contacts.
21:12
Speaker 3: I don't think is ever a bad thing.
21:14
Speaker 4: The show in itself is not real.
21:19
Speaker 5: It's a fantasy world that is created with a man
21:24
Speaker 5: and a mansion that he doesn't own, with helicopters and roses,
21:28
Speaker 5: and it is a fanciful world that they've created, and
21:32
Speaker 5: it's not real. The feelings are real, the experiences between
21:37
Speaker 5: those people are real, and the stuff that comes out
21:39
Speaker 5: of their mouths are is real, but the world itself
21:43
Speaker 5: and the situation is not. And I understand the want
21:48
Speaker 5: and need to protect that to still have its integrity
21:53
Speaker 5: and not poke it. But I agree with I agree
21:58
Speaker 5: with Stephanie in the sense that it's it's tried to
22:02
Speaker 5: maintain perfection for a little bit too long, and people
22:06
Speaker 5: do want a little bit more of the raw, nitty
22:09
Speaker 5: gritty realness, and they haven't really chosen to embrace that too.
22:15
Speaker 4: Much in the last few years.
22:28
Speaker 2: I will also give her the fact that she keeps saying,
22:31
Speaker 2: I'm a journalist. You know, I'm a TV host. Of
22:34
Speaker 2: Course I'm going to ask questions. Of course I'm gonna
22:35
Speaker 2: want the tea. Of course, all word things in hopes
22:39
Speaker 2: to get the tea. But like I give them control
22:43
Speaker 2: and what they're saying, and I you know, if they
22:45
Speaker 2: feel uncomfortable at something, I take it out. It's just
22:49
Speaker 2: it's really not on her. They know nothing about this
22:53
Speaker 2: is on her. And if they are arguing about their
22:57
Speaker 2: contestants going on her show without per approval, they're probably
23:03
Speaker 2: they're probably going on without approval and without asking because
23:07
Speaker 2: they feel like they're gonna deny the interview.
23:10
Speaker 5: Well, I didn't listen to the Sam McKinney interview, but
23:13
Speaker 5: I do remember seeing her socials from that that she
23:17
Speaker 5: teased and Sam says I was in his own words,
23:22
Speaker 5: he says something along the lines of he was blocked
23:24
Speaker 5: from doing interviews.
23:26
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly.
23:27
Speaker 2: And sometimes you're just like, let me talk, like come on,
23:29
Speaker 2: I just want to talk. Yeah, but I get but
23:33
Speaker 2: also I have to say that, like, yes, sign the contract,
23:37
Speaker 2: that's what you sign up for.
23:39
Speaker 4: So well, let me.
23:40
Speaker 5: Ask you this because we all have Instagram Live now
23:45
Speaker 5: in TikTok Live, Like is that listed in there?
23:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it's all like it's you can't talk
23:52
Speaker 2: about the show anywhere. You can't talk about it anywhere.
23:56
Speaker 4: Stop, you can't get on like Instagram Live and like
24:01
Speaker 4: answer fan questions honestly.
24:03
Speaker 2: Not honestly, you'd have to say you'd have to be
24:06
Speaker 2: very like cryptic about things.
24:09
Speaker 4: You can't get on.
24:10
Speaker 5: He could say Sam McKinney wanted to get on Instagram
24:14
Speaker 5: Live and say like, hey, last night's episode or this episode,
24:19
Speaker 5: this happened xyz.
24:21
Speaker 4: Actually I would like to clarify it. He can't do that.
24:25
Speaker 2: No, I mean, that's that's an immediate call from one
24:29
Speaker 2: of the producers. I'm not saying that you're going to
24:31
Speaker 2: get a cease and desist for that. I do think
24:34
Speaker 2: it might have to do with your relationship, like and
24:36
Speaker 2: how much your feathers, how you ruffled feathers in the past.
24:40
Speaker 3: Yeah, there was one.
24:42
Speaker 2: Specific time, and this was not the time I was
24:43
Speaker 2: referring to earlier. I was doing an article, like an
24:47
Speaker 2: online like recap for Cosmo every week, and they were
24:50
Speaker 2: letting me kindly, kindly I thank you again for letting
24:54
Speaker 2: me do this, doing my Cosmo recaps on shows that
25:00
Speaker 2: I was on. Like I was, I was writing like
25:02
Speaker 2: the sort of behind the scenes of what I lived,
25:07
Speaker 2: and they trusted me enough to.
25:08
Speaker 3: Not go beyond. And there was one time I was so.
25:16
Speaker 2: Frustrated, and I think that maybe, like the first season,
25:20
Speaker 2: they had the little like they had somebody read it
25:22
Speaker 2: before it was able to go live, and they trusted
25:25
Speaker 2: me enough the second season to.
25:27
Speaker 3: Not have to do that.
25:29
Speaker 2: And I ended up being a bad girl. And I
25:32
Speaker 2: wrote a little bit of an expose about the actual
25:36
Speaker 2: episode and how I lived it, and I'm within ten
25:41
Speaker 2: minutes it was I love you, but get that down.
25:45
Speaker 4: Yeah.
25:46
Speaker 3: Yeah.
25:47
Speaker 5: The one last thing I think I want to point
25:49
Speaker 5: out is the fact that she Stephanie said that peg
25:54
Speaker 5: DMed her about coming back on the podcast, and like
25:57
Speaker 5: you mentioned, Ashley, we have experienced this because both mel
26:02
Speaker 5: and peg dmd our show account asking to come on.
26:06
Speaker 5: We as well, I mean me as in like the
26:09
Speaker 5: behind the scenes people of this podcast. I am not
26:12
Speaker 5: under contract with The Bachelor. I have not signed a
26:15
Speaker 5: contract with them or you know, ABC, and I have
26:20
Speaker 5: knowledge right from what I do about how long these
26:23
Speaker 5: contracts last, and we obviously always grow through the proper
26:26
Speaker 5: channels when booking because we you know, foster a healthy
26:31
Speaker 5: relationship with them. But it is an understanding that if
26:37
Speaker 5: the talent dms you asking to come on, it would
26:41
Speaker 5: be our understanding that they've done their due diligence and
26:44
Speaker 5: asked permission before doing so.
26:47
Speaker 3: It is their responsibility.
26:49
Speaker 4: It is their responsibility to do so.
26:51
Speaker 5: And she actually had a screenshot if you watched her
26:53
Speaker 5: YouTube version of this podcast episode, and it shows her
26:58
Speaker 5: writing back to Peg to some regard, this isn't verbatim,
27:03
Speaker 5: but of like, you need to probably check with ABC.
27:07
Speaker 4: She says, like they didn't.
27:09
Speaker 5: She didn't get back to her or mentioned like oh
27:11
Speaker 5: I got, you know, permission, But she reached back out
27:14
Speaker 5: again and she was like, so, I'm under the assumption
27:16
Speaker 5: you you've done what you're supposed to do because I've
27:19
Speaker 5: also mentioned it to you.
27:21
Speaker 4: So also, I just want to point out that Mel
27:23
Speaker 4: is a lawyer, So.
27:27
Speaker 5: I would hope that the lawyer who was, you know,
27:30
Speaker 5: the Golden Bachelor wouldn't be advising his girlfriend to do
27:36
Speaker 5: something that would put her in breach of contract.
27:38
Speaker 4: But I digress.
27:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, my assumption is that everybody who's reaching out
27:44
Speaker 2: to do podcasts they are frustrated, but by the little
27:48
Speaker 2: that they've been able to describe the situation through the
27:51
Speaker 2: actual show.
27:53
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, I think it's pretty obvious that Mel
27:56
Speaker 5: was not out there doing a lot of podcasts after
27:59
Speaker 5: he decided to do that rogue one that.
28:01
Speaker 2: Went viral, right, Like, did you see him anywhere after that?
28:06
Speaker 3: No?
28:07
Speaker 4: No, I don't think they even let him speak at
28:09
Speaker 4: the upfronts.
28:10
Speaker 5: So anyways, well, everybody should go listen to She's all batch.
28:14
Speaker 4: Listen to the episode.
28:15
Speaker 3: She she's so good at what she does.
28:18
Speaker 2: She's so good, and I understand why she's disappointed in this.
28:23
Speaker 2: She says, you know, she might consider no longer doing
28:26
Speaker 2: talking about the show, or at least to that extent,
28:29
Speaker 2: to which, like, I get it, that is frustrating, especially
28:33
Speaker 2: when it seems like they're putting the blame for their
28:37
Speaker 2: issues onto her.
28:40
Speaker 5: Can I say, I hope she doesn't do that. I
28:42
Speaker 5: hope she doesn't do that either, But I would understand
28:44
Speaker 5: and I do understand where she's coming from when she
28:47
Speaker 5: says that. But I hope if we ever get another
28:50
Speaker 5: season anytime soon, that she maybe reconsiders.
28:53
Speaker 4: Or starts to do you know.
28:57
Speaker 5: Some stuff like we're doing here and like recapping Bachelor
29:00
Speaker 5: or adjacent you know shows.
29:02
Speaker 2: Do you know what's interesting is one of the girls
29:05
Speaker 2: in charge of the PR department for Housewives Mise act
29:09
Speaker 2: of It is a former PR exec for Bachelor, and
29:15
Speaker 2: I would love to hear her feedback next time I
29:18
Speaker 2: see her on how she feels about the differences.
29:22
Speaker 3: Which one works better?
29:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, And like I all this being said, because I
29:27
Speaker 2: know we're being a little shady, I still love The Bachelor.
29:31
Speaker 2: It has been so good to me, the best to
29:34
Speaker 2: me I am. I owe them so very much, so
29:39
Speaker 2: so much. And like Stephanie said in her podcast, she's
29:44
Speaker 2: doing what she does because she loves the show. She
29:47
Speaker 2: loves talking about the show, and she wants it to
29:49
Speaker 2: do well. And that's why if I have criticism right now,
29:52
Speaker 2: it's because I want it to do well and and
29:55
Speaker 2: I need it to move on from the antiquated nature
30:00
Speaker 2: it is if that is indeed pulling it down, which
30:02
Speaker 2: in my opinion I think it does, and I needed
30:05
Speaker 2: to start competing with things like Love Island. It's just
30:08
Speaker 2: I don't like watching it drown. I don't at all.
30:12
Speaker 2: It's so special to me.
30:14
Speaker 4: The show is an institution. It is.
30:16
Speaker 5: You can't look at how long it's been on the
30:18
Speaker 5: air and how many different iterations it's had and not
30:22
Speaker 5: acknowledge like what a trailblazer it was for so long.
30:26
Speaker 5: It has now started to fall in the race and
30:30
Speaker 5: we want it to get a kickstart to get back
30:32
Speaker 5: up there. And yeah, part of that is just modernizing
30:35
Speaker 5: and getting with the times. You know, though, Ashley, I
30:38
Speaker 5: would love to hear from our listeners about this topic
30:41
Speaker 5: specifically and what they think. So they should call our
30:44
Speaker 5: hotline at eight four four five almost and leave us
30:48
Speaker 5: a message about what they think about this.
30:50
Speaker 3: That is great. Again, that number is eight.
30:53
Speaker 4: Four four five almost sweet.
30:57
Speaker 2: All right, Yeah, I can't wait to hear your opinions
31:00
Speaker 2: on the next Headlines podcast. Until next time, Love you guys,
31:06
Speaker 2: Love the Bachelor, I've been, Ashley, I've been Heather, Bye bye.
31:11
Speaker 1: Follow the Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous podcasts on
31:14
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio or subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.