Latest / The Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous Podcast / The Future of the Franchise Part 1 with Kaity Biggar and Caelynn Bell

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The Future of the Franchise Part 1 with Kaity Biggar and Caelynn Bell · 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: Today. On the podcast, guys, I have Kaylin Bell and
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: Katie Bigger joining me to talk about all the headlines
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: that have emerged over the past five days since The
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Bachelorette was canceled. And I say canceled even though technically
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: it's possibly on hold because ABC spokespeople have never used
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: the word canceled. Canceled is a strong word that means
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  Speaker 2: that it would never be able to air anywhere. Katie, Kaylin,
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  Speaker 2: I'm happy to have you guys here breaking this down
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  Speaker 2: with me. Katie, you did make a comment on a
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  Speaker 2: red carpet a couple of days ago about this. Can
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  Speaker 2: you repeat for the audience your general consensus on the cancelation?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think so.
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  Speaker 4: What I said on the red carpet was essentially just
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  Speaker 4: me saying that I think that Bachelor just needs to
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  Speaker 4: go back to their roots and find people that genuinely
• 1:02
  Speaker 4: want to fall in love. And I do understand that
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  Speaker 4: the franchise was kind of going downhill, and I understand
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  Speaker 4: why they chose Taylor Frankie Paul as the Bachelorette for
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  Speaker 4: views because she brings a different element that we haven't
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  Speaker 4: necessarily seen before. But I think what she brings is
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  Speaker 4: like chaos and drama, and I think they kind of
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  Speaker 4: lost sight of the whole like reason why.
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  Speaker 3: They started The Bachelor. I feel like I think they
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  Speaker 3: were just like looking for views more than anything. And
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  Speaker 3: I remember being on the show and they genuinely, like
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  Speaker 3: I genuinely felt like they did want you to fall
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  Speaker 3: in love. They wanted the lead to fall in love
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  Speaker 3: and be with the right person, and they kind of helped
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  Speaker 3: like assist that. But like, I just felt like we've
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  Speaker 3: we've lost a little bit of that.
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  Speaker 2: What I thought we really needed was a stuntcast. I
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  Speaker 2: thought we needed a somewhat celebrity to be in that
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  Speaker 2: role to draw interest from another person's audience and another
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  Speaker 2: just like just like to put more of a spotlight
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  Speaker 2: on the show, just to gauge more interest, because we
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  Speaker 2: had a great time with Joey season and then the
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  Speaker 2: interest fell fell off again and I couldn't think of
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  Speaker 2: anyone that would bring in an audience from you know,
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  Speaker 2: I loved Latia, Would she bring a huge audience? No,
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  Speaker 2: I couldn't think of anybody except for let's actually talk
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  Speaker 2: about this, Rachel Kirconnell. I thought that Rachel Kirconnell could
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  Speaker 2: have actually in a way been a stunt cast. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: because and she was the other celebrity option that would
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  Speaker 2: have been really good for this role. I wonder how
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  Speaker 2: seriously she was ever considered for it, But it made
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  Speaker 2: a lot of sense. For it made sense for it
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  Speaker 2: to be a Mormon wife and Taylor Frankie Paul being
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  Speaker 2: the most famous of all of them, the leader of
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  Speaker 2: the bunch, and being a Hulu Disney crossover and them
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: loving doing crossovers between Dancing with the Stars and Bachelor,
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  Speaker 2: and now this, it did make a lot of sense.
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  Speaker 2: I was not really familiar with her. I never watched
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  Speaker 2: Secret Lives until she became the Bachelor, and then I
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  Speaker 2: started watching it in preparation. I still haven't finished. And
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  Speaker 2: up until that point when she was announced as Bachelor,
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  Speaker 2: there only been two seasons. Did either of you watch
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  Speaker 2: Secret Lives leading up to her Bachelorette naming?
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  Speaker 5: Yeah? No, I've been watching the whole thing.
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  Speaker 2: You did, Okay, great, So, Caitlin, when they announced Taylor
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  Speaker 2: Frankie Paul, were you like, oh my gosh, she is
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  Speaker 2: going to be a show because in season I'm watching
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  Speaker 2: season two right now, I'm in the middle of it
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  Speaker 2: and like, I don't know that. I think, oh, she's
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: gonna be koss, did you No?
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  Speaker 5: I was honestly mad when they cast her because if
• 3:54
  Speaker 5: we're going to like scent casting and especially Hulu, brooks
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  Speaker 5: Nader is like the perfect joy. I don't think any
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  Speaker 5: of the guys are hot enough for her. But she
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  Speaker 5: also has a Hulu show. She's such good TV.
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  Speaker 2: She was on Dazing with the Stars.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, so I was all for brooks Nader. I
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  Speaker 5: don't know if she was ever in talks, but I
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  Speaker 5: think she would have been great. Taylor Frankie Paul. I
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  Speaker 5: was mad because she has domestic violence charges. We don't
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  Speaker 5: need to give someone a larger platform. But then I'm like, whatever,
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  Speaker 5: this is who the Bachelorette is. Like, I can be mad,
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  Speaker 5: that's not going to change anything. Watching the seasons, she
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  Speaker 5: like goes to rehab. She's she or not rehab but
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  Speaker 5: a recovery center, and she's working on herself, and it
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  Speaker 5: seems like, okay, maybe you know, she like really mellowed
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  Speaker 5: out and chilled out in the seasons, and then we
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  Speaker 5: watched this newest season where she's sleeping with her ex
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  Speaker 5: the night before she leaves to be the bachelorette, and
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  Speaker 5: like all sorts of chaos, she's dating a guy knowing
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  Speaker 5: she was already announced to be the bachelorette. It's like,
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  Speaker 5: these are the things that we as contestants would have
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  Speaker 5: been canceled for and have been canceled for. Yeah, it's
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  Speaker 5: just confusing.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, into that note, like we we get an investigator, like,
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  Speaker 3: we go through an investigation process that looks through our
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  Speaker 3: background before we get cast it. So it's so interesting
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  Speaker 3: that they casted somebody that openly has these charges.
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  Speaker 2: It seems like in recent memory there's been like a
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  Speaker 2: lot of stalking allegations or arrests, and then there was
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  Speaker 2: Devin who like set his ex's car on fire. I
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  Speaker 2: don't know how those slipped through the cracks, but we
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  Speaker 2: know Taylor Frankie Paul's didn't slip through the cracks, as
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  Speaker 2: she documents it in her ABC Hulu sho and then
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  Speaker 2: she you know, she talks all about it like we
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  Speaker 2: know that that wasn't a slip. That was them showing
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  Speaker 2: like people can change, right. So I guess my overall
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  Speaker 2: arching opinion is that she should have never been cast.
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  Speaker 2: She was too much of a wild card, so she
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  Speaker 2: should have never had cast, and I do think that
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  Speaker 2: they should have not gone forward the season. Those are
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  Speaker 2: my two big takeaways, But then there's a little bit
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  Speaker 2: of nuance when the video came out. The big thing
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  Speaker 2: about the video is that we now see something that
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  Speaker 2: was three years old and sort of eh forgiven for
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  Speaker 2: by the people around her and by the network because
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  Speaker 2: it's all documented. It's a part of her story, so
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  Speaker 2: we don't really but it's like, when you see it,
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  Speaker 2: it changes your opinion. And I said this so many
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  Speaker 2: times on the podcast. It's so much different hearing somebody
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  Speaker 2: recall a situation versus seeing it, especially days before you're
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  Speaker 2: supposed to see her in this like loving environment. What
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  Speaker 2: I had actually wished that ABC had done, and this
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  Speaker 2: is what I would have done if I were the publicist.
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  Speaker 2: Not that I like any sort of smarts in this department,
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  Speaker 2: but this would have made me feel like it was
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  Speaker 2: not just like ABC, like going back on a decision
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  Speaker 2: that they made, but more so talking about something that
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  Speaker 2: may have happened after a decision that they made. This
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  Speaker 2: is what I would have said, we aren't going forward
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: with the season. Of the bachelorette at this time, as
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  Speaker 2: there's an ongoing police investigation pertaining to Taylor Frankie Paul.
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  Speaker 2: The incident was reported to police in February, because to me,
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  Speaker 2: it is the February incident that is probably why she
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  Speaker 2: should further have not been the bachelorette.
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  Speaker 3: They've already accepted the fact that she has a domestic.
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  Speaker 2: Already accepted that. So as hard as it is to
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  Speaker 2: see the video, we've already supposedly accepted this. What we
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  Speaker 2: have not all collectively accepted, and we should never It's never.
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  Speaker 2: When I say accept, I don't mean condone what's in
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  Speaker 2: the video. Like, of course, of course she's terrible in
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  Speaker 2: the video. We will never condone domestic violence. But you
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  Speaker 2: can recover from that kind of behavior, and you can
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  Speaker 2: be forgiven for that kind of behavior. But when you
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  Speaker 2: do it again, possibly in the constraints of your ABC contract,
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  Speaker 2: which seems like may have happened in February, when the
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: when the Secret Lives Girls halted filming because they no
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  Speaker 2: no longer felt comfortable filming with her, that was the
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  Speaker 2: incident that should have really stopped this from going forward.
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  Speaker 5: Well, that's my question is were they going to stop
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  Speaker 5: the season because of these new charges and allegations or
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  Speaker 5: was it only stopped because we saw the video, because
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  Speaker 5: it kind of feels like it only stopped because the
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  Speaker 5: video came out.
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  Speaker 3: I think it was the video.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, And it's been it's terrific. Like I remember
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  Speaker 5: reading the police report in twenty twenty three and I
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  Speaker 5: was like, this is disgusting, horrible, and seeing the video
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  Speaker 5: somehow is so much worse than the police report. And
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  Speaker 5: I'm happy that they canceled the season because we don't
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  Speaker 5: need to give a platform to two people, because not
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  Speaker 5: only is it Taylor Franky Paul, it's also Dakota. Dakota's
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  Speaker 5: going to find a way to like play off of
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  Speaker 5: this in some way and he already has, and like,
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  Speaker 5: both of these people need to get offline, like the
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  Speaker 5: fact that Taylor Frankie Paul is watching videos of herself
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  Speaker 5: and commenting they need to be offline. They need to
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  Speaker 5: be like with their children. It's crazy.
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  Speaker 3: I think probably back in twenty twenty three, she did
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  Speaker 3: take accountability, which people I think saw that as a positive.
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  Speaker 3: So they're like, Okay, she's taking account nobility for what
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  Speaker 3: she did. And I'm not a huge. I don't watch
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  Speaker 3: this show really ever. Exact when I started watching it,
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: like the first two episodes and I got a headache
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  Speaker 3: and I was like, turn this off.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I didn't understand the appeal at all until I
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  Speaker 2: meet in the middle of season two. I'm getting it.
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  Speaker 2: I am sorry to understand. But that's a lot of
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  Speaker 2: ill lot of investment into something that you don't get.
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  Speaker 2: But that was for the show.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, And I think there's also like two opposing views,
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  Speaker 3: Like people don't want to like side with one person
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  Speaker 3: because there's no evidence. Now there's evidence that clearly shows
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  Speaker 3: what she was doing, and it is absolutely so inexcusable that
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  Speaker 3: like you can't look past that whatsoever. So I think
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  Speaker 3: that's why.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly now the February thing for us, where our job
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: is to talk about what's going on, all of these
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: reports were coming out that the girls had shut down filming,
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: that they were feeling uncomfortable, that they were saying that
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: Taylor needs help, that there was the police were called
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: in February before her show is supposed to air, And
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: we're like, if these girls that have like known her
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  Speaker 2: for years are saying that they feel uncomfortable being like
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: basically associated with her and that she needs to go
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: and get professional help, Like why are we not addressing this?
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  Speaker 2: So like all last week before the video came out,
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  Speaker 2: We're like, why are we having this sit down about
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: what went on in February? And all that was weird
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: and it was like they were trying and trying and
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: trying to just push through that. And I feel like
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: they really thought that they could get through it without
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: addressing it directly, because even when she sat down with
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: Laura Spencer, it was like not it was so vague
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: and so strange. And then we and then the video
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  Speaker 2: came out. It was like Dakota. I mean, I'm assuming
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: it was Dakota was like, oh the rumors of February
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  Speaker 2: aren't aren't working enough? Just going to drop the video? Now,
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: what do you guys think? Do you think it was Dakota?
• 11:42
  Speaker 5: I don't know who else it would be. I don't know,
• 11:45
  Speaker 5: but but here, Okay, So this I have been, you know,
• 11:48
  Speaker 5: thinking about this a ton. I think Dakota was so
• 11:52
  Speaker 5: angry about her being the bachelorette, Like I think he
• 11:54
  Speaker 5: was very spiteful. I think that he probably sent this
• 11:58
  Speaker 5: in and you know, this is just my theory I
• 12:00
  Speaker 5: think he probably sent this to producers or someone when
• 12:04
  Speaker 5: she was announced, Like, I think he's been trying to
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  Speaker 5: stop this, so potentially, I don't know. You know, this
• 12:09
  Speaker 5: is all speculation, but maybe he this is a fast resort.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, all speculation, all rumors and all at the top
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  Speaker 2: of her head.
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  Speaker 5: Yes, but we know that Dakota is just he's like
• 12:21
  Speaker 5: anti Taylor. He doesn't want her to be happy. So
• 12:24
  Speaker 5: I have a feeling that like this video has been seen,
• 12:28
  Speaker 5: but I don't know.
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  Speaker 3: M h, I do you agree with that? Yeah, it's
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: all very interesting, but then interesting like come out and
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  Speaker 3: say that he didn't do that, like him and I
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: don't know this other.
• 12:40
  Speaker 5: Par and his best friend allegedly yeah.
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  Speaker 3: Said like, oh, it's not us, we didn't do that video.
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, my producer is texting me that it could
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: have been the courthouse. The video isn't sealed by the
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: court because that video was submitted as evidence. But at
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: the same time, it could also not be the court
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: and it could have been Dakota. Another thing, as far
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: as we should we should mention about her changing her
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: ways since that initial video. She did stop drinking after
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: that situation, and you know that was like obviously a
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: wake up call for her. So I don't know, guys,
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: it's just a very icky situation. The show should have
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: been not aired. I totally understand. I am with that.
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: There are people out there that are like, we should
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: have made We should be able to make our own
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: decisions on whether or not to choose to watch it,
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: So they should put it up on Hulu. I think
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: they took it off ABC. I think they knew that
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: they're all the advertisers were going to leave, not want
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: to be associated with her. And I also think that
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: for their own just like the looks of it, they
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: pulled it. What do you guys think about that?
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  Speaker 5: But those comments make me mad, Like the people saying
• 13:53
  Speaker 5: I want the choice. There are so many avenues of entertainment.
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  Speaker 5: We don't need to watch this. We don't need to perpetuate,
• 14:01
  Speaker 5: Like we just don't need to have tailor Frinky Paul
• 14:04
  Speaker 5: on her screens, like she has proven to us time
• 14:07
  Speaker 5: and time again that she's problematic, Like we don't need
• 14:11
  Speaker 5: to be giving her more of a platform.
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: Another thing that we went through, because you were talking
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: about our our arrest backgrounds, you know, like our background checks,
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: we also went through mental health checks. Some people say
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: that they let people through that are crazy. I mean
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: there's rumors of that where it's like, oh, yeah, this
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: person didn't exactly fly through with flying colors. So if
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: you'd like to have them as your wild card this season,
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: here you go. But if we're using it in the
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: way that we believe, you know, it's supposed to be used,
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: which is like they can only allow people with healthy
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: mental clarity, Oh look at that. Okay, sorry, guys. My
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: producer sends me tidbits throughout the show, and this is interesting,
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: she says. The final the network always gets final decision
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: on those. The psychologist recommends whether the person is fit
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: or not to be on air. Super interesting. So I wonder,
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: obviously in this case, how thorough was that back was
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: that mental health check? And did they even care?
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: They fully knew what they were getting themselves into period,
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: Like whether they're with a check or not. They're the
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: whole TV show showing her personality and wish is capable
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: of there's news articles, everything, even before the whole they
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: fully what was happening.
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: All right, So there are complex nuance opinions on the matter.
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: We now are going to move over to headlines, but
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: I want to make that a separate episode, so hang
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: tight for that one.
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: Follow the Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous podcast on
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: iHeartRadio or subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.