SPOILERS ahead from The Bachelor 2020, aka Bachelor Peter Weber's Season 24, and possibly The Bachelorette 2020.
Fair warning: My language is about to get salty 'cause I am not happy about the spoilers that just came out of The Bachelor 2020's "The Women Tell All" special. Part of my anger is at myself for even being surprised. Of course Bachelor Peter Weber's most sane resident, Kelley Flanagan, is getting the shaft from ABC. Of course the producers probably want ChampagneGate queen Kelsey Weier as The Bachelorette 2020.
I already suspected that and we've talked about it but still. Ugh. Why are they like this?
"The Women Tell All" special traditionally airs between the overnight dates and the finale. That will happen again this year. First, Bachelor Peter Weber has his fantasy suite dates with Hannah Ann, Madison, and Victoria F. That airs Monday, February 24. Reality Steve shared spoilers on the "Women Tell All," and it sounds like that episode will include the end of the overnight dates episode, showing the rose ceremony where Peter sends Victoria F. home. That allows for Victoria F. to be part of the WTA. It sounds like Madison reluctantly accepts Pete's rose, since they already had a tearful moment over his admission that he had sex with other women.
More on that elsewhere, because I'm here to talk about Kelley Flanagan, Kelsey Weier, and The Bachelorette.
Turns out, Kelley isn't even going to be on The Bachelor's "Women Tell All" special. She wasn't even invited! I knew she'd be a longshot for The Bachelorette because she's smarter than most, composes herself better than these "vulnerable" women who cry on a dime, and she would be hard to manipulate. She even retweeted viewers who called out the show's Frankenbite editing, chopping up her conversations during the episode where she went home and making her look worse.
As Reality Steve noted, Kelley's absence from the WTA pretty much kills her chances of being the next Bachelorette. Why didn't the producers invite her? Maybe they're mad at her. But she wasn't there, and apparently Natasha Parker wasn't there either, so it's almost like they wanted to stack the deck for certain contestants -- like Kelsey -- instead of Kelley or Natasha looking like good Bachelorette options to fans. After all, this fandom tends to have knee-jerk reactions, and if you are out of sight you are out of mind. (Update: Natasha made it clear on Twitter that she was invited but couldn't make it. So only Kelley was not invited, out of the women who made it that far? Ouch.)
So that pisses me off. All right. I'll move on. But I'm also still mad that we didn't get Mike or Tyler as The Bachelor, and just once I'd like to get my first bleeping choice! Anyway... these shows are always more about the contestants than the leads.
Apparently, even with all the drama on The Bachelor 2020, only two women were called up to the "hot seat" next to host Chris Harrison during the "Women Tell All" taping. Victoria F. had to be there, of course, and also Kelsey. Steve even said Kelsey's talk sounded like a Bachelorette audition. They even have a perfect prop ready for her for her future posters -- a champagne bottle like Bachelor Peter's pilot uniform and that dang windmill.
A lot of fans suspected The Bachelor would push Kelsey for The Bachelorette. She's an emotional hot mess former pageant queen who had something of a redemption arc, just like Hannah Brown. ABC loves Hannah Brown, and since Dancing With the Stars's tour seems to be taking her out of the running to return as Bachelorette again, that gave the edge to one of Bachelor Peter's women.
Of course, this is not a done deal! We still have at least one dark horse still in the running. I don't mean Victoria F., since I doubt The Bachelor would cast her as The Bachelorette. If she didn't whine so much, I'd actually be curious to watch that mess. But no, I mean whoever Bachelor Peter is not with now, if he's with anyone. Either Hannah Ann or Madison could make a decent Bachelorette, depending on how things turnn out in the March 9-10 finale and live "After the Final Rose" special.
Oh, one other thing -- Reality Steve is finally ready to go on the record about how he thinks Bachelor Peter's season ends. He said he'd post that on Tuesday, after the Monday 2/24/20 overnights episode. We've only had that final two/no proposal spoiler since late November 2019, plus the update that Madison "self-eliminates" before the end. Steve recently said he thought Peter was dating Madison right now but they are not engaged, but there were still reasons to wonder if Hannah Ann was really with Peter. Will we finally get confirmation, two weeks before the finale? Guess we'll see.
I don't even know what I want to happen anymore. I was rooting for Peter and Madison, but I'm not sure if they're right for each other. Their values are so very different. But if they are trying to make it work in the real world and it is somehow working -- even on a secretive level -- then good for them. Not sure if that's what's happening, but I'm rooting for some kind of happy ending.
Are you mad about ABC giving Kelley the shaft? Hoping Kelsey ends up The Bachelorette or someone else? The "Women Tell All" special should air Monday, March 2. Next up, overnight drama in Australia...
