Peter, Peter, Peter...That's the refrain that pretty much everyone in Bachelor Nation sang weekly while we watched Peter Weber, fresh from Hannah Brown's 2019 season of The Bachelorette, try to find love as our newly minted star of The Bachelor in Season 24. And, every week we watched him make the most baffling decisions, wherein he consistently rewarded those who created drama and ignored some very solid ladies who managed to stay above the fray. Well, Season 23 Bachelor Colton Underwood, was right there with us watching as Peter flailed, as he's just as frustrated as the rest of us.
Everyone who signs up for The Bachelor or The Bachelorette is going to go through some rough times while trying to find the love of their life among the 25 to 30 people presented to them on the show, especially because of having to do it in such a public way. And, even though Colton Underwood understands those challenges very well, he was still disappointed by how Peter Weber's season went down. But, it sounds like his experience with the franchise does mean that he's able to give Peter a bit of a break. Here's what he told Variety:
Part of me is just frustrated for him — frustrated that maybe production didn’t guide him as well as they should’ve, frustrated that he didn’t stand up for himself or take ownership in certain situations.This world is crazy, and I know what goes on behind the scenes and what takes place, so I feel for him a little bit. But, I also sympathize with the two ladies that were at the end as well. It’s unfortunate, and everyone has their own ending, and hopefully he’s grown as a person and a human being, and everybody involved knows how they could do better next time.
Well, I have to say that I appreciate the way in which Colton Underwood managed to cut Peter Weber some slack for all his very, very poor decisions during his time as Bachelor this season, but also held him accountable for not being able to "take ownership in certain situations," which I'm going to read as Peter's well-documented inability to make a choice and stick to it.
I'm sure you remember how Peter had so much trouble deciding who was telling the truth between Victoria P. and Alayah that he turned a pool party into a low-rent police investigation and interrogated many of the other women just so he could make up his own mind. Then, he cut Alayah loose, but when producers let her come back a few days later, Peter not only took her back, but gave her the rose for that day, when all of the other ladies had worked their asses off to impress him during a tag football group date. Then, when the women got mad at him, he dumped Alayah...again.
The last few episodes saw Peter have sex during fantasy suites week, knowing that Madison Prewett had told him beforehand that she wouldn't be cool with that if it happened, which led to much back and forth between Peter, Madi and his other final pick, Hannah Ann Sluss. Peter got engaged to Hannah Ann, but only after Madi dumped him, and without him telling Hannah Ann anything about what had happened with Madi.
They were engaged for about a month before Peter went to Hannah Ann and apologized for not being able to "give you what you want," which basically led to him taking the coward's way out and letting Hannah Ann break off their engagement. During the live finale, he and Madi said they were going to give a relationship another try, but Peter's family, led by mom Barbara Weber, said they wouldn't support him in that decision, and he and Madi announced their breakup two days later.
Man, I was right there watching that whole mess, and I'm still getting some kind of anxiety reaction from recounting it. Colton really might not be giving Peter enough credit for how screwy his season was, even considering that Colton knows, firsthand, how the producers work behind the scenes to push the drama forward as much as possible, as opposed to making sure that something like true love has the clearest way forward in the Bachelor franchise.
At least Colton acknowledges that it's pretty easy to feel sympathy for Madi and Hannah Ann, as well as hoping that this wild experience helped Peter grow and become a better person. I mean, I feel like it probably didn't, but we can all hope, right?
Almost all things The Bachelor and The Bachelorette (Including Clare Crawley's 2020 season...dammit!) are currently on hold, like many other TV projects, but the new franchise series The Bachelor: Listen To Your Heart will still debut as planned on April 13, as it finished filming many weeks ago. For more on what to watch, check out our Netflix schedule and see what's new to Hulu in April!
