Well. That's it, finally. After a pretty exhausting and less than fun Season 25 of The Bachelor with Matt James, last night saw Bachelor Nation huddle around their TVs with chocolate, booze, whatever would actually make them happy, and watch the finale. While I doubt that many of us were very happy with how Matt's journey to find true love ended, at least we got to experience some newness for the final hour, during After the Final Rose, as first time host Emmanuel Acho led the very difficult proceedings in the wake of Chris Harrison stepping down. As you might expect, fans had a lot of reactions to the replacement.
I can readily admit that I wasn't holding my breath for a spectacular showing from the finale as a whole or from new After the Final Rose host Emmanuel Acho, seeing as how the franchise bungled pretty much every aspect of the season. But, I ended up thinking that Acho did a fine job, and with a little more practice at it (should he want that), he could be a great host overall. I'm pleased to say that the response to him was mostly positive, though a lot of fans on Twitter did point to a very specific area which they felt could be improved upon:
Look, y'all. No one ever said it was easy to figure out what to wear on national television, alright? I can agree that the suit seemed a bit tight, but Emmanuel Acho looked pretty good in it, and he also didn't actually bust out of it, so I'm gonna call it a win. I think we can all truly agree that Season 25 of The Bachelor needs more wins, right? As I mentioned before, a lot of the fans did enjoy what Acho was able to bring to the season finale:
That all sounds good, doesn't it? Calling Acho "honest, inquisitive and grounded" after his first stint hosting the ATFR is a definite sign that you liked watching him trying to get deep answers out of Matt, Michelle Young, and Rachael Kirkconnell. For the most part, Acho asked some solid questions, and got answers to pretty much everything he asked. While we've become used to Chris Harrison attempting to facilitate these conversations, there were a lot of fans who were glad Acho was at the helm this time around:
It would be hard to watch someone new take over hosting ATFR and not compare his work to what we've seen from every previous season of The Bachelor, The Bachelorette and Bachelor in Paradise finales. But, many in Bachelor Nation seem to have been glad for the change, and believe that the conversations had really showed why such a change was needed:
As fans heard at the end of the three hour finale, we'll be getting two whole seasons of The Bachelorette this year, as the rumors had said. Season 17 will star Katie Thurston and be hosted by former Bachelorettes Tayshia Adams and Kaitlyn Bristowe, while Season 18 will star Matt's runner-up, Michelle Young. We don't know who will host that season just yet, but it does appear that fans wouldn't mind seeing Acho return...For the most part.
Not everyone was happy when Chris stepped down, and not everyone was 100% thrilled with the way Acho handled some of his questions for Matt and Rachael about racism in the franchise and her own racist behavior:
To be sure, the After the Final Rose wasn't perfect, but it never has been, and the consensus seems to be that Emmanuel Acho did great in a tough situation. So, we'll see if The Bachelor brings him back in some capacity for one of the shows later this year.
