Chris Harrison blogs 'The Bachelor': season 14, episode 5
We were very excited to announce that we will be televising Jason and Molly’s wedding March 8 on ABC. This will be fun for us because on top of friends and family, many of our old favorites will be back and involved in the wedding. I know that some of you have mixed emotions about this as I’ve already heard many comments on Twitter and Facebook, but this is a joyous occasion and I’m very proud to be a part of it. We have a lot to talk about this week but before we move forward I want to get back to something I did a lot more last season, and that’s respond to some of your comments. First of all, my apologies for the wrong letter last week. The comment that ripped me apart and questioned my wife’s morals (she loved that) was from “Z” not “V”. It’s still up on page six of the episode 3 blog. The reason I didn’t just cut and paste it in is that it was just too long. I read it again this week and still got a good laugh.
Not sure how or why some of you got so fired up discussing the Canadian education system this week, but I’m going to let that one go. Maybe I’ll call Jillian and have her settle that fight. SBWM (and many others) asked about how we had to adjust our plan because Jake let four girls go last week. One thing our producers are incredibly good at is realizing all good reality shows have to be flexible and able to change on a moment’s notice. Some people give us way too much credit for having all this stuff planned out. It just doesn’t work like that. The best moments in any reality show, including ours, are the unpredictable moments that turn everything on its head. KKP mentioned the lack of deliberation room scenes this season. Just to let you know, whether we show it or not we always shoot deliberation. Sometimes, like this season, we would rather show you so much more of the other action instead of using that time to show you deliberation. This week, though, it made sense to leave it in so you saw it. But don’t worry, I’m always there for Jake or whoever the Bachelor or Bachelorette is.
Now let’s get to this week’s episode. The ride up to San Francisco was a stressful one as all the women were a little fried after a drama-filled rose ceremony the night before. On one hand, the ladies were glad Jake stepped up and let that many women go, but at the same time they can’t help worrying about who or what’s next. Obviously, things had gotten pretty tense between Ali and Vienna but it had actually finally calmed down. They were being polite to each other when, out of the blue, Corrie made that unfortunate (but funny!) joke about the two-on-one date involving the two of them. That was like pouring gasoline on a fire. If you couldn’t tell, everything changed emotionally this week. All of a sudden the women and Jake realized they were falling in love all at the same time. Not sure it has ever happened like that before on this show. I’m guessing it had a lot to do with what Jake did last week. Nevertheless, it really changed the complexity of the dates, and emotions were running very high.
I was really captivated by just how real and easy Jake and Tenley’s conversation was on their date atop Coit Tower. It’s so easy between them. I like how Jake is so open about telling the women he’s falling for them. It adds a different dimension to this season we’ve not had in the past. Gia and Vienna, who are pretty good friends, ended up on the two-on-one date at the castle in Napa. They are such good friends that one night Gia and Vienna drank a little grape juice and Gia taught Vienna wrestling moves. She actually suplexed (wrestling term) Vienna onto a pile of pillows, but we thought she was going to bust her head open. I don’t think you could really tell how freaked out Vienna was when she was wandering around the castle looking for Jake and Gia. She got lost looking for them. She’s terrified of the dark and was close to tears when she finally found them.
His next date was with Corrie. Jake is a very spiritual guy and he really respected Corrie opening up and telling him about her values. While I don’t think that is the reason he ended up letting her go I have to believe it held her back far enough behind the others that it did cost her in the end. I think Corrie summed it up best when she said if it had just been the two of them things would have been different. That’s probably true. Corrie was a bit out of her element in this arena and it didn’t allow their relationship to advance as fast as the others emotionally. Ali clearly had home field advantage this week and took full advantage of that. She really did plan the entire date and those really were some of her favorite spots to eat and hang out. I loved that date because some of our viewers say the planes and mansions aren’t real. Well, this date with Ali was as real as you can get. The rose ceremony was held in a huge ballroom off the lobby in the Intercontinental Mark Hopkins Hotel. When Jake walked Corrie out they walked directly through the lobby and out onto the driveway. We didn’t shut this down to shoot. It was just late enough at night that we got lucky nobody was around. Anybody in the hotel could have easily stumbled upon Jake and Corrie walking out.
You saw in the previews for next week that the drama is far from over this season. You heard me announce that for the first time ever, there won’t be a rose ceremony. This is an incredibly pivotal episode for many reasons. We’ll have plenty to talk about next week! In the meantime you can always find me on Facebook or Twitter (@chrisbharrison). I leave you with my favorite comment from last week’s blog. Lisa came up with a new bumper sticker: WWCHD. What would Chris Harrison Do? “Wouldn’t it be great if every time we needed advice Chris Harrison would magically appear?” Yes it would, Lisa, yes it would!
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