In the spirit of reality TV, first, a confession: I fully expected to loathe the new series on ABC. Having watched , overwhelmed by the cringe factor — cheesy jokes about sexual prowess and an overabundance of boobage, not to mention (but I will) the Golden Bachelor’s unctuous sincerity — I figured it’d all be the same, but with gender roles reversed. I was wrong.
And I think the difference between the shows is largely due to the graciousness and remarkable authenticity of , the 61-year-old Bachelorette. From the moment she’s greeted at the Bachelor mansion by Jesse Palmer (the host with a thousand teeth), she carries the weight of the show seemingly without effort, all the while wearing a skintight lamé gown. She’s like the school administrator — which in fact, she is — who could inform you of your kid’s suspension in a way that makes you feel like he’s valedictorian.
A little background before we begin. Vassos, widowed after 32 years of marriage, was a contestant on the but in the middle of the season to help her daughter (one of her four children) suffering from a difficult pregnancy and birth. When she was called back about taking her own turn as she didn’t seem to give a thought to not accepting the .
.. journey.
In the premiere, she meets 24 eligible bachelors ranging in age from 57 to 69, and has to winnow the group in half. About those 24 eligible bachelors. I don’t know where the producers of the show found these guys, but as one of the 24 ob.