Looking for Love with Terri Richards

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Love is ON the Air

                What woman hasn’t called, texted, or met with a friend to discuss how a date went or how a relationship is or isn’t progressing? From the time we are still in grade school, when we ask “Do you think he likes you? What did he say to you?” it seems we are programmed to love hearing about love.

                Maybe that’s why there’ve been countless movies, books, and TV shows with a relationship at their center. However, in 2002, reality TV took romance to a whole other level with its show The Bachelor. ABC actually passed on the idea when it was first presented to them, but when the creators said they thought they could get a proposal at the end, ABC decided to take a chance. It worked out well for the network. Twenty-two seasons later, the show has become one of television’s biggest successes. It averages eight million viewers in the US, and there are variations in eighteen countries that include the Middle East, South America, Australia and Russia. The US also has The Bachelorette, Bachelor in Paradise, and The Bachelor Winter Games.

                Bachelor Nation, as it now likes to call itself, has spawned fantasy leagues, drinking games, and viewing parties. In just one US season, The Bachelor garnered more than 22 million dollars in advertising revenue. And it seems that there is not a day that goes by in which some current or former Bachelor contestant is featured in articles on the Internet. Yet, ironically, only two of the twenty-one US Bachelor pairs are still together. The Bachelorette has a little better statistics with 6 of the 13 still a couple. By this time, it’s clear, that for most, the perfect romance will sour soon after the final credits. So why do we still watch in such huge numbers?

                Some have speculated it’s because of our innate interest in dating stories. We like to hear about, read about, and talk about romance that is unfolding. Even if we’re not sure what we’re seeing on the show is completely real, it feels as if we get to tag along on fantasy dates and watch developing relationships filled with both romantic promise and tearful frustration. 

                Some say The Bachelor franchise is so popular because men talk about their feelings and emotions on the show. In real life, it’s often hard to get men to do that, so women are fascinated to hear the show’s hunks let themselves be vulnerable and express their emotions freely.

                Knowing how popular the whole franchise is now, I wondered what it might have been like to first imagine such a reality show and then pitch it to get it on the air. Though my new novel, Looking for Love, is in no way related to The Bachelor, it was a lot of fun to create characters who were a part of a crazy journey into reality TV romance. It was interesting to envision no real budget or developed plan for what would happen once the show got the okay. In the end, I think Looking for Love shows readers that romance is and is not what we expect it to be.