You are listening to the Reality Steve podcast with your host Reality Steve. He's got all the latest info and behind the scenes juice on Matt season of The Bachelor and interviewing some of your favorite reality stars. Now, here's a reality, Steve. What's up, everybody? Welcome to the podcast. I'm your host reality, Steve. Thank you for tuning in. It's the podcast for the people this week as I opened it up to you listeners to ask any questions you want regarding The Bachelor, whatever, anything and you did.

There are a couple sports questions in there, a couple of music questions in there. There's 13 questions this week submitted by you. I think I got everybody unless you submitted something. I haven't looked on my site since about three o'clock Central Time yesterday. So if it was submitted after about three yesterday, I didn't get to it. Sorry, but we have 13 questions going to get to them momentarily, but we got a lot to get to first. So I wanted to start out by saying.

I have a confirmation on the ending and just a little bit of a background, I'm not going to drag this out to too long, but just a little bit of background. On January 4th, the day of the premiere, I said, look, here's what I'm hearing, that Rachel and Michelle are the final two. Michelle is a girl. And one of the five girls that arrives next Monday said they're the final two. I've been hearing Rachel wins.

So many people in Cumming, Georgia, have emailed me since the end of filming. And have given me, you know, oh, I heard Rachel wins and word around town is Rachel wins and and I'm just like, OK, but where are you hearing this from? And they just inevitably say, oh, everyone just kind of knows, like friends and family all know. And I'm like, OK, but that's again, that's not good enough for me.

And what I do if I did that, I would have the winner the day after the finale or within two days after the finale, almost every year. Because I hear stuff every year and it's like that's not good enough for me.

I need someone to tell me how they know and stuff like that. And I need and that's why I wrote on January 4th, I said, look, this is what I'm hearing.

All signs point to Rachel, but I don't have the confirmation that I need and I knew that it was out there on the Internet, someone had reported that it was Rachel. And I'm like, that's fine. But I don't go off what other people report. I get I go off what I'm told. So. All I've been trying to do is confirm it, and without any further ado, I can confirm it matters with Rachel. So the thing I don't know is are they engaged or not?

That I don't know, but one thing I got wrong last year about the ending was Tatian Zach not being engaged and not getting engaged at the end of the show. So I did not hear if they're engaged or not. But Matt is definitely with Rachel. I got the confirmation I needed one of the more solid confirmations I've ever had in the history of the show. So I'm not too worried about this, this one being wrong. So expect that.

And I guess it's true from all the people.

I can't you know, I don't reveal sources and stuff like that, but the amount of emails that I got and the amount of DM's that I got of people in the coming Georgia area saying, like, yeah, everybody knows.

It was astounding, which is why I had a hesitation on why it can't be this easy, like does she not know there are rules to this or who the hell is talking? I don't know.

The all they said were friends and family knew they didn't name names or anything like that. OK, but again, that's just not good enough for me because like I said, last season. With Peter, all I kept hearing from Auburn, Alabama, was, oh, yeah, Matty won and clearly those people were dead wrong. And that's why I never reported all season. All season I was being told Matty one. I don't know why you're not reporting this.

Everybody around Auburn knows I'm like because no one could give me any proof or some sort of evidence or proof. It was just word of mouth.

It's like, OK, word of mouth isn't good enough. And it ended up not being true. So I never ran with it, but I got the confirmation I needed. Matt is with Rachel. I can also say that Abigail finishes fifth. I was one. I didn't know how long she last. I figured she lasted pretty long, getting the first impression, Rose and being a fan favorite.

But I heard she finishes fifth, so your final four breakdown from everything that I've been told, is Serena, who had the one on one date this past Monday. She finishes fourth. Brief finishes third, Rachel and. Michelle, who will be on the show Monday, are your final two. And Rachel's the winner and Matt is with Rachel, and they are. Still together now. So let's get that out of the way. There you go, I'm going to put it up on my Instagram as well.

I'm going to have some Instagram graphics to put it up there. So you see it.

That's when I when I posted on my Instagram, I you know, it's almost more social because not enough people you know, some people only read the column and don't listen to the podcast.

Some people listen to the podcast, don't read the column. Some people just follow me. And Instagram, like there's so many different ways. So I have to put it up on all three. It's going to be in my column today, this podcast, and it'll be up on my Instagram later.

Second order of business, Dale and Claire. Again. As I record this, and that is one of the questions that you'll hear later on in this podcast. As I'm recording this open, it is almost 11:00 at night Central Time, so unless something happens from the time I go to bed tonight and we wake up in the morning and you're listening to this, the bottom line is we know nothing. Bail posted on. Today's went so. Yesterday, he posted the breakup post on his Instagram, Claire never posted anything.

Then this morning or yesterday morning when I woke up and I'm writing the column, was getting a bunch of people e-mailing me saying Dale has deleted it off of his Instagram feed and his Instagram story is what's going on. And when I posted my column yesterday, it was still gone off rails, Instagram feed and then literally within five minutes of me posting yesterday. They'll post it, put it back up, he had archived it and then put it back up, so I have no idea what's going on.

I thought the break up post by Dale was a little impersonal for someone that's been engaged for six months and the fact that Claire never said anything like something's up, something is not adding up here and.

But we you know, it's hard to speculate because we know nothing everyone can say, oh, we know this and oh, I read this on the Internet on some bullshit gossip site that posts anything and everything they ever get. Like, you know nothing, we know nothing. Dale and Claire know the relationship. I don't know why he posted a breakup post, then deleted it and then put it back up.

I think that shitty. That's what are you doing, dude? What the hell is wrong? Either you broke up or you didn't. Why would you delete that post or archive it or whatever? And it's not like he archived it and then changed it when he reposted, he just took it down and then put it back up.

Like if he wanted to reword it, I guess maybe that would make more sense. But he didn't. He took down a breakup post and then reposted the same thing. I don't get any shut off the comments as well, so I don't get it, I don't think any of us really know what's going on and I don't even know if they're broken up. There's just something about this thing just isn't adding up, but we'll see, you know, in the history of bachelor relationships, every time there's been a breakup, especially of a final couple.

Both of them have come out and said something. I mean, we're coming up on 48 hours where Claire hasn't said a word about this and, you know, obviously they're broken up and she's hurt.

Something isn't adding up here. I don't know what with something isn't adding up, and hopefully maybe we'll get some answers and there's a chance we might not get any answers because they don't owe us anything. I know everyone wants to know, but they don't owe us anything. So all we can do is sit and wait and maybe stuff will come down for either from Dale or Claire or both of them. We just don't know. Next order of business, I thought, Robert Mills.

The ABC director of alternative programming, who is know a producer on the executive producer on the show and him and Chris Harrison are the two biggest mouthpieces for this show in terms of going to the media and doing interviews. He did interview with Variety yesterday that I'm going to link to either in today's column or maybe I'll do it next week. But talking about the ratings, which are, you know, average to below average for four bachelor and bachelors airing in the same slot, it always does Monday nights for two hours and starting in the first week of January.

But he gave this quote to Variety, and I just thought it was so bizarre. He said, quote. I actually think you're going to see the ratings rise more exponentially than you would during previous seasons because people are going to start talking about it and word of mouth is going to kick in and quote, I don't agree with that.

Plenty of people are talking about The Bachelor right now, plenty of people are talking about it like they do every season when January rolls around. I mean, go to Twitter. It's trending on Twitter every Monday night. Everyone's talking about Queen Victoria and how crazy she is. And, oh, my God, I can't believe Sarah crashed the party. It's getting every single bachelor related podcast is talking about it and having contestants on from the show for the first time since all this started last season with Clare and Tatia season that they're allowing contestants now who are still on the show to go on bachelor approved podcast and talk about it.

What is he talking about? That oh, yeah, it'll pick up when word of mouth gets going, this is going to kick in like it's been on three weeks. Everyone's been talking about everybody that's in the natural world has been talking about the show. It's not like, oh, shit, it started three weeks ago. I didn't even know. Like, I think that's just an excuse.

The ratings aren't great this season in terms of overall, but there are factors for that. Number one, the first episode went up against the College Football National Champions, or second episode went up against college football national championship, which always does a poor number. And secondly, network numbers are down across the board. Ratings on networks are down across the board for everything, pretty much even in sports, even even though sports dominates television ratings because there's so many more options.

So it's not like the show is in trouble, but the ratings are down for that season and you can chalk it up to a bunch of factors. But it's not, oh, nobody's talking about it. And wait till people start talking about it. Word of mouth is going to kick in. That's just a horrible, horrible take. I thought he was smarter than that. But I guess trying to justify. Something I don't know. Anyway, one last thing before we get started here.

This was sent to me by a lot of you, so thank you, I wouldn't have even known about this podcast and unless you sent it to me. There's a podcast out there called Stay at Home Pop. And yesterday they had on Matt's roommate, former roommate Sophia is her name. She was his roommate in New York for about a year, about, I think, a year and a half, two years ago, because she said for Tyler, Cameron was living with them for about five months after he was on Hannah season.

So this would have been, what, two years ago? What was Hannah lasted, Hannah was aired, aired in May of 20. Twenty, twenty. No, that was no, so Hannah was May of 19, yeah. May to August of 19, which means Tyler film from March of May to 19. Anyway, her name is Sofia. She was Matt Matt's roommate. It looks like around twenty nineteen for a year. And she does not have the most flattering depiction of Matt James at all.

You know, she said, I listen to most of it. She said that basically Tyler squatted in their apartment. Matt gave out keys to like 20 of his friends. They would show up unannounced all the time. She confronted him about it. He didn't care. Like, it's not a good description of Matt James at all and. You know, I mean, the thing is, I think the one thing is and one of the questions this week is about Matt and it just seems like we just don't know anything about him and we don't because he wasn't on a former season.

We've never seen him interact on dates on this show and how to how he acts on television. But this is not a glowing review of Matt James at all. In fact, it makes him look really bad and. He probably won't address it. He'll probably say that she's making it up or she just wants attention or whatever, but she was pretty descriptive. She lived with the guy for a year. I don't think that she had any reason to just come out and say he did all this stuff when he did none of it, you know, like.

Just when you're covering the guy, just be objective, you know, that's all people ask, just be objective. If this is what happened, cover it. And I don't know, maybe maybe a lot and maybe some of you can help me out here, do you think any Instagram accounts that have Matt's name in their Instagram handle, you think they're going to cover this objectively?

Just curious. Anyway, I just. It didn't look good for him. And I don't think anything's really going to come of it, I don't know how much I think it's going to start getting some mainstream hit. I wouldn't be surprised if people entertainment or online or US Weekly pick it up, because this is the first person we've ever really had come out publicly, talk publicly in sort of a negative way about Matt James and negative sells in the media, and especially for a guy who's the lead of a very popular reality dating show.

So I have a feeling you're going to start seeing some of this in on the entertainment sites coming up in the next few days, maybe even in, you know, next week.

I'll link to it as well if you want to go listen to it. It's called the Stay at Home Pop podcast. I had never even heard of these people until yesterday, but I thought it was interesting. I mean, look, you guys all love juice. You love behind the scenes stuff. You love knowing as much about these contestants as you possibly can. And if you love Matt, you have to be objective and be like, OK, this person lived with him.

I think they kind of know. And if you're like, well, I didn't live with him, so I don't know if that's true, then you're just you're just turning a blind eye because you like somebody. It's like you got to understand, some people don't have an agenda all the time. So people just want to say, hey, I knew this person. This is what they did. This is what they said to me. This is what they did.

I lived with this guy for a year here, all the things that he did that weren't very nice. So if you want to go listen to that, check it out. It's a stay at home pop podcast, but.

Let's get going. I know it's been 15 minutes, but we're going to get going here before we get started. One ad to go over with you, OK? Just one one ad, I promise. OK, one end anyway, this ad is this podcast is brought to you by word forest, keep your body in shape is important, but also keep your mind sharp. I mean, keep in mind with word for us, last week we talked about the trivia game, word for us is another game on the app to word puzzle app, and it's free.

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Let's get going with podcast number 218, your questions and my answers.

Hi, Steve. I know that you never out your sources, and I totally respect that because I feel like there are so many people in the world who cannot keep a secret. So I guess I just wondered, do you ever struggle to keep these secrets or is it just not a big deal to you?

It's a good question to start out with, really. It is, because. Hey. I enjoy the information that I get, and, yeah, I usually like to share it with people. I did tell people. About.

The racial confirmation that I got before I posted it today, so it's out there and I you know, because it was just crazy how it all came down, but I absolutely told two people that were outside of marination and I think I told two or three inside. About batcheller imagination, about it, because there are people that I know won't say anything or is interested in the show and usually like to hear gossip like that, but I know would never say anything.

And I feel I'm friends enough with them to where if I were to run with that information without telling them first I might get a text like, why didn't you tell me this?

So there are a few people, when I get other information as well that I that I just share with it just.

So I it's it's a case by case basis, I mean, sometimes when I get information, I'm too busy typing about it or podcasting about it or around the time to sit there and be like, OK, let me go to my list of who I need to tell before I post this tomorrow sometime.

Sometimes I'm just like, I just need to get it out there. So but yeah, there were some people that know about that. I told once I got it confirmed on late, late Tuesday night, so I told them yesterday. Hi, Steve, this is not bachelor related, it's Taylor Swift related. I've been wondering what you thought of Taylor's last two albums, folklore and ever more. And if you have time, what is your favorite song off of each of those?

And what is your all time favorite Taylor Swift album? All right. Thank you.

Oh, you're really going to do me like this. You're going to put me on the spot and. Make me tell you, my favorite songs are folklore and ever more. I will say, like, I appreciate everything that she puts out, I like it, I don't like them as much as her other albums because to me it's almost 36, six songs that kind of all sound the same, at least with her pop albums, you know, the second five seconds into a song, you knew what song it is.

I just. It's like thirty six, however, many between the two albums, folklore and evermore, what is it, thirty six. Thirty eight songs, something like that, 16 around each. I. They're all slow songs. I mean, there's nothing there's you know, it's not a pop out. I get it, but it's not distinguishable enough for me. But there are some songs on there I do like. Which ones? Good question.

I like. My tears ricochet. I like that one. I like August. I don't like Betty as much as everyone else does. It's OK, it doesn't jump out to me. As for. Ever more champagne problems? I like that one. I do like Willow. And. I'm just I'm looking at the titles of the song as I'm answering this, and frankly, I don't have when I'm when I'm just looking when I'm just looking at the songs, they don't they don't jump out in terms of which one like which song goes with which title.

But if you tell me, you know, to go down the list of everything on Lover or everything on 1989 or everything on reputation, I, I look at a title. I know exactly what the song is. I don't yet for both of these albums and maybe because I haven't listened, I haven't listened to them enough. I wore out nineteen eighty nine and reputation and lover I, I just haven't worn these out.

So sorry. But those are the, some of the ones that I like. I don't hate the albums. I really don't. I just. Going to your next question, my favorite album. Those would be on the back end now, I've had this discussion recently with a friend in regards to Favorite Album of Tailers and. I really think lover is underrated, and I'll tell you why I think Lover is underrated because covid killed that concert. Not not that she was going to do a world tour because we know she was only doing two shows in New England and two shows in L.A. and then some stuff overseas.

And she wasn't going to do a world tour, but. The fact that lover got a tour canceled and the fact that folklore came out so close to lover, I really think lovers underrated, it's not her best, but I don't think it gets as much pub as it should because of those two factors. I think, though, I think that's legit. So if you're asking me. Favorite albums. I go back and forth on 1989 and reputation I.

Gun to my head, I'd probably say, in 1889. Then reputation. Then lover and red probably tied for third and then after that. I don't know, I just I wasn't a huge fan of the earlier stuff, I jumped on the board with her pretty late. Like, right around. Read, so I'm basically only judging her albums from read on and I'd go, probably you get me on it on one day, I'll tell you 1989, another day I'll tell you ReputationDefender, what movement?

But I'll go read. I mean, I'll go 1989. One reputation too. And I think Red and lover are tied for third. I really do. I, I think people sleep on lover a lot because. It it came out and then she released. You know, the concert got canceled and. The other thing was not a lot of singles from it got released on the radio, so. Yeah. That's where I stand. Deal with it.

Hey, Steve, a couple of quick questions for you. First of all, did you notice how shortly after you posted your column on Tuesday, Chris Harrison posted something on insta stories on Twitter about his book? It was an Amazon screenshot and he had circled number one best seller. Maybe it was a coincidence, but I find it particularly hilarious considering we know he probably reads your site. And secondly, based on everything that we know about Carly and Evan, it seems like she's kind of playing the victim and making it seem like he walked away from her and left your high and dry.

Can you clarify this for us? Was it originally her who moved out in November of twenty nineteen and initiated it and then he pulled the trigger and filed for divorce later on? Thanks, Steve. I did see that Chris Harrison posted a screenshot that said number one bestseller. I'm not a book guy actually survive, you could probably achieve this better than I can, but I don't know what number one best seller means. I don't. It was does that mean it was the number one selling book in all of America?

What does number one bestseller mean? And it also didn't say. And I see some of this on some of the other contestants, Instagram pages that have written books that have been on the New York Times bestseller list. I noticed that Chris didn't say that. He just took a screenshot of something that said, number one bestseller.

I have no idea what that means in the book world. None, so. I mean, it was pretty interesting that he did post that within hours of my column coming up, where I basically said contestants of the show have New York Times best sellers and this guy doesn't. So. Interesting. Who knows? I can't say it was directly related to what I said. I can't say it wasn't. I don't know. What I do know is that I don't know what number one best seller means, so maybe someone can help me out on that, or maybe I can just ask Ashley next week.

Someone remind me to ask Ashley about that next week on The Life.

Carly and Evan. She's kind of playing the victim. He's the one taking the blame. All I can tell you is what Marie told us on the podcast, which she had told me at the time, is that Carly moved out. In the early stages of her pregnancy. With their second child so literally a year and a half before they announced they announced their divorce. They didn't live together. So I know that Carly did a YouTube video and was basically in response to what Marie said on my podcast, at no point as far as what I know at no point, and that it and that in that YouTube video, did Carly ever say that she never moved out and she never said that?

That's a lie that Marie told. She never addressed it because it's true. Like, I think Marie would know she has to drop off her kids to EV and every couple of weeks or every other week, whatever their.

Plan is. And then she gets the kids back and the kids will know if they spent time with Kali or they didn't and they just spent time with that. Well, Dad lives here now. Kali doesn't live there. They're aware that wasn't anything that was news. So I don't know what to say other than Carly didn't address it for a specific reason because she moved out a year and a half ago. Now, what they what their relationship was during that year and a half.

Technically, I guess they were still married because they didn't there wasn't a divorce filed and maybe they were working on their marriage. And, you know, like I said, I found out a week before she was due with the second baby is when I found this out, when Murray first told me.

And I'm like, well, I can't run with that, she's just do with a baby in a week, like she doesn't need that over her head.

I just thought it was going to be maybe a few months after the baby, that they were going to be like, oh yeah, we've decided to separate. And I was like, OK. And then I was going to tell her. But yeah, that was what I was referring to. But a year later, didn't didn't expect that so. It's tough to say exactly what what role, Carly, what she's doing. I don't really I don't really get it.

All I know is what Marie told me and Marie would know because she has a co parenting relationship with Evan and. The kids know when they saw Evan during that year and a half. They didn't stay at Carlton Evan's place because Carl and Evan didn't live together. So I don't know, that's that's the most I know, so when you ask me. Did they divorce in November of 20-20? Yeah, I guess that's when they made it official and maybe they had stopped trying for that last year and a half, it looks like they were trying.

And but for her to say that I would never leave a relationship and I was always all in and I was divorced was never an option. That's just that's very manipulative and very. I'm sorry that doesn't make any sense, because what if, like, it's just like someone can say, like, oh yeah, no, I once I get married, I am never divorcing no matter what. Well, that gives you the free rein to act and do whatever you want and then just be like, well, I'm not leaving you.

It's like, OK, but maybe they want to leave you because of the way you acted. I'm not saying that's what happened in the relationship, but just saying. The way she did it and pinned it on Evan, I thought that was pretty manipulative. Hi, Steve. So I have a question regarding the season of The Bachelor. So kind of two questions. So the first question is Queen Victoria. I just have so much trouble believing that she is real.

Like I mean, I believe that she applied for the show, but I just feel like there has to be some way the producers are like hyping her up to be as wild as she's been just because I feel like we've never seen a villain quite this hardcore, if that makes sense. What are your thoughts on this? Do you think she's real? You think about it.

What do you think by the Queen Victoria question one of the most polarizing characters in recent seasons. We went over this on the on the Live with Ashley and kind of in my column a little bit, I, I don't really know what to say about people saying truly believing she is real. And I know you're asking there's got to be some way producers are hyping her up. I mean, sure. They they, they definitely are.

Whether it's in an item and telling her and asking her a question like what do you really think of so-and-so or what do you really think about?

Sarah and the way she's acting and her breaking in on her date, doesn't that make you mad? And then I think just Viktoria. One was drinking a lot, you could just tell by the way she comes across in her interviews, there were a few of them where she was completely plastered.

So I think that adds to it because as we all know, you know, you get this liquid courage when you're drunk and you just say things and are way more expressive and it's easier to talk because you just have no filter. And I think that I think that was part of it. The other part of it is I just think that she's not the nicest person in the world.

It's the way she talked about people, even when she had clips where it didn't seem like she was drunk, just didn't come across as a very nice girl at all.

So I see it. I look at it and I'm like, yeah, she's real because this is who she really is.

She just got some prodding by production to kind of probably play things up. And they might have told her, hey, say this, it'll be really funny. And her in the moment, just going along with production, thinking it'll get her screentime, not thinking of the ramifications it would have on the general public who watches the show, which happens a lot on this show.

You know, look, I know that people have short term memory when it comes to the show, but I'm telling you the things that I heard and the things that people were saying about Crystal on every season when her first few episodes were airing were just as bad as Victoria, if not worse. People thought she was the biggest bitch in the world and oh, my God, she's totally stuck on each other. Why does she think this about herself? And, oh, she's just so annoying.

You guys were saying the same thing about Crystal. So this is nothing new. We see it all the time. There's going to be somebody every single season who's going to be the one that doesn't want to include themselves in the House is going to be the vocal one is going to be the one that takes over.

The girl chats that it's nothing new. Victoria is just playing that role this season. Hi, Steve, I just had a few random questions for you, so my first one was, who do you think is going to win the Super Bowl? And from Green Bay, Wisconsin. So I'm 100 percent rooting for the Packers. And then my other question was, if you were forced to watch a past season, which would you choose?

Well, this is a question that's. Almost a two parter, who do I think will win versus who do I want to win? Because in Wheat Week 16 of the season, I put in a futures bet on the Buffalo Bills to win the Super Bowl.

At eight to one, so I want them to win. They have. Just as good as chance as any of the other three teams that are remaining, you know, football is if you look at the point spreads or whatever, both are really short lines this weekend, so. It wouldn't be this crazy thing, and for if for a lot of you that are listening and maybe you are Kansas City Chiefs fans that might know this, but if you aren't Kansas City Chiefs fans, but you're just general fans of the NFL and you see like, wow, the Chiefs went 14 and two this year and they lost their last game of the season, but they didn't play any starters.

So if they would have played everybody, they would have been 15 and one.

Yeah, but taking out that week 17 game where they lost at home to the Chargers and didn't play any starters, the Chiefs won their last eight games of the season and none of them were by more than six points. And let's also not forget they were down 10 points with less than 10 minutes left in the Super Bowl last year. So it's not like the chiefs have dominated everybody.

They've played it. Quite the contrary. They've been the opposite. Eight straight, one score games and then you get into the playoffs last week, another one score game. So it's. If the bills beat the Chiefs, it wouldn't be that big of an upset based on the way the chiefs have played for literally two and a half months, they haven't played a dominant game in almost three months. So do I think the bills can win? Absolutely, will they?

I don't know if I do that to be rich. As for the Packers and Bucks, you know, the Packers on the Bills are probably the two teams that are playing the best and have played the best consistently throughout the whole season. You know, the Packers are great at home, we know that Aaron Rodgers is going to be the MVP this season. So, yeah, I. Packers build Super Bowl I, I'd like to see the bills win it just for monetary purposes.

And let's also not forget the bills have won 11 of the last 12 games. And the one game they didn't win was on a Hail Mary on the last play of the game. The bill should be on a 13 game winning streak or a 12 game winning streak right now, including last week or the two playoff wins. So they're playing just as well as anybody in the NFL. The Chiefs aren't playing well. They just eke out wins every single week.

The law of averages got to set in at some point, maybe they will this week, maybe they won't. Maybe they'll win by three touchdowns. But for a team that's won 11 of 12 the bills going into Kansas City who, excluding that week 17 game, have won. Nine straight games now by six points or less it. It's ripe for an upset that the bills can pull this off, so we'll see. As for watching a past season, which one would I choose, I'd say Ashley.

And maybe even beka's season. I think I enjoyed Becky's season. I really did, and I liked Ashley's season as well, so I would go with those two. Hey, Steve, just wondered how you felt about Matt being a lead that the audience did not get to know on a previous season. Of course, many people do know of him from being friends with Tyler Cameron and the headline surrounding him being cast for Killer Season. But much like some of the audience are unfamiliar with spoilers, I'm sure he was a totally new face for some people watching.

I know this personally has turned me off to the season. It's been hard to get invested in because he has no real story or history to be interested in. Do you think this is a move they should do in the future? Should they stick to recycled leads, or do you think it essentially has no effect on the overall success of a season? Thanks. I think that's been OK. I don't think he's anything more anything less than any of the previous bachelors.

I don't feel like we know a lot about them still after three episodes, we certainly don't know anything about him from a previous season because he wasn't on one. And I think there's a lot of people that agree with your sentiment that you're just kind of turned off by it. It's hard to get invested in because you don't know anything about him and on these dates. What have we again, what have we really known about his back story after these dates?

I mean, after that podcast now, I guess we we know how he lives as a lived as a single in New York City. Kind of a slob. And wasn't the most flattering picture of this guy given given to us by an ex roommate. I, I, I just think he's he's just kind of there right now for this season, you know, we're only three episodes in. Maybe it gets better for him. But he's just there, at least to me.

I don't I don't consider him like a dynamic personality, but it's not like I'm saying that the previous twenty four bachelors all had dynamic personalities, most of them didn't.

They just kind of there as well, so I just feel like he's just a guy in the role now when you ask about. Will they stick to recycled leads in the past? Yesterday, Robert Mills spoke with Variety about the early season ratings from that season and saying. You know. Seemed like he was kind of making excuses, I'll link to it next week, maybe even tomorrow or today, but.

The very last quote of the column, I pulled it up just to let you know, this is what he says in regards to the next Bachelorette, I would say with ninety nine point nine percent.

Certainly The Bachelorette is going to be someone who comes from one of our previous seasons, probably Mat's, but at least someone who is familiar with Bachelor Nation, that is Robert M. saying that after three episodes of Mad Season that he's already sure that the next bachelorettes coming is going to be someone we know, which again, kind of goes to show with what I've been hearing this season in regards to Matt that. They really missed the fact that they had didn't have to they they were dealing with someone with Matt that wasn't didn't know the ropes, had never been on the show before, and it became.

Kind of a chore, but nothing, not anything they couldn't get through, but kind of a chore like, OK, we got to explain this, we've got to explain this. It just doesn't you have to like I say, there's a lot in my column sometimes, like some people just they get it when it comes to the show. They get what they have to do. And here's a guy that was just as new as the 32 women he met the first night.

He didn't get it. And for Robert Mills, after three episodes to be like, oh, yeah, 99 percent sure. Next hour, our next leads come in. From the franchise. Kind of lends a little credibility to what I've heard, that they just were like, OK, we tried it. We'll go back to we'll go back to what works for us, not saying that that doesn't work. But what they're familiar with. Hi, Steve.

I have a question not necessarily about this bachelor season in particular, but a general bachelor question. Do you know if any lead has ever requested to see footage that was captured by the crew midseason, for instance? There's the inevitable moment on every season where one of the players approaches the lead to report drama with another player or players, and we get our classic, she said. She said situation can the lead request footage from the crew to review the situation?

Do you know if it's ever happened or maybe if there's something in the LEADS contract that prevents them from seeing footage until filming wraps? Thanks. Because I don't have any firsthand knowledge of this, I can't really say if a lead ever requested, but even if they did, I've read enough interviews and I've heard enough people on the show talk about this, especially Chris Harrison, who's the one kind of leading the charge on this is that, hey.

This is their journey, we are not going to step in and impede it in any way, and people have said that numerous times, like why don't you show them the footage? And they've always said because we don't that's not our job to it's their job to figure it out. We are just here along for the ride, even though they're basically driving the car the whole time. But no, they're not going to do that. I maybe someone has asked, but I doubt it's been shown here that would kind of defeat the purpose because they want organic reactions to things, because how many times have we heard when the season starts airing?

The leads say, I had no idea that was going on in the house. I don't see what you guys are seeing. So my my guess would be no one has ever been able to see footage. I'm sure they wanted to. And I'm sure maybe they've asked for hints like, hey, can help me out with this girl. I don't know what to do. And they just say, no, sorry, I can't help you. You know, it's not that's not in our job, but.

From everything I've heard out of Chris Harrison's mouth, from everything I've heard out of Leeds who have said that when watching the season back, like, wow, I had no idea that was going on in the house, doesn't look like anybody's been able to see footage ever. Hey, Steve, I wanted to ask what details you might know about all now that he has said that they have broken up, that you said in your post today that you were not aware of them being broken up, but now that he has said anything about what has transpired.

Thanks. Well. I addressed this at the beginning of the podcast, I probably spend more time listening to that then than this answer. We just don't know enough right now. You know, and I say that as I'm recording this, it's five twenty two Central Time on Wednesday from the time I recorded this to the time it's up. Today, now that you're listening to this, something could have happened, maybe Dale posted something new, maybe Claire did, maybe there's a new story that broke.

We just don't know enough. In fact, we know nothing because although Dale left a you know, posted a breakup post on Instagram and then took it down, it was down for a few hours yesterday morning. And then right after my column went up, literally within minutes, it was back up again. At no point in that break up does he say why they did. So we just we don't know enough and Claire hasn't said a word, so something.

Something isn't right, something doesn't. What's the what's the phrase something is rotten in Denmark? Where did that phrase come from? Rotten in Denmark. I don't I don't get it. But that's where we're at, we just don't know enough right now unless something has happened between five twenty to Central Time on Wednesday and the time you listen to this, I just don't know anything more than you guys do. Hey, Steve, what do you think of Katie this season?

Do you think she was a bully this past episode or did she redeem herself talking to Sarah at the end? Out of all the cast, we've seen the most sides of her. So I am curious to see if she will be a breakout star, a bachelor in Paradise or even The Bachelorette. And this doesn't last long, but they actually give her dimensions, which we really don't see. What do you think? I did Katie, the first episode, I got tired of the vibrator stick, it just got old because she brought it in every single scene.

I was like, OK, we get it. Your. You're the vibrant girl. But but a couple of things since then, we haven't seen the vibrator in episodes two or three, so it looks like that was a one night shtick that she she went with. And then I just think she's very pretty real and she's very refreshing. I didn't find her being a bully this past episode at all. You know, I thought. When she went back to talk to Matt, she had every right to and she was clearly upset and that was all producer driven of Sarah breaking in on her, talking to Matt and then Katie leaving, and then the girl, Katie, going back to the girls and the girls telling Katie, no, you need to go back and get your time back with Matt and then Katie walking in when Matt was still talking to Sarah.

It's like, OK, we've seen that a thousand times on this show. I wouldn't consider that wrong of Katie to do. Clearly, she was mad that wasn't bullying in any way, shape or form. And then when she spoke to Sarah at the end of the episode, I thought that was really heartfelt. And I'm glad she did that. But this came up on the live on Tuesday as well, this idea of Katia's Basharat or is she going to be more of a paradise person?

I see Katy as more of a star in paradise. And look, I guess anything is possible when it comes to the show. But as I said on the live Tuesday, I believe Katy finishes like 10th or 11th this season. She's it's really tough because we're just going to get to know more women more than her.

But maybe she makes such an impression on the audience that she skips over 10 women this season and gets The Bachelorette gig I.

I'd be surprised, I really would not saying she wouldn't make a good bachelorette, you're just asking me, do I think she would be The Bachelorette?

My answer would be no. If she's not The Bachelorette. I think she'll be a star down in paradise. I think a lot of guys will be interested in her for sure, and I guarantee there I guarantee she's talking to other guys from Taysir season. 100 percent. I really Steve, my name's Amanda. And first, I just wanted to say thank you so much for everything you do. I love listening to your podcast and reading your tweets and your Instagram posts.

My question is, when their contracts have expired, who would you want on your podcast from any of the recent seasons? From Peter season to tee shot and clear season and now season. And what types of questions would you want to ask them? Thanks so much.

Well, thank you for that. Amanda. Is it just me or does that sound like a man destined? I could tell you it's not just based on their yapper account that they signed up with, but she really sounded like a man them and her name was Amanda. How about that? Gosh, when contract expires. Who would I want on the podcast? Well, I mean, if we're talking recency, I. Claire Dale would be the the obvious one just because there's so much to dive into there.

You know, Claire was on the podcast three years ago, twice in a span of three months. And that was before she did Winter Games and then Bachelorette, so clearly so much stuff has gone down, I would say I'd probably put Claire. And or Dale at the top of the list right now, but. I mean, without looking at just going off the top of my head. I would say, you know, I I talked to Peter, I'd love to talk to Peter, he would never talk to me, but I would love to talk to him.

But like I said, there's just there's so many people in this franchise that I'd be interested in talking to, but I know would never want to speak with me because they have either a this impression of me that isn't true. But they hear things and they're and it's put into their head by the bachelor people and the higher ups at The Bachelor do not talk to that guy that I'm just never going to get people. It sucks is what it is.

But, Peter, I'd love to talk to Claire Taisha. Ivan. Zach. I talk to any of any of the ones that you're going to hear all the other BATCHELLER approved podcasts, I'd want them to, but it just.

It's just the contract thing, they just they refuse to let their people speak with me. It sucks, but there's nothing I can do, types of questions I want to ask them, I mean, my gosh, we could go down the laundry list of things with with Claire and Teisha and Peter. You know, Sarah, everything I mentioned in the column on Tuesday about Sarah, like if I were to ever talk to her, I'd be like, what made you think that was a good idea, to go crash a group date that you were not part of?

Like, have you ever watched this show? Do you realize how that goes for people like that? Do that? Why did you do that?

You still had a date coming up. You could have spoken to him on that part of the date. Like when she went and talked to Matt during that date, it wasn't like something that was really all that urgent. She was just like, oh, you know, I'm missing him. Or it's this is this process is really hard for me. It's hard for everybody.

I'm sure the other ones would have loved to crash the group date and do that, but only you were allowed to. It's like, what producer talked you into that? Why did you think that was a good idea?

All this stuff. And then I'd probably ask you the stuff about the ex-boyfriend, which, you know, who knows if she's ever going to address or not. Hey, Steve, huge fan, and I'm so excited to get to do this, and I really hope it's on the podcast, but my question is a two part question that kind of goes together at the end. But do you think Peter is the one that broke up with Kelly and Dale is the one that broke up with Claire and why?

And then also, do you think there's a chance that any of the four of them, Peter, Kelly, Dale or Claire, will be on paradise? Thank you.

Do I think Peter broke up with Kelly? Dale broke up with Claire? Well, first off, in the Dale Claire part, we just don't know what the hell is going on, I. We just don't know. Based on that statement, it certainly seems like Dale ended things I just. If Claire would have ended it, you would think she would have posted something. So it certainly seems like they all did, but then when you post it and then you take it down and then you repost it, who knows?

Peter and Kelly again, I have no idea.

It's. I don't I don't see the point of speculating because. Unfortunately, when a voice like myself in this franchise speculates about something, it automatically becomes reality. We've said this. And I hate that people do that, and I hate that people aren't held accountable for when they say that about me, but it happens. So I've actually had to keep my speculating to a minimum now, because unless I literally put it out there and say. You know, start playing sirens and screaming from the top of my lungs.

This is just speculation. It's immediately taken as fact, so I don't know. I don't know who broke up with who and the Peter Kelly situation or why, so it's tough. As for Paradice. Between those four, I got to believe that Claire's the least likely to do paradise, she's been on the show five times. He's already been to paradise twice. She doesn't need to go on a third time. And if this breakup has happened, I highly doubt in five months Claire wants to enter herself back into the bachelor world that just and if she did, she'd be a moron.

That would be a complete and utter moron after five times to go back a six time and a third time on paradise, like be just stupid. So I would hope that's not the case for her. Dale. Who knows? I don't know, I don't see Peter doing it. The only person we've ever seen, the only lead we've ever seen on a summer show, I believe, is Jake when he was on bachelor pad. But I don't think a lead has ever done the summer show.

And entered himself back into the dating pool. I think they think they're above it. So I don't see Peter doing it, Kelly, based on the interviews that she gave show and about how she doesn't like the television aspect of this franchise. I don't get the impression that Kelly would. But again, those are just my opinions. What's up, reality, Steve Daniel here from Knoxville, Tennessee. I was just checking in to see if you have any opinions on the Tennessee coaching search that's going on in Knoxville right now.

I know you gave your predictions on the college football national championship playoffs and the game. So I was just wondering what your thoughts are on the mess the Tennessee football is right now and who you think we should hire. Thanks and have a great day.

College football talk. Love it. Tennessee, what a mess. Holy shit. I mean. Sounds like you're a fan. My heart breaks for you, dude, because. I mean, I'm not breaking any news to you here, you haven't been relevant in the college football world in 20 years. You know, literally, since Tim Martin, when you national championship Tennessee is just not in the upper echelon of college football programs, they're just not that's not opinion.

That's fact. Look at the records. Look at how many other teams finish higher than them every single season. They've gone through a myriad of coaches, from Derek Dooley to Butch Jones to Jeremy Pruitt, who's now fired because they were giving kids cash in McDonald's bags. Like that's the best part of the Jeremy Pruitt story. And this recruiting violation is they were giving kids allegedly bags of McDonald's food, but instead of food, it had money in it.

That's awesome. But with that said. I mean, you're you're. Coaching list is going to look like what most coaching lists look like, the Billy Napier's of the world. I saw that Jason Witten's name was thrown out there. I don't think he's officially retired from the NFL, but I don't know if Jason Witten is the coach for Tennessee football. I know he went there and he's a legend there, but he's never coached today in his life. And to put him as the the head coach of a college football program in the SEC the year after he ends his career in the NFL.

I just. I get why you would do it. It's certainly on the name value. I don't see them going that route, but. Yeah, the names, you know, the names are out there, you're going to I can't tell you who you're going to choose. But they have failed miserably on their last four or five, six coaches, so they got to get one of these right at some point. Hi, Steve, this is Marie, I was just wondering if you can go over the history of how you and Ashley started working together, you do like the advice podcast.

I've been listening to long before that, but I forgot how it came together. And since you mentioned she went on a date with Chris Harrison. I miss that one, too. So could you kind of just, like, go over that? Thanks a lot.

One final question, and it's a good one. The history of Ashley and I working together. Well, the he said she said podcasts started with Charline, and that was a once a month podcast that was done only on Stitcher, and then the stitcher thing ended. Charlene wanted to branch out and eventually do her own thing, which I was fine with. And Ashley is somebody that I had had on the podcast a couple of times I had been friends with.

Off air for years, and I just thought she was a good fit, so we started doing that, he said she said podcast, that got to be tough to do, you know, trying to get callers every single month, arranging times because I was in Central Time, Ashlee's and Eastern Time, and then to get a caller online, if they were in West Coast time, it just it got really tough. Then the pandemic hit and we're like, why don't we do a live when everyone seems to be doing now is lives.

So we end up doing a live and we've kept it up basically every week. There was one week that we missed from like May when we start. I think we started in late April, early May. They're all on my Instagram TV, on my Instagram. Go look at those if you want to go look at any past, live that actually. And I did, you can probably find out the first one we did by looking at the date.

But we did that and up until her unfortunate. Miss, the the Miss Kerry was C.J. right, on Thanksgiving Day, so we didn't do anything from Thanksgiving on and then we started back up. First week of bachelor season in the first week of January this year, so. That's our history. We were just friends before that and, you know, we'd text on occasion and text about the show and whatnot, and then when the Charline part of the he said she said ended.

I just asked Ashley, do you mind you want to step in and do this once a month? And she's like, yeah.

And actually let me do it twice a month for a while there we were doing it twice a month.

And then it just became such not a burden. But it was always like from the second we finished recording one, I'm like, all right, we've got to start thinking about when we're going to record the next ones. It was almost like twice a month was almost too much. Maybe we should have cut it back to once a month. But I really enjoyed that show. That was a lot of fun. And I just feel like Ashley and I work well together and the lives are a lot of fun to do because we can just kind of shoot the shit with each other and take some questions here and there.

As for her date with Chris Harrison, she went over this again on Tuesday, but the short story is. Ashleigh is good friends with Ashleigh and JP when they were married and Ashley and JP wanted to do a double date and they asked Ashley Spiderbait to go with because Chris Harrison was coming, he's going to be the four of them. And then Ashley said at the last minute or close to the last minute, Ashley in JP said they couldn't make it, but Ashley didn't want to go with Chris himself.

So she invited, who did she say, Graham Bun and oh, Rob and Ross from TV Guide Dotcom. So the three of them went and Chris Harrison and she said Chris didn't seem like he was into the fact that Ashley invited the other two people. And then I asked Ashley on Tuesday, I said. Do you think now that Ashley and JP purposely canceled out on the date because they wanted you to go on a one on one date with Chris?

And she said absolutely so, but she didn't want to see. She went with. She brought two other people and Chris wasn't happy, and that was the date and there was nothing romantic about it, she said. Chris didn't seem happy that other people were invited, but he did pay for the bill.

So congratulations, Chris, for picking the bill up on that. Well, that'll do it. Thank you so much to all of you who decided to leave a question. I really appreciate it. We got 13 in, so that was good. I think the first time we did this, we had about 19 and 13 is fine. I was looking between 10 and 15. So perfect. And I there was a lot of fun. I like doing these, probably do these every, you know, maybe a couple of months every three months.

Just throw a podcast in there where I take your questions and it's just it's just better than me reading an email like in the past couple of times. I did it before we got involved with Yapper. A couple of times I would do a podcast where I just read your emails and I just that's too much reading. It's good to hear your voices. It's good to hear the questions and how you pose it and stuff like that. So I appreciate everyone that that participated and put in an audio question.

Please write, subscribe and review and Apple podcasts. It's very much appreciated. Thank you so much to those that have subscribed to it.

Like I said, if you're a subscriber to this podcast, you never have to worry or ask, like when is it going up or whatever it'll be in your playlist. Once it's uploaded it once I upload it into Apple, which is usually my goal is every week, I don't know if you've ever kept track, but I try and have it in there by nine o'clock Central Time on Thursday mornings. That's when I try and have it in. It all depends on how much I get done writing the night before.

So and how much if I do the uploading and transferring it into an MP from a wave file in to an MP three file all that stuff. If I do that Wednesday night, then I'm usually right. Good to go at nine o'clock Thursday morning. If I wait until Thursday morning to do it, maybe it goes up nine thirty or ten o'clock, but that's when I usually have it going. So thank you all for participating. Thank you all for listening.

I really appreciate it. And we'll be back next week with podcast number two nineteen. So are we all. Thanks again for listening and we will talk to you next week. Tip.