Why I am not watching The Bachelor Anymore

This past Monday started a whole new season of The Bachelor and for the first time since the show started in 2002, I am not watching. That's right, I didn't watch and I didn't DVR it. The Bachelor used to be fun, like a more glamorous version of speed dating. Fabulous dates that would never happen in real life, glamorous clothes, uber-romantic at first. I actually wanted to believe that when The Bachelor went down on one knee that true love woudl follow. Yes, I am a romantic sap that way. But no the bloom is off the rose so to speak.

Why? Is it because out of 19 seasons, only one couple has gotten married? Nope! Is it because some of The Bachelors have been complete tools (Travis Stork, Jesse Palmer, Prince Lorenzo Borghese) I'm not watching it because after the whole Jason proposes to Melissa and then dumps her on national television to get together with Molly I'm done.

Now, I know both Jason and Melissa have said that there relationship was over before the After the Final Rose special but there was no reason for him to have to tell her on national television that he was in love with bachelorette No. 2, particularly when he apparently had been denying to Melissa that was the reason why they broke up. And then whining that the producers made him do it.

Then we move on to Jillian's season where our new Bachelor Jake whined about how Wes had a girlfriend but then couldn't prove it. But heck it got him more screen time after he got dumped and then got him the gig as the next Bachelor. I think he's fake and has about as much charisma as a Ken doll. No, I take it back, Ken doll's have more charisma. Not that I thought sleazy Wes was a charmer. It was clear that he was only on the show to promote himself. And then there was foot fetish Tanner. And finally the man Jillian chose, who it turned out was doing half of Chicago while he was supposed to have left the show for his 'job.' Yes, I know that supposedly they are happy now, but it was just too much.

And now the producers have created a fake scandal about a bachelorette and one of the producers having a sexual relationship but they have no footage of this alleged relationship. You can read all abou the alleged scandal on Reality Steve.

But the final reason why is that I'm tired of the fact that in all of these seasons, not once have we had a Bachelor or Bachelorette of color. Forget about the fact that there is usually one token who never gets any screen time and generally gets booted off after the first two episodes. In the 21st century, I find it ridunkulous that they keep casting only whites. Why no attractive, well-to-do black, Asian, Latin or Indian bachelor or bachelorette?  There is more diversity on BRAVO or any of the VH-1 reality dating shows than on ABC. An argument can of course be made that the Bachelor or Bachelorette who does get cast does not want to date interacially which is of course there perogative but since they are going on national television to find a mate, you think they might be more open to meeting people outside their comfort zone, which in this case means race. I'm not the only one wondering about this. Check out this article in yesterday's The Huffington Post.

And that is why I'm no longer watching The Bachelor.