The Bachelorette alum Connor Saeli is opening up about what really goes on during the casting process.
Based on some of the questionable social media activity of past contestants, many feel that the producers don’t do enough research on their contestants.
Connor, however, shared an argument refuting that claim on TikTok.
He’s not afraid to weigh in on the franchise’s hot topics and he’s doing so again.
The person in the TikTok video stated, “They have done extensive research on all of the contestants and who they’ve dated.”
“This is 100% true,” Connor agreed.
He then shared his own story about how much research the producers attempted to do on him ahead of his time on Hannah Brown’s season of The Bachelorette.
Connor Saeli says The Bachelorette producers reached out to his exes
Connor revealed that The Bachelorette producers weren’t afraid to dig into his past and even reached out to people he dated in the past.
“When I was on the show, the producers kept trying to talk to the two girls I dated in high school,” he expressed.
He shared that he was surprised that they reached out to people so far back from his past.
“Now keep in mind, I was pretty young when I went on the show. I was 24. When I dated these girls, I was 16 and 18. So it was a very long time ago in my life,” he expressed.
However, the producers weren’t lucky enough to get any dirt on him from his exes.
“Now when I got home from the show, these girls told me that the producers kept trying to talk them and they didn’t respond because I am on good terms with them,” he stated.
However, Connor believes others weren’t as lucky as he was and that other The Bachelorette contestants had exes spill the tea on them to producers.
“But I’m assuming they pretty much do this with probably pretty much everyone else that goes on there,” he concluded.
The Bachelor franchise has been condemned for lack of research
Even though the franchise is good at getting dirt on contestants’ dating pasts, others feel that the show should focus more on sniffing out potential contestants’ social media pages rather than their exes.
In recent times, contestants have been outed for having problematic social media activity, not by producers on the show, but by fans.
Recently, Rachael Kirkconnell was exposed for posing for an Antebellum south-themed photo shoot, a theme that has ties to slavery. Additionally, she had reportedly liked posts with racist connotations.
This lead to the franchise’s racism controversy leading to Chris Harrison walking away from the franchise.
Other instances include The Bachelorette Season 17 contestants Andrew Spencer and Justin Glaze’s discriminatory Twitter history, as well as Taylor Nolan’s, who dates back to Nick Viall’s season.
Hopefully, going forward, the franchise has learned its lesson and will look into first-hand sources as well as second-hand sources when researching contestants.
The Bachelorette returns to ABC on Tuesday, October 19 at 8/7c.