Sam McKinney was a frontrunner on Jenn Tran’s season of The Bachelorette for the first five episodes.
Then, when it was time to get down to business in Episode 6, Jenn started seeing the cracks.
Her physical connection with Sam was near perfect.
He received the first impression rose and even got the “feral first kiss” on premiere night.
In fact, Sam M was the only guy Jenn kissed on her first night of the show.
From there, he went on to have a bit of drama with the guys, specifically with Devin Strader, whom he thought was hogging all the time with Jenn.
Ultimately, though, it was Sam’s inability to communicate why he was falling for Jenn or what he even liked about her after blurting out that he was in love with her that ended his time on the show.
Afterward, the way he reacted to the rejection didn’t sit well with The Bachelorette viewers, who had a lot to say about it on social media.
Sam McKinney called out for his behavior on The Bachelorette
The way Sam M responded to Jenn’s questions and when she sent him home was pretty poor. Prior to this, he was easily a frontrunner for Bachelor, but after this episode, we can see why casting chose Grant Ellis instead — and possibly why they announced him so early, too.
The Bachelorette viewers were less than impressed and quickly took to social media to air Sam out after his exit.
One X user summed it up nicely, writing, “Sam is the type of guy that will aggressively hit on you at the bar, but then when you politely decline, he turns around and calls you ugly and says he ‘wasn’t interested anyway.'”
Another wrote, “me sending sam home myself after he told jenn she’s not his type and he thought daisy or maria would be the bachelorette.”
Another viewer shared their discomfort, writing, “Sam grabbing Jenn and literally forcing her to make out with him after he completely fumbled the bag when she asked him why he likes her, was honestly the most uncomfortable thing I’ve ever seen on this show…”
Sam McKinney accused of being a player
When Sam McKinney became a frontrunner on The Bachelorette, his exes started coming out of the woodwork.
While he was busy making out with Jenn, we learned that Sam broke up with a woman he was seeing right before heading out to film the show.
Additionally, the fiancee that he spoke about on the show also popped up. She told Reality Steve that they did split due to her infidelity, but it’s not how Sam made it seem on the show.
Instead, she claimed that she and Sam were still involved with each other for months after the cheating incident, only permanently calling off their relationship early in 2024, just months before he left to film and overlapping with his situationship with the other woman.
The Bachelorette airs on Mondays at 8/7c on ABC.