A new book has revealed shocking claims of ugly backstage antics and cruel manipulation that fueled the success of The Bachelor.
In Cue The Sun: The Invention of Reality TV, Pulitzer Prize-winning television critic Emily Nussbaum says contestants were chosen based on how likely they were to have a meltdown on camera, and were given alcohol to encourage unfiltered behavior.
Adding to the chaos on set, he writes, is that the show’s creator, Mike Fleiss, and executive producer, Lisa Levenson, both married, were having a thinly disguised affair.
He quotes casting director Marki Costello as saying that no woman was too out of place to play a bachelorette: “Unstable and pretty?” That’s gold.
She writes: ‘Costello created photo boards and mini-biographies, with vignettes that suggested qualities that might make women break down: “Daddy’s Little Girl,” “Recovering Anorexic,” “I’ve Just Been Dumped.”
A new book has revealed shocking claims about horrific behind-the-scenes antics and cruel manipulation that fueled the success of The Bachelor.
Alex Michel was the first bachelor. According to the book, women were encouraged to humiliate themselves in an attempt to impress him.
‘According to Costello’s account, Fleiss didn’t care as much about those backstories as the other higher-ups: he just wanted “small blondes with big tits.” (Fleiss denied caring about cup size, just “beautiful blondes.”)
And alcohol proved to be a crucial ingredient in the show’s success. Nussbaum recounts how, on the first day of shooting, the women were deliberately offered free drinks – and the results were messy.
“When the women arrived in their limousines for the first day of shooting, having drunk free champagne, they still had only a vague idea of how the show would work.
‘As there were no portable toilets, some of them ended up pulling up their evening dresses and urinating on the side of the road.
‘Inside the house, they were offered more drinks but no food, and when the food finally arrived (they were told the caterers had been fired), it was disgusting stuff: white bread with squeezed cheese and pickled cucumber. Unsurprisingly, it was quickly destroyed.
Rhonda Rittenhouse, a commercial real estate agent who was one of the first bachelorettes, recounted how trays of cocktails were constantly circulating, while refrigerators were always stocked with refills.
They were not forced to drink, but they had nothing else to do. Rhonda described feeling like a “caged rat.”
Alcohol turned out to be a crucial ingredient of the show. Nussbaum tells how, on the first day of filming, the women were deliberately offered free drinks, and the results were rocky.
Amanda and Michel were the first single couple, but after a few months they broke up.
Fleiss is said to have personally spent two hours coaxing Shannon to take off her robe and get into the hot tub.
Women were also encouraged to humiliate themselves, Nussbaum writes. On one occasion, they were convinced that belly dancing would impress the show’s bachelor, Alex Michel.
In another, producers encouraged Michel to ask Bachelorette Shannon Oliver how many people she’d had sex with, “even as she begged them to stop, worried her grandmother would watch the show, and eventually used her fingers to show him the number, placing her hand under the camera.”
And Fleiss is said to have personally spent two hours coaxing Shannon into taking off her robe and getting into the hot tub. “I wanted to know if we had cameras in the water,” he said.
In fact, getting one of the women to do crack became a game show within a game show, Nussbaum says. Scott Jeffress, the show’s supervising producer, described taking away $100 bills and rewarding producers for special achievements, such as making a little girl cry on camera. Levenson handed out Prada handbags to his favorite employees.
According to the book, drinking and smoking marijuana were also common among the crew.
“During the show’s early seasons, Fleiss smoked so much marijuana that he would put a towel under his office door,” Nussbaum writes.
He got drunk on tequila. The cast drank, the crew drank, the managers drank. This behavior was strategic, and to Fleiss, to some extent, he still felt that way when he looked back.
He said, referring to Levenson, that “she was probably right, that you had to drink with these people to get them to trust you, in those early days.”
But what added to the wild atmosphere on set was the fact that Fleiss and Levenson (both married to other people) were having an “open affair.”
“All the field producers were talking about how much they were playing in the limos,” one of the bachelorettes, Amanda Marsh, says in the book.
Ben Hatta, a development executive for the series, said it was “embarrassing and disappointing.”
In an interview with Nussbaum for the book, Fleiss said Levenson “was a very important person to me for a long time,” adding, “I was in a bad marriage.” Marriage without sex and without love. “I’m traveling the world with Lisa, doing a show about romance, and it was intoxicating.”
In 2019, Fleiss’ pregnant second wife, Laura Kaeppeler, accused him of domestic violence and pressuring her to have an abortion. Three months later, they reconciled.
Fleiss said Lisa Levenson “was a very important person to me for a long time,” adding, “I was in a bad marriage. Sexless, loveless marriage. I’m traveling the world with Lisa, doing a show about romance, and it was intoxicating.”
She said Levenson was “a smart, talented person” who “brought a feminine perspective and wasn’t ashamed of anything. I mean, she could go blatantly and tell someone to do this or say that… you know, she could cry when They ordered it! She’s a little crazy. And I’m a little crazy, so it was necessary.”
He paused before admitting, “We were partying.”
After 13 seasons of The Bachelor, Levenson left to oversee hits like MasterChef and Hell’s Kitchen.
Fleiss’s future was less stellar. She never had another hit and her personal life failed.
‘He divorced his first wife and then remarried; in 2019, his pregnant second wife, a former Miss America, accused him of domestic violence and pressuring her to have an abortion; and then, three months later, the two reconciled.
‘In 2023, he resigned from The Bachelor, following an internal investigation into allegations of racial discrimination.’
Indicate the sun: The invention of reality TV by Emily Nussbaum is published by Random House
