The Bachelor season 28 has been a fascinating look at production interference, which has proven that the series often tries to trick its viewers by forcing drama between cast members. As one of the longest-running reality TV dating series, The Bachelor has always been known for its fairy-tale romances and intense drama but maintains that what happens between the contestants is organic. Despite having producers involved in the storylines, the romances seen on The Bachelor are supposed to be real. Unfortunately, viewers have noticed production interference in most seasons of the show, and it’s been far more prevalent in the most recent season. With Joey Graziadei as the lead, The Bachelor season 28 has been an interesting look at what’s genuine and what’s not on the series. From Joey’s initial time on Charity Lawson’s season of The Bachelorette where he was framed as the unlucky in love but sweet contestant who was terrified of being alone to his time as the lead, Joey’s appearance on the series has been plagued by production cutting in.

The Bachelor, which began airing in 2002, has become a cultural phenomenon that has inspired an entire genre of reality TV comprised of countless other shows. The premier series in reality TV dating, The Bachelor has paired dozens of couples and has built several lasting marriages, but the show hasn’t always been able to bridge the gap between reality and production interference. Throughout the early seasons of the series, viewers didn’t realize just how heavily production was moving the show along. Though there have always been producers in reality TV, specifically on The Bachelor, to make things flow, in the earliest seasons of the series it was somewhat less obvious because viewers weren’t as versed in reality TV as a concept. Producers have always been part of The Bachelor franchise, but their role has grown exponentially throughout the years. Pushing storylines and narratives they think will be interesting for the audience, producers have changed the way The Bachelor is viewed and critiqued.

While it’s not new to see producers create storylines that the cast members follow along with, the producers on The Bachelor have taken things a step further nearly every season. Creating tension between the contestants and pushing the narrative the lead has built through their past season of the show, producers on The Bachelor create drama where there may not have been a need to. Though reality TV requires a drama-driven plot, the production of The Bachelor sometimes feels like a way to trick the audience into believing a narrative that never truly existed. Producers push feuds between contestants and make them more prominent to drive the story forward, prolong relationships that the lead likely would’ve cut off earlier, and generally make it clear that they don’t believe the love story that they’re building between the lead and his ultimate final choice is enough to bring the show together. With reality TV changing its landscape year after year, the blatant production trickery on The Bachelor has been difficult for viewers to wrap their minds around, especially during Joey’s journey as The Bachelor.

10Bachelor Producers Had Lea Cayanan Join ATFR To Meet Joey

Her Appearance Wasn’t Organic

During The Bachelorette: After The Final Rose, Joey was introduced as the new Bachelor and after an interview with host Jesse Palmer, had the opportunity to meet his first contestant. While this is a newer convention on The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, it’s something that fans are polarized on, as many find the first meeting during the live event to be inorganic and unfair to the rest of the women in the cast of the season. Regardless, Joey got the opportunity to meet Lea Cayanan during the After The Final Rose special, and the pair got the opportunity to talk, getting rid of some of the jitters they felt surrounding being on The Bachelor and live TV in general. While Joey’s meeting with Lea was brief, it did give her an advantage both literally, in the form of a card she’d get to open on her first night in the mansion, and figuratively, in that she got the opportunity to be the first woman in Joey’s mind. Production’s choice to have Lea meet Joey before anyone else was meant to create drama, but added to the inauthenticity of the season.

9Casting Lauren Hollinger & Allison Hollinger Was A Played Out Gimmick

The Sisters Didn’t Make Waves

The Bachelor is known for some unconventional casting choices, having gone through an era in the late mid-to-late 2010s where they chose to make decisions surrounding casting they felt would bring shock value over actual quality. The casting of The Bachelor is integral to the series in a way that it wouldn’t be to some other shows, as the lead typically doesn’t live in Los Angeles where the series begins to film, while the contestants are from all over North America. Casting matters, and not just because building a successful relationship that starts off long-distance can be difficult. The show’s casting team has done quite a bit of stunt casting in the last several years but has pulled the card of sisters cast on the same season in the past, during The Bachelor season 20. Inviting sisters to Joey’s season, the casting of Lauren Hollinger and her sister Allison Hollinger was a low-stakes gimmick that viewers didn’t enjoy. Seeing two siblings competing for the same guy wasn’t interesting or exciting, but it was somewhat creepy. The choice from production to put two sisters into the running together backfired quickly and was an obvious play for more drama.

8Lea Cayanan’s Opening Night Card Caused Drama

It Was Planted By Production

During Lea’s first meeting with Joey on The Bachelorette: After The Final Rose, she was given a card and told that she wasn’t allowed to open it before her first night in the Bachelor mansion. Excited and nervous, Lea listened to the rules and kept the card safe, not opening it until she’d arrived at the mansion. This was an unprecedented twist on The Bachelor, as contestants rarely if ever get advantages to help them in the “competition” aspect of the series, and they rarely get the chance to privately wield power in the group. Lea’s card had an advantage in it, giving her the power to take someone else’s date away so she could spend more time with Joey. The card itself created drama within Lea, who struggled with the fact that she had the advantage and chose to tell the rest of the women in The Bachelor season 28 cast. The drama surrounding the card was huge on the first night in the mansion, and the ploy itself was so clearly a trick created by production to cause tension in the group, but viewers found it to be a letdown.

7Maria Georgas Seemed To Originally Be Getting A Villain Edit

She Turned Into A Fan Favorite On The Series

Viewers of The Bachelor understand how the editing of the show works, as the production team has to edit the series blind and deal with fan reactions to the series later on. Typically, it’s obvious who the production team has chosen as the villain of the season early on, as there are some specific qualities to villains that become easy to spot after watching a few seasons of the series. The producers behind the show create drama surrounding the villain, who usually has a decent connection with the lead so they can stick around for a decent amount of time to move the story forward. During The Bachelor season 28, there were several contenders for the villain pick, including Maria Georgas. Many felt that Maria was edited to be the villain of the series from early on, which made it difficult to know if she was genuine or not. Once Maria’s true colors began to shine through, it was clear production was positioning her for a villain edit, but she became a favorite instead.

6Sydney Gordon’s Feud With Maria Seemed To Be Spurred By Production

Some Wonder If She Was Kept Around For More Drama

Feuds are common on both The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, especially early in the season before too many of the contestants have been eliminated. The drama in the early parts of the season typically revolves around one cast member getting the villain edit, and the rest of the group working together to push them out of the running on the series. During The Bachelor season 18, the feud between Maria and Sydney Gordon heated up quickly after Maria’s response to Madina Alam’s insecurities about her age struck a nerve with Sydney. The issues between the women pushed viewers to try and decipher if Sydney was a contestant planted on the series by production to stir up drama, and many still wonder if she was. Sydney’s time on The Bachelor became entirely about her plans to destroy Maria’s chances, and veered away from her relationship with Joey entirely until her elimination on a contrived two-on-one date with her so-called enemy.

5Lea Cayanan Was Edited To Be A Villain After Sydney’s Exit

She Likely Wasn’t Villainous At All

While Lea was positioned as a front-runner early on by producers, when Sydney was eliminated from the series and with Maria winding up a fan-favorite on the series, the production team needed a new villain who could make things difficult for the rest of the women in the competition. Lea stepped up to the plate, taking up Sydney’s feud with Maria after the original villain was eliminated. While Lea had originally been edited to seem like a warm, sweet woman vying for Joey’s heart, her villain edit was less interesting for viewers to watch. While it was clear that Lea was interested in Joey, the fact that she went from being a kind, sweet contestant to a full-blown villain in the matter of an episode was clearly at the hands of production. Despite knowing that Lea had her issues with some of the other women, she wasn’t cut-throat before Sydney’s departure. Lea’s elimination was satisfying but ultimately cost her reputation.

4Joey’s Hometowns Were Advertised To Make Maria’s Father Look Disapproving

In Reality, Maria’s Dad Was Welcoming

During the advertisements ahead of The Bachelor season 28’s hometown dates, Maria’s father was shown as being one of the most disapproving parents of the season. Making it seem like he wasn’t going to give Joey his permission to continue a relationship with his daughter, many viewers went into the hometown episode expecting Maria’s date to be one of the most difficult things to watch throughout the season. In order to shock viewers and make the episode seem more interesting than it actually was, Maria’s hometown was made to seem like it was horrible, but it wasn’t that at all. As the episode progressed, it became clear that Maria’s date was actually a far more positive experience. Skewing the viewer’s expectations was a ploy from production that made it clear they wanted their audience to come into the episode with preconceived notions regarding who would be staying around, and who would be going home.

3The Golden Bachelorette’s Interfered To Cause Drama For The Women

Joey’s Final 3 Each Met With A Different Woman

When the final 3 reached their fantasy suite dates, several of the contestants from The Golden Bachelor were brought in to talk to the women about their relationships with Joey and give them advice. The Bachelor was filming while The Golden Bachelor was on the air, so it was clear that Joey’s contestants weren’t aware of who the women were, but when Leslie Fhima, Sandra Mason, and Susan Noles arrived, they weren’t exactly keeping the peace. Leslie, in particular, was shown to make Kelsey Anderson nervous about the prospect of Joey turning her down at the final rose ceremony. After Leslie’s breakup with The Golden Bachelor’s Gerry Turner, it was clear that she was bringing some of her negative experiences into the conversation. The women’s appearances were meant to cause drama for the finalists, which was transparent throughout their time on The Bachelor. Leslie’s appearance leading to one of the dramatic cliffhangers for the series, where Kelsey left Joey a note that made him think she may decide to leave, was an obvious production ploy.

2Joey’s Final 3 Rose Ceremony Had A Misleading Edit

It Appears He May Have Chosen Kelsey Before Daisy

Joey’s second-to-last rose ceremony was edited to be purposefully misleading, pointing the viewers in the completely wrong direction to throw them off the scent of who Joey’s feelings were actually for. Throughout the season, viewers were pointed in the direction of Daisy Kent as the winner of the season. While the edit of the episodes was meant to make Daisy and Joey’s connection look strong, it was clear that their relationship wasn’t as strong as Joey and Kelsey’s. Throughout The Bachelor season 28, Joey and Kelsey had been building a strong relationship, but the production team wanted Joey and Daisy to seem like a bigger deal. In order to push the viewer into thinking Joey had left Kelsey waiting at the final rose ceremony before proposal day, the episode was edited to make it seem like Joey gave his first rose to Daisy, then his second rose to Kelsey. However, in the shot where Kelsey is coming up to the podium to get her rose, viewers were able to see another rose on the table behind Joey, which wouldn’t have been there if it was the final rose of the ceremony. Joey appears to have given the first rose to Kelsey, making Daisy wait, but the producers wanted it to seem like he was more connected to Daisy, instead.

1Joey’s Final Dates With Kelsey & Daisy Were Purposely Different

Production Made It Clear Who His Final Pick Was

During The Bachelor season 28’s final episode, there were dates between Joey and both of the final women that showed just how contrived the production team behind the show can be. In order to create a disconnect between Joey and Daisy that they could sell to the viewers, the pair were given a final date where they were purposefully unable to talk to each other. Without the ability to discuss what would come next in their relationship, the tension between Joey and Daisy built up and made Daisy uncomfortable. She understood that he wasn’t connecting with her in the same way he was connecting with Kelsey, but he wasn’t able to discuss it with her comfortably in the moment. In contrast, Joey’s final date with Kelsey was in a spa setting, allowing the pair to be touchy with each other and show their affection. Joey’s final date with Kelsey was full of reassurance, but he was only able to do so because he was set up in a situation where he wasn’t pushed to be silent. The Bachelor‘s producers pushed drama with the couples for one last moment, making it clear they’re able to interfere in any situation.