The record of long-lasting love is a bit of a heart breaker for America’s darling of reality romance shows, The Bachelor.
If finding love on camera seems close to impossible maybe that’s because it is. Competitive reality TV dating is hard.
Just ask the 20 bachelors who’ve vied for the attention of swooning women since the show’s inception in March 2002.
In 20 seasons of The Bachelor, 12 men have popped the question on air, which is a solid 60% of couples who came out of the show engaged.
However, relationships start to fall apart when the cameras disappear: Only two of the 20 couples are still together, one of whom is married.
Season 17 winners Sean Lowe and Catherine Guidici got married in 2014 and recently celebrated the birth of their first child. Success!
Season 20 winners Ben Higgins and Lauren Bushnell are currently enjoying their engagement.
Hopefully, their new reality spin-off show will still send them happily down the aisle and not running for the hills.
It still seems like yesterday the young Missouri banker Aaron Buerge got down on one knee and proposed to adorable school psychologist Helene Eksterowicz in 2002.
The proposal was the first for the show as the winners in the inaugural season did not become engaged.
Long before DVR, social media, iPhones and Kardashian takeover, and way before ABC offered virtual reality (VR) experiences online, The Bachelor was starting to form a match-making empire that quickly evolved into the creation of The Bachelorette in January 2003. (The Bachelorette took a three-year hiatus between 2005-2008.) Then along came the trashier if not entertaining spin-offs, aka Bachelor in Paradise and Bachelor Pad.
The Bachelorette has also yielded a much better success rate than Bachelor in terms of the couple staying together after the show ended.
In 12 seasons, five couples are still together – a 42% commitment rate.
The very first season brought us sweethearts Trista Rehn and Ryan Sutter, who’ve been married almost 13 years. They are the king & queen of reality television romance.
Here are the others.
Season 7 winners Ashley Hebert and J.P. Rosenbaum are married and expecting their second child.
Season 9’s Desiree Hartsock and husband Chris Siegfried are having a baby this fall.
The most recent couples are Season 11’s Kaitlyn Bristowe and Shawn Booth and Season 12’s JoJo Fletcher and Jordan Rodgers.
We’ll see if those two couples go the distance to the altar.
As in real life, not just TV, relationships, dating, love and marriage don’t always work out.
If dreams are dashed along the way because someone is looking for 15 minutes of fame and not love, the success rate is probably even lower.
Add a mix of personality types that only reality TV attracts and a bunch of booze that’s readily available, and you start to see some mental health issues that TV is famous for.
But all that is just a buzzkill.
Here’s to the success of the next Bachelor Nick Viall!
May he find “the one.”
After countless tries, he deserves happily-ever happiness.
We all do.
Here’s the complete list of Bachelor and Bachelorette winner history and their record of keeping it all together after the end of the show:
THE BACHELOR Couples:
Season 1
Alex Michel and Amanda Marsh- Not Together
Season 2
Aaron Buerge and Helene Eksterowicz- Not Together
Season 3
Andrew Firestone and Jen Schefft- Not Together
Season 4
Bob Guiney and Estella Gardinier- Not Together
Season 5
Jesse Palmer and Jessica Bowlin- Not Together
Season 6
Byron Velvick and Mary Delgado- Not Together
Season 7
Charlie O’Connell and Sarah Brice- Not Together
Season 8
Travis Lane Stork and Sarah Stone- Not Together
Season 9
Lorenzo Borghese and Jennifer Wilson- Not Together
Season 10
Andrew Baldwin and Tessa Horst- Not Together
Season 11
Brad Womack and no one (sad trombone)
Season 12
Matt Grant and Shayne Lamas- Not Together
Season 13
Jason Mesnick and Melissa Rycroft- Not Together
Season 14
Jake Pavelka and Vienna Girardi- Not Together
Season 15
Brad Womack and Emily Maynard- Not Together
Season 16
Ben Flajnik and Courtney Robertson- Not Together
Season 17
Sean Lowe and Catherine Giudici – STILL TOGETHER
Season 18
Juan Pablo Galavis and Nikki Ferrell
Season 19
Chris Soules and Whitney Bischoff
Season 20
Ben Higgins and Lauren Bushnell -STILL TOGETHER
Season 21
Nick Viall and TBD
THE BACHELORETTE Couples:
Season 1
Trista Rehn and Ryan Sutter- STILL TOGETHER
Season 2
Meredith Phillips and Ian Mckee- Not Together
Season 3
Jen Schefft and Jerry Ferris- Not Together
Season 4
DeAnna Pappas and Jesse Csincsak- Not Together
Season 5
Jillian Harris and Ed Swiderski- Not Together
Season 6
Ali Fedotowsky and Roberto Martinez- Not Together
Season 7
Ashley Hebert and J.P. Rosenbaum- STILL TOGETHER
Season 8
Emily Maynard and Jef Holm- Not Together
Season 9
Desiree Hartsock and Chris Siegfried- STILL TOGETHER
Season 10
Andi Dorfman and Josh Murray- Not Together
Season 11
Kaitlyn Bristowe and Shawn Booth- STILL TOGETHER
Season 12
JoJo Fletcher and Jordan Rodgers- STILL TOGETHER
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in the world. You can write for us.
Cover Photo Credit: The Bachelor/ Facebook
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Cable News Is Dying And We Should Hope For A Swift Death
As a multimedia journalism student I should hope for the success of cable news.
After a steady decline in average viewership, the 2016 election cycle seems to have brought prime-time and overall viewership back into an upward swing.
Both revenue and newsroom spending for cable news has also steadily increased, a good sign for my personal post-graduation job prospects.
Local affiliate stations offer hyper-local news programs that provide information I’d be hard-pressed to find anywhere besides my local newspaper.
But I’m most likely to get my news online, just like 50% of my fellow millennials.
As someone who has friends and former co-workers in the cable news business, I wouldn’t wish for their stations and programs to be shut down.
But regardless of the statistics, advantages of the format and my friends in the industry, I firmly believe we’d be better off without cable news-at least in its current form.
I haven’t watched cable television since the Super Bowl and before that I only watched cable news for election night.
Most of the political coverage and debates were streamed online and I found no reason to stick around to get “expert analysis” from CNN, MSNBC or Fox News commentators.
While President Trump’s rise to power has been entertaining, his hyperbolic comments on the death of the media has fueled him and the industry he has targeted.
Still, the modern cable news program seems to serve no greater purpose than react to whatever crazy statement the Trump administration said that day.
The visual aspect of storytelling cable news used to have over newspapers and magazines has now been eclipsed by internet based news sites.
Cable news is looking as outdated as black and white in today’s world. Photo Credit: John Atherton/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
Publications like Now This and TheBlaze have risen to prominence across Facebook and Twitter feeds for their easily digestible video content and controversial program hosts like Tomi Lahren.
Even the traditional cable news networks offer convenient links to the same videos and articles they talk about on television through their social media and online websites.
In a world of instant gratification through the internet, there’s simply no reason to watch cable news programs that require you to wade through the muck just to find the content you’re looking for.
One could argue that this new age of news is shortening our attention spans and encouraging the “rush to be first” breaking news mentality that stimulates inaccuracies.
But I would argue that news is headed this direction no matter what format we get our news.
The days of standardized local news “stand-up” stories and CNN pitting a panel of Trump and Clinton supporters against each other has done nothing but push me away.
I’m annoyed and exhausted with news programs that are driven through controversy for the sake of profits and attracting advertisers.
In an ideal world, I see the media being funded on a subscription basis, one that would allow the stories to be told without the outside influence of ads and sponsored products in-between every story.
Platforms like Patreon.com already provide a way for me to directly fund entertainment and programs I enjoy, while also giving me the power to influence the type of stories and content my favorite creators make.
This subscription based funding of media doesn’t facilitate a bright future for cable news, but then again neither does our current path of news digestion.
A 9-year-old with a smartphone and Facebook live can be considered a journalist.
Youtubers and vloggers can accrue larger daily audiences than many cable news programs.
Whether this is good or bad for the industry as a whole is a matter of perspective.
From my perspective, despite recent increases in viewership, cable news is on the way out.
Once the presidency of Donald Trump ends, cable news will become stale and ratings will settle into another plateau before declining again.
The journalism industry as a whole and those who engage in the content produced from it would be better off if the death of cable news was expedited.
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in the world. You can write for us.
Cover Photo Credit: Steven Depolo/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
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Totally Ethnik: The African Fashion Brand That Is Proud To Be Both African And “Ethnic”
By Nate Nkumbu
When people think of fashion in Sub-Saharan Africa, they often think of clothing that is passed down from family members or hand me downs donated by the West.
But one fashion brand from the continent seeks to change those Western notions.
Totally Ethnik is a fashion company based in Accra, Ghana and they are real path breakers.
As a brand, the company mostly makes their clothes from local sources coming from Ghana, Mali and the Ivory Coast.
According to Totally Ethnik’s public relations representative Marie Kipre, the main force behind the clothing line is for their looks to be as real as they can be to the cultural identity of Ghana.
“We keep our clothing as ethnic as possible,” Kipre said in an email to RISE NEWS. “We use wax prints [a] lot however, we fuse it with other fabric depending on the idea we want to portray with each piece.”
Kipre said that the company don’t deal with many problems being a being a fashion brand based in Africa.
However, she did say that the biggest obstacle that they face is getting the product to the global market.
“Our designs are authentic and truly ethnic making our clients satisfied anytime they wear our clothes,” Kipre said. “Our challenge is being able to get our clothing to other countries and be able to secure chain shops that will be interested in stocking our cloths.”
According to the World Bank, Ghana is the 114th most difficult business climate in the world with very high import and export costs and a difficult trade relationship with other countries in the region including Nigeria.
But despite some of these structural difficulties, Totally Ethnik is plugging ahead and making progress into being a widely known fashion brand.
“African fashion has been accepted all over world now and continues to grow and Totally Ethnik as a brand is one that people will love to be associated with,” Kipre said.
To learn more about Totally Ethnik, you can visit their website: http://www.totally-ethnik.com
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in public affairs. You can write for us.
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Misterwives Releases New Song After Long Wait
By Annika Dahlgren
If you’ve heard of American Authors, Twenty-One Pilots, or even X Ambassadors, you’re bound to have heard about MisterWives, one of the latest bands to steal the ears of many young people.
Their hit “Reflections” is easily recognized, but the song “Coffins” was most people’s first introduction to the band.
Misterwives. Photo Credit: Abby Gillardi/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
Lead singer Mandy Lee is the only woman in this alternative/Indie pop band joined by percussionist Etienne Bowler, bass guitarist William Hehir, guitarist Marc Campbell, and multi-instrumentalist Jesse Blum.
Read More: Can The 1975 Change The Music Industry As We Know It?
The band formed in 2012 and began performing in a small venue called the Canal Room in New York City.
The day after their performance, Photo Finish Records signed the band, and immediately they began work on their first EP, Reflections.
Since then, MisterWives has gained recognition for opening for Twenty-One Pilots and performing for MTV, VH1, and Jimmy Kimmel Live.
On February 17, their latest single “Machine” was released as a preview for their second album that will arrive later this year.
MisterWives is definitely a band you need to check out if you haven’t already.
Their unique sounds is mesmerizing, and you’ll get hooked immediately.
This is one of the up-and-coming bands that is going to become a household name, just wait and see.
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in the world. You can write for us.
Cover Photo Credit: Abby Gillardi/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
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