“The Bachelor” is in hot water, and I don’t mean the infamous Jacuzzi. While the show was built on the premise of promising proposals when it premiered in 2002, a contestant’s future with this season’s bachelor Juan Pablo Galavis seems bleak.

This season, the prince has stopped being charming.

Galavis’ inability to connect with contestants leaves a lot to be desired. In an episode on Feb. 25, a bachelorette proved every reality-rose has its thorn. A trip to the “fantasy suite” turned bitter when bachelorette Andi Dorfman stopped the fiery Latin lover’s advances cold in his tracks.

“Not once did he really ask anything about me,” Dorfman told the cameras.

In a confrontation with Galavis, Dorfman questioned the bachelor’s sincerity. “Do you have any idea what religion I practice? What are my political views?” To be fair, Galavis has been portrayed as to not ask much, but maybe even he knows these are the two topics never to be discussed on primetime television.

Dorfman didn’t care. She exited leaving not even a shadow of a doubt.

“I’m not unsure. I know he’s not the one.”

Many applauded her departure, and some even believe Dorfman left such an impression on audiences that she could be the next Bachelorette. That speculation will be put to rest when the official announcement is made after “The Final Rose” on Mar. 11.

Dorfman isn’t the first revolutionary to balk at the idea that Galavis is Juan-in-a million. Contestants this season are dropping faster than flies — Sharlene Joynt also left the show of her own volition. She decided she and Galavis lacked the cerebral connection she deeply desired.

As “The Bachelor” franchise is built on a rock hard foundation of washboard abs, Joynt should be applauded for being able to decipher between lust and love.

“It’s so hard not to kiss him when I’m close to him that it disturbs me,” Joynt said on the seventh episode. “It makes me worry about what’s propelling me.”

Though their palpable chemistry could not be dumbed down, Joynt eventually smartened up.

Dorfman and Joynt aren’t the only ones to reject the bachelor this season. E! reported on Feb. 27 that inside sources from ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars” said Galavis was axed from the line up following his comments about gay people.

In a Jan. 17 interview with The TV Page, Galavis said he didn’t think having them on the franchise would be “a good example for kids to watch that on TV.”

Galavis continued, “It seems to be, I don’t know if I’m mistaken or not — I have a lot of friends like that, but they’re more perverted in a sense.”

Galavis has since used platforms like “Good Morning America” and Facebook to apologize for what he chalks up to be a language barrier.

“What I meant to say was that gay people are more affectionate and intense and for a segment of the TV audience this would be too racy to accept,” he wrote on his Facebook in January.

Which is odd, because public affection is one thing Galavis’ could use more of. On the show and off, his efforts seem lost in translation. If the show’s casting agents were less concerned with the measurements of a man versus the make of him, the wedding count of the franchise might be higher.

Erin Jensen is a graduate student in broadcast and digital journalism. Her column appears weekly. You can reach her at ejense01@syr.edu or on Twitter at @erinrjensen.

 

Published on March 6, 2014 at 1:00 am