A crowd of thousands of people, decked out in their team’s colors, screams deafeningly as the soccer ball swooshes into the back of the goal. A girl excitedly adds another special edition poster of her idol to the growing collection covering the walls of her room. Long winding lines of people camp for hours outside their favorite clothing store so that they can be the first one inside the next morning. These people all have something in common: They’re dedicated fans, and senior Julia Vita can relate.
Eagerly grabbing a bag of pretzels every Monday night, Vita is one of thousands of fans of the American reality hit television shows “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette.”
Both are dating reality shows in which a male or female lead who is cast as the eligible bachelor or bachelorette has several romantic interests, and week after week they are eliminated until only one love interest remains.
When Vita was first introduced to these shows, she was hesitant about the competitive dating concept. She thought that it would be “fake,” a common assumption made about reality television.
A few of her friends had already become avid fans of the shows, however, and they convinced her to watch with them. Once Vita began watching the shows, she realized that her original assumptions were wrong.
“Once I got into the show, it didn’t really matter that some of the scenes may have been scripted. Obviously reality TV isn’t fully unscripted, but the show is entertaining and fun to watch,” Vita said.
For Vita, watching “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette” has become a social occasion for her and other seniors.
“My friends and I have these watch parties where we get together, eat food and watch the latest episode together,” she said. “Every time, we try to guess who’s going to get eliminated and we bet on who we think will end up winning. It’s so much fun to see whose guesses were actually correct.”
From this past season of “The Bachelorette,” Vita’s favorite person was Robby Hayes, who was eliminated in the final episode.
“I was disappointed [with] the outcome, but I'm really excited for the next season to start,” Vita said. “My friends and I will definitely be watching every episode together.”
