'The Bachelor' Drinking Game



Monday saw the premiere of the 17th and latest season of 'The Bachelor' on ABC.  If the premise is unfamiliar to you, it's a dating reality show in which a single bachelor chooses a potential wife from a pool of romantic interests.  Conflicts, hostilities, tears and joy arise from the elimination-style competition and some twists the producers throw in.  The show's immensely popular; it's been running for ten years and consistently ascends near the top of the Nielsen ratings.  It also has a large budget for roses.

When the show airs between 8:00 - 9:00 p.m., I'm usually watching The 'Daily Show with Jon Stewart' and 'The Colbert Report'.  But a couple of years ago, my girlfriend convinced me to watch the last three episodes of season 15, the one with returning bachelor Brad Womack and his future ex-fiancee Emily Maynard.  Beautiful people.  Beautiful shots in beautiful places where you'd expect people to fall in love like Catalina Island, Las Vegas and Costa Rica.  And fall in love they did, insistantly saying so in flat vocal inflections people naturally use in romantic situations like when getting an estimate from a mechanic or testifying in court.

Then I noticed the word "scared".  The contestants said it a lot to each other and in comments in private interviews.  One woman was scared of Brad's intentions, another scared to be alone with him, a third one scared to be vulnerable, and yet another scared if this was love or merely infatuation.  Brad was scared to meet one lady's family, scared to be a potential stepfather, and scared of leading anyone on.  Any of them could have meant they were excited, ebullient, elated, empathetic, hopeful,  hesitant,  nervous, optimistic, pessimistic, doubtful, thrilled or uncertain; but back in junior high, you know, "scared" about covered it all.  It gave me an idea.  I grabbed a Blue Moon and bottle of Chivas from the kitchen and we turned the word into a drinking game.  Each time someone on the show used the s-word we knocked one back.  (Kudos to the contestant who said "frightened" but it is a synonym for "scared" and commanded we drink.)  By the end of the show, we were scared of driving anywhere.

I checked parts of Monday's two-hour season premiere online.  It's "game on" in the second hour and presumably the rest of the season.  Try it for yourself.  You may find it makes the show so good it's scary.