Just two days after the current
Bachelor season began airing, TV blogger Reality Steve revealed a slew of
spoilers about the show on his website, including which women would get roses and go on which dates, and ultimately who would receive the season's final rose, and possibly a proposal, from
Bachelor Jake Pavelka.
Claiming sources inside show production, Steve assures his readers that these spoilers are accurate, and so far, five episodes into the season, his predictions have come to pass.
Entertainment Weekly spoke with
Bachelor executive producer Mike Fleiss about these major show spoilers, and how they affect the show:
"That's something that kind of bugs us." he said. But on the other hand, "In some ways, it's just more promotion. We would like to find out [who his source is]."
Fleiss said the show has dished out major cash in the past to track down inside sources: "We spent a lot of money and we hired these guys from the Israeli secret service to shake down people and look at phone records and stuff like that. We ultimately found out who it was. That person no longer works for us."
But, for some reason, Fleiss has not gone to these extreme measures to smoke out Reality Steve's
Bachelor source(s). Instead, he told EW, "We would love to know if anyone knows [who the source is]. I'm offering a $25 reward!"
EW also spoke to Reality Steve (aka Steve Carbone), who says his tipsters "just fell into my lap."
Steve explained that while he doesn't enjoy reading spoilers about other shows, he likes to "one up"
The Bachelor simply because he can. Many of his blog posts seek to enlighten
Bachelor viewers about instances of fabrication and misinformation presented on the "reality show."
"I
don't go looking for this stuff, it comes to me because I'm willing to
throw the show under the bus."
Steve told EW that he's never
received a complaint from ABC or Fleiss, and that his spoilers clearly aren't affecting
The Bachelor's popularity, which explains Fleiss's non-chalant attitude about plugging the leak.
"I spilled everything about this season on
Jan. 6, and I don't think the ratings have suffered," Steve told
EW. "People are still
watching because they want to see it play out."
If anything, Steve's information seems to have a positive net effect on
The Bachelor's ratings. Last year, he tipped off readers that then
Bachelor Jason Mesnick would first propose to Melissa Rycroft and then dump her for runner-up Molly Malaney on his season's shocking
After the Final Rose special. The special still garnered 17.5 million viewers last March.
And the ratings for Jake Pavelka's
The Bachelor: On the Wings of Love--also boosted by the
juicy gossip about rumored final choice Vienna Girardi--are enjoying an upswing as the season heads toward its finale. This past Monday's episode grew by 200,000 viewers, for a total
of 11.7 million, a season high.