Will the New Bachelor Break the Break-up Cycle?

Will the New Bachelor Break the Break-up Cycle? by Roxanne McDonald

Can U.S. Navy Lieutenant Andy Baldwin, M.D. break up the break-up cycle?

The new bachelor, who will appear on The Bachelor in the spring of 2007, is Andy Baldwin. He is a U.S. Navy lieutenant. He is an undersea medical officer. He is a world-class triathlete. And he, as all the other bachelors have proclaimed, is looking for true and everlasting love.

Will Baldwin have the balds (ahem) to do what the others haven’t been able to do—sustain a loving relationship with a woman found on a reality TV show?

Season 1’s Alex Michel couldn’t (or wouldn’t) do it: the handsome management consultant who played guinea pig for The Bachelor’s first season, really, was evidently not sure of whom he wanted. According to the NY Post, TV Guide, and Reality TV World, for starters, Michel “continued to carry a torch for Trista Rehn, though he gave the final rose to the younger Amanda Marsh. Michel also continued a clandestine relationship with Rehn. When Marsh found out about this, she dumped him. One down.
Season 2’s Aaron Buerge couldn’t (or wouldn’t) do it: the VP of a chain of family-owned banks was a bit callous in his choice of dumping grounds, breaking it off with fiancé Helene Eksterowicz at a Starbucks, an act which with many others was aired in a “tell-all” episode on ABC that same year (2003)—a show which was so hot and alluring it pulled more viewers than Survivor that night.

Season 3’s Andrew Firestone couldn’t do it - sales manager of Firestone Family estates had a decent run with his chosen Bachelorette, Jen Schefft, had an amicable breakup. Two months after they split (in 2004), Firestone was on business in Chicago (where Jen had returned when they parted)…and reportedly looked up Schefft. There was rumor they might reconcile, but…
eunited when Firestone visited Chicago to appear at the city’s Auto Show event. While in the Windy City, Firestone looked up Schefft (who moved back to Chicago from San Francisco after their relationship ended in December)
Season 4’s Bob Guiney couldn’t do it (directly): the entertaining and overweight contender on The Bachelorette (vying for Trish’s now utterly smitten heart) had lost weight, gotten lots of responses to his losing to Ryan White, and became the one who got away in a different sense. In the most controversial of seasons (or with the most controversial of choices), the creator of a mortgage company had given a “promise” ring to his chosen Estella Gardinier, but broke it all off with her—over the phone—after the couple attended Trish and Ryan’s wedding.

But Guiney was also seeking a music career and seeking that true love he had intimated was possible (wink-wink) in someone else: Rebecca Budig. Budig is now an actress starring on the ABC soap opera, All My Children, but earlier was the host of ABC’s The Bachelor: Aaron and Helene Tell All, the wrap-up show after The Bachelor 2, as well as of the ABC Family Channel rebroadcasts of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette – where, Reality TV Magazine reports, Bob met her, in January 2003, prior to committing to The Bachelor 4.

Season 5’s Jesse Palmer couldn’t do it: the then Giants’ quarterback had given his final rose to Jessica Bowlin, but within a few short months (by June of 2004) was saying to Extra, as reported by Reality TV Magazine, how “Jessica and I shared an incredible romantic journey on the show that began with a friendship that remains strong today. We simply realized that, individually, our next steps take us in different directions.” And according to his bride-not-to-be, “With too much distance and too little time these were not ideal circumstances in which to start a relationship.” Palmer went on to focus on his football and Bowlin to finish her law school studies.

Maybe, just maybe, Season 6’s Byron Velvick will be able to do it: the beautiful naturalist and professional bass fisherman chose and proposed to Mary Delgado. The two are “scheduled” to marry—and become the first married couple from The Bachelor.

Season 7’s Charlie O’Connell couldn’t do it (all the way, anyway): the actor, or the one better known as brother to actor Jerry O’Connell, had a hard enough time “breaking up” with the runner-up, Krisily Kennedy. But the nice guy not only made unprecedented moves on The Bachelor by informing the producers and then the two final women that he wanted to

“continue dating both of them in the ‘real world’ before making his decision, but told his chosen bachelorette, on a special edition episode, Sarah Brice, “It’s so great to finally see you and it just be us and nobody else. I love you and I just think you’re the best person in the world and I promise you that I will be the greatest boyfriend you’ve ever [have]….” BOYfriend? Well, I guess that will have to do for now, then. After all, let’s give the couple credit: she is moving to L.A. from LA to be with him full time—even if that is not marriage time.

Season 8’s Travis Stork couldn’t do it: the ER doctor and his chosen gal, Sara Stone from Tennessee, were supposedly “seen” way in advance of the final airing of The Bachelor Paris; then they were rumored to have been going their separate ways; then, within only a couple of months of the finale (March 2006) were reported by WKRN-TV, Nashville’s local ABC affiliate (according to Reality TV World), to have separated.

And while we are not yet sure if Season 9’s Prince Lorenzo Borghese can do it, he did seem less than confident, less than 100% sure—only giving Jennifer Wilson the ring as a token of love (as a kind of sort of er promise ring?) and not as an actual engagement ring.

Maybe it is not that they men have not had the gift of great relating; maybe it didn’t and doesn’t matter how much class they have, had, or didn’t…. Maybe it is fate and numbers (odds) the whole time, anyway.

According to a Reality TV Magazine exclusive interview with The Bachelor’s host, Chris Harrison, the chances are as good on the reality TV show as they are in any real-life environment. When Reality TV Magazine asked, “A lot of the romances on The Bachelor & The Bachelorette don’t seem to work out in the long run. Why do you think this is?” Harrison replied that it’s “just the odds I think. We’ve done 11 seasons now and we have a marriage (Trista and Ryan), and a wedding on the way (Byron and Mary).”

“We’ve had several couples stay together for over a year and seriously try to make it work but relationships just don’t work out in the long run that often. I think there’s a higher standard for these couples because of the spotlight and people expect more but the facts of life are it just doesn’t happen that often. But when it does it makes for a great show.”

That it does, Chris, that it does.

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