Entertainment

Did Ratings For 'The Bachelor' Change?

by Lia Beck

It seemed like a sure thing that The Bachelor would have fewer viewers after Juan Pablo Galavis' recent controversial comments. It seemed inevitable that even if fans weren't going to boycott the show for good, that surely a few of them would have reservations and maybe skip this week's episode, but that wasn't the case. Last night's episode of The Bachelor had nearly the same ratings as it did the week before. You know, last week, when the world was a more innocent place and Juan Pablo was still perfect (aside from being crazy enough to go on a reality show) in the eyes of America.

Last night's Bachelor drew in 7.8 million viewers which was only slightly lower than the previous week which bought in 7.9 million. The show also won it's time slot among viewers ages 18-34.

So the question is, why was this the case? Did it seem like more people were outraged than there actually were because the people who cared were the ones who tended to speak out about it online? That's probably true. Anyone who didn't care about Juan Pablo's comments one way or another, probably wouldn't have gone out of their way to say so. Did viewers decide that the show was already ridiculous and barely "reality" so their opinions of Juan Pablo didn't matter anyway? That's possible too. Or maybe enough people "hate watch" this thing that his comments just added in another factor. It could be his apologies actually had an effect and fans chose to believe that Juan Pablo really misspoke.

Regardless of what made people tune in, they still did and they likely still will for the rest of the season. If anti-gay comments couldn't keep viewers away, then maybe nothing can.