The Bachelor-Could This Series Be the Inspiration for Speed Dating? Update Leading Up to Home Town Dates

Looking coy and cute so Ben will pick me.

Final Four Home Town Date Looms

So Ben's down to four contenders for his heart and I've some thoughts. The four final gals, who will be visited by Ben in their home towns with their families also meeting Ben, are: Courney, Rachel, Lindzi and Kacie B. I think that Kacie will be Ben's chosen love, indeed I am pretty sure about it.

It's very obvious to me that Ben likes Kacie and silly me, I think she's the best choice for him.

Courtney is but a product of scripting, that "bad guy" who shows up on every Bachelor/Bachelorette series to fool the series' star and leave all the contenders flummoxed as to how to alert the Bachelor(ette) without coming off as childish and jealous. The TV viewers are thus watching the drama unfold of the contender who does not love the series' star and see the Bachelor(ette) continually be fooled. Keeps the audience tuned in to see when the series' star gets a clue.

I do not for one second see Rachel going anywhere with Ben. There seems to be no chemistry between the two and I am surprised that she's still around. I suppose Ben had to choose SOMEBODY to fill the final four slot and Rachel was one of his choices.

As for Lindzi, I don't sense any chemistry between her and Ben either. Lindzi, I am guessing, is being groomed to be the next Bachelorette.

So I stuck my neck out with my prediction. I suspect that Ben chose Kacie several episodes ago and since then it's all been scripting/trying to fool the audience. We shall, of course, see.

Now I ponder the concept of the Bachelor(ette) series and its relationship to the new dating method called speed dating. Online dating is almost the norm today, of course, but even with a wider world of opportunities available to those looking to meet someone online, it still requires quite a bit of time invested to cull out the unsuitable from the maybes from the best bets.

Speed dating makes me smile and I wonder if the concept didn't, in some form or fashion, spring from ABC's famed Bachelor(ette) series. Consider the group date.

The way speed dating works, as my limited exposures believes, is that a bunch of would-be suitors are seated at waiting tables. The person seeking a dating possibility but without all the bother of first and second dates, goes from table to table and within a pre-set time period, stopped by a loud buzzer, the person considering the options moves from table to table.

I've been single a time or two in my life and while I imagine this deviation from the dating norm would be met with horror from old-timers used to some romantic notion of a soft knock at the door, a tenderly proffered rose, gently opened car doors, small talk….the stuff that makes meeting grow to an increased interest on to passionate love on to a lifetime commitment. I say phooey.

I could tell within five minutes if I was interested in a fellow or not and didn't need a long and boring first date to so determine. Night clubs kind of offered these quick meet opportunities but the noise and restless crowd really put a damper and filter on things.


The notion of a medium between the hectic pace of a night club and the boring tone of a first date with one very ill-suited would seem to me to be a speed date type of scenario.

One must bring one's greatest helping of self-esteem I must suppose because it's not all that easy to talk to someone for five minutes only to be summarily rejected just as quickly.

Which brings me back to the Bachelor(ette) series because in many ways this is how the series works. Initially there's the first meeting, the intros, the exchanging of names. Then there's a cocktail party and on the very first night a few contenders are sent home. How is this unlike speed dating?

Over the next few weeks the Bachelor(ette) goes on group dates, now there's a concept whose time has yet to come. The Bachelore(ette) also has more intimate one-on-one dates and regularly and steadily unsuitable contenders are sent home.

One needs a self-esteem injection to go through this although all contenders know this going in.

Well so do any contenders agreeing to a speed dating scenario and given that all truth is known in advance, I think it's a hell of an idea.

We'll be watching Ben and his encounters with the final four's family, particularly with Kacie B. The Bachelor can be seen on ABC, Monday nights, at 8 pm/c.

Below some links to previous Bachelor Ben posts in case yon reader missed.

Bachelor Ben Begins His Search Anew After His Rejection by Ashley

Bachelor Ben F Continues Quest to Find Love; The Prettiest Contender of All

Bachelor Ben Begins to Hone In On His Future Wife. The Real Skinny on the Skinny Dipping Scene.