The hills are alive with tears, love, and drama in The Bachelor’s newest and steamiest spinoff: The Bachelor Winter Games. Held in the mountains of Vermont, this is ABC’s only shot at getting into the Olympic action.
From the beginning, you can already tell Bachelor Winter Games will most likely never see another season. From the hilariously corny and very Bachelor parade to introduce each “competitor” from their respective countries to the sports commentators they talked into participating, it was a hot chilly mess. They also had an official Bachelor anthem that included a lovely montage of bald eagles and countryside images. I cannot lie.
The best part of Bachelor Winter Games is watching all the country American boys try to hit on the Swedish women. I have never witnessed anything so overpowering than Australian, British, country, and German accents all talking at once as the contestants begin to intermingle.
All in all, this is basically Bachelor Pad but in the cold. The men will compete against the men and women versus women. The winner of both sexes each get a date card after winning their respective winter game event.
The first competition was The Bachelor version of the Biathalon where they have to ski and then shoot paintball guns onto a rose target. Kevin (Canada) and Rebecca (Sweden) won the first date cards. Kevin chose Bibiana (USA) to take on the date and Rebecca chose country hunk Luke (USA). We haven’t even made it to the first rose ceremony and we’ve already experienced Ashley (USA) crying after Kevin chose Bibi. Man, have I missed Ashley’s tears.
However, the losers weren’t all sad. Back at their lodge, a few romances began to spark, especially between Clare (USA) and Benoit (Canada). You also can’t help but root for Team USA as Lesley and Dean started to hit it off.
In the weirdest rose ceremony ever, three women and two men were told they would be going home. The plot twist was that the group had to decide in a vote off on who goes home. Everyone had to write down one name they didn’t think was there for love and I didn’t realize The Bachelor had turned into Survivor.
I always thought rose ceremonies were difficult to watch but to watch desperate singles schmoozing their way to stay is overkill. I find it more dramatic when the contestants had to watch who each person chose. By doing the write offs it takes away from the event. Now it might be tough to choose who you want to leave, but all in all there is always at least someone you don’t like in the group. This means the new way is kind of a cop out.
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What’s even weirder is that Chris Harrison called the two winners of the events who were safe (Rebecca and Kevin). The two of them handed out the roses to the other safe contestants as Chris called their names one by one. Honestly, this new way was just dumb.
Thankfully in the end, my favorite contestant and champion crier, Ashley, made it through to the next round. Sadly, Team USA lost three (Eric, Jamey, and Lauren), while the UK and Japan were knocked out as Laura and Zoe were sent home.
Here’s to hoping we see someone throw a ski next week!
CONTESTANTS
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Australia: Courtney Dober, Tiffany Scanlon
Canada: Benoît Beausejour-Savard, Kevin Wendt
China: Zoe Tang
Finland: Jenny Helenius
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Japan: Yuki Kimura
New Zealand: Ally Thompson, Lily McManus
Sweden: Nastassia Yaramchuk, Rebecca Carlson
Switzerland/Germany: Christian Rauch
United Kingdom: Laura Blair
USA: Ben Higgins, Bibiana Julian, Dean Unglert, Eric Bigger, Jamey Kocan, Josiah Graham, Luke Pell, Michael Garofola, Clare Crawley, Ashley Iaconetti, Lauren Griffin, Lesley Murphy
**Italics means they are no longer on the show
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