I have been a fan of The Bachelor franchise since Brad Womack's first season in 2007. In 16 years, I have never felt less interested in the show. For the first time, I'm not even looking forward to Paradise. I'm trying to figure out why. It has nothing to do with Charity or any recent leads, really. I think it may be a combination of a few factors: (1) the novelty has worn off (2) over-saturation of too many back-to-back seasons (3) access to so many other more exciting reality shows and scand(ov)als (4) the same storylines and format repeated too many times (5) something else I can't identify.

Does anyone else feel this way? If so, why? When was the last time you've been genuinely interested in the show? (Mine was during the Clare/Dale saga.) What would the show need to do to reignite your interest? I don't know if the show would necessarily be more interesting if they only focused on the love stories, but the "drama" is also so manufactured and obnoxious a lot of the time. Maybe Tom Sandoval should be the next lead (JK, but goddammit, I'd watch).