Marriage Means Success
Ever wonder how many of the couples who end up together on The Bachelor actually end up getting married? Well, Alice Zhao from Huffington Post looks into this question in her post “The Data Behind The Bachelor & the Bachelorette.”
In her post, Zhao defines “success” in both versions of the reality TV show as marriage. Because the show’s purpose is to have the bachelor/ bachelorette be engaged by the end of the season, the only way to really define the show’s success rate is by using rates of marriage as a measurement. Zhao tells us,
It turns out not that many do. In fact, only two-thirds of the seasons end with proposals. Then out of those proposals, only 5 have led to marriage, with the bachelorette having a better success rate at 30% versus the bachelor at 11%.
A visual depiction of this fact is seen when studying the graph Zhao shares with us seen below. Click on the picture and the graph will directly send you to the post!
This post was published in 2015 meaning a few seasons of The Bachelor/ Bachelorette have been left out of this statistical analysis, but everything found on the graph still holds true. In 2015, Chris Soules was the bachelor, and ended up proposing to Whitney Bischoff. However, the two called off their engagement two months after the show revealed she received the last rose. That same year, Kaitlyn Bristowe was chosen to be the bachelorette, and ended up being engaged to Shawn Booth. They are still engaged. In 2016, Ben Higgins was the bachelor, and ended up proposing to Lauren Bushnell. The two are still engaged, although there have been several rumors about them having trouble staying together. That same year, Jojo Fletcher was the bachelorette, and chose Jordan Rodgers. The two are still engaged to this day, although Jordan Rodger’s bad boy reputation is rumored to have stirred some trouble in their relationship. In 2017, Nick Viall was re-introduced into The Bachelor world having been on Andi Dorfman’s and Kaitlyn Bristowe’s seasons. He proposed to Vanessa Grimaldi and the two are still engaged, although their relationship is criticized for seeming very fake and forced. In the next few years, maybe the “success” rate of the show will grow with engagements becoming marriages.
Proposal Statistics
As of now, the show has only seen 5 marriages and has experienced more break-ups post show than marriages. However, not all bachelor contestants ended up proposing. When it came down to giving away the final rose, some bachelors decided to not give it away meaning they ended the show without a girlfriend or fiance. Other bachelors preferred to not propose with a ring to the final rose winner, but instead propose the idea of staying together as girlfriend and boyfriend to work on their relationships off camera. This contrasts greatly to the statistics of Bachelorette that shows that every single bachlorette was proposed to at the end of the show. However, Jen Schefft was the only bachelorette to turn down an engagement on the show. See stats by following the links below under the “Seasons” tab in The Bachelor/ Bachelorette‘s Wikipedia sites:
For The Bachelor. Click on the picture to be sent to the site itself:
For The Bachelorette. Click on the picture to be sent to the site itself:
Why is this? Why do the men’s statistics show that they can turn down the idea of finding true love, but for women that is out of the question? This directly relates to the stereotypical ideal that women are the romance seekers, the idealists of love, the emotional gender. As the romance seekers, all except one of the bachelorettes could not turn down the idea of love and always managed to choose one man, unlike the bachelors who sometimes left the show without a partner. It is precisely this fantasy of “true love” that drives the women more so than the men find their perfect match in the short time span of the show.
Contestants Reflect on the Process
Additionally, life after the show can lead to some couples breaking up just as we see in the video below. The video below is a reunion of some of the Bachelor/ Bachelorette contestants on ABC News. There are two married couples and five other former contestants, with some having broken up their engagements. In the video, the former contestants reflect on finding love on the show and what that means outside of the show. Although the show is often criticized for its lake of authenticity, the contestants address how they see the process from their point of view and how it has lead them to genuinely find love in this show. Those contestants that did not end up getting engaged in their respective seasons often had other chances to “find love” in other The Bachelor spin off shows such as Bachelor in Paradise.