It’s no secret that I love The Bachelor!
I’ve been a closet reality TV junkie for years. During my freshman year of college, I was having trouble concentrating on my Calculus homework due to too many distractions. My solution? Drown out all outside noise with The Hills! It was loud enough to cover up the sounds of my dormmates, but not complex enough to demand all of my attention. It was a great solution to help manage my ADHD. I was hooked!
I’ve spent most of the past 10 years as an engineering student or Software Engineer, so I’ve never had a shortage of math/coding work- but I’ve cycled through several reality TV shows throughout that time.
My latest obsession has been one of America’s most loved and infamous TV shows of all time- The Bachelor! In the past 2 years, I’ve made my way through 9 seasons of The Bachelor and almost as many seasons of The Bachelorette. I’ve watched many Bachelors fall in love with more than one woman, and many Bachelorettes accuse the competition of “not being there for the right reasons.”
There’s a lot of ridiculousness and drama in the franchise, but there’s a lot of love too- if you look in the right place!
Below, I’ve ranked every season of The Bachelor that I’ve watched from most to least entertaining.
1. Sean Lowe – Season 17 (2013)
Sean Lowe’s season of The Bachelor is everything that the show should aspire to be.
From the beginning, Sean was open to the possibility of a relationship with each and every woman that he met. He treated all of his contestants with kindness and respect. Even while eliminating the season’s villain Tierra (one of the most irritating villains in the franchise’s history) he still exhibited compassion.
Another note about Sean’s season is that he was one of the most self-aware Bachelors in the history of the show. Since he knew who he was and what he wanted out of life and a relationship, he asked each of his contestants questions that determined whether or not they were compatible. This is refreshing to watch, especially since many Bachelors seemingly determine compatibility based on which contestant has the best sob story.
Sean’s season also bears the rare accolade of having a proposal that was so touching, it made me cry.
If you’re looking for the least dramatic season of the Bachelor with one of the most heartwarming love stories, give Sean’s season a watch!
Overall Season Rating: 10/10
Overall Bachelor Rating: 9.5/10
Where to watch: Hulu
2. Jason Mesnick – Season 13 (2009)
Jason Mesnick is the first Bachelor in the history of the show to be a single parent. Maybe it’s the added responsibility of having a child, but Jason treated the role with maturity, responsibility, and a level of seriousness that is rarely seen in the franchise.
Like Sean Lowe, Jason made an effort to connect with each of the contestants on his season. He was kind and respectful while staying true to his feelings. Drama between his contestants wasn’t rewarded. As a result, his last few contestants were truly lovely women who were an absolute joy to watch.
Jason’s season also boasts a pretty interesting and dramatic final twist. Like Sean’s season, it’s a must-watch for anyone who loves Bachelor Nation!
Overall Season Rating: 9.5/10
Overall Bachelor Rating: 8/10
Where to watch: Prime Video
3. Nick Viall – Season 21 (2017)
Oh, man. Nick Viall’s season is where I begin to feel conflicted about the show.
To be honest, I’m not the biggest fan of Nick. While I applaud his taste in women (he seems to be attracted to mature, confident, well-spoken girls), I don’t believe he was ready for a serious relationship during his season.
Also, it was pretty obvious early on that Nick was only interested in his final girl and didn’t give the rest of his contestants an equal chance. It’s pretty boring to watch The Bachelor only pursue one woman and fake it with the rest. It’s also uncomfortable when some of the contestants are too naïve to realize that he’s faking.
The only reason I rank Nick’s season in 3rd is because of the quality of his contestants. Some of the best people to come out of the franchise are Nick’s Bachelorettes. Even the season’s villain, Corinne, was hilarious and had a lot of redeeming qualities. For this reason, Nick’s season moves from “meh” to iconic.
Overall Season Rating: 9/10
Overall Bachelor Rating: 6/10
Where to watch: HBO Max
4. Ben Higgins – Season 20 (2016)
Ben Higgins is the stereotypical “dream boat” for any girl who graduated from a state university and a NPC sorority.
A clean-cut young man from the midwest, Ben Higgins comes across as sweet, if not slightly naïve.
Unfortunately, Ben’s immaturity is also evident. One of the most entertaining moments of his season comes during a conversation with one of his final 3 women. Ben reveals to the audience that he’s worried that this particular contestant doesn’t have much depth because she’s too happy. On a one-on-one date, he tries to convince the girl to “open up” to him by sharing deep, personal trauma. His contestant calls him out on this, but that moment made me lose a lot of respect for Ben.
Thankfully, Ben had a fantastic cast of women. Unfortunately, Ben’s season also seems to be the beginning of unfounded bullying amongst the cast members. One of his Bachelorettes, Jubilee, was a war veteran with a heartbreaking history of adoption after tragically losing her entire birth family. It’s obvious that this girl had a great heart, but due to her trauma she was quiet and didn’t quite mesh with the rest of the cast members. Instead of treating her with compassion, many of her fellow cast members bullied her mercilessly. It was difficult to watch.
Another “difficult to watch” moment comes when Ben tells both of his final women that he loves them. He’s not the first Bachelor to fall in love with more than one woman, but he certainly handled it terribly. To make the situation even more uncomfortable, he dumped his F3 contestant by telling her “I am in love with two women here, and I just couldn’t say it back to you.” Talk about a punch in the gut!
While Ben’s season (and some of his actions) were controversial, I still think his season is worth watching. His connection with his final woman is so clear, it’s brought up repeatedly throughout his entire season (yes, despite telling two women he was in love with them, his connection with one was far more obvious!) While it’s usually annoying to watch a Bachelor who’s way more invested in one contestant than the rest, in Ben’s case, it’s sweet. It was really satisfying watching his love story unfold!
Overall Season Rating: 8/10
Overall Bachelor Rating: 6/10
Where to watch: HBO Max
5. Arie Luyendyk Jr. – Season 22 (2018)
Another controversial Bachelor, Arie Luyendyk Jr’s season had a similar dramatic final twist to Jason Mesnick’s with a much sadder, hurtful execution. Without going into much detail, it made Arie look like such a jerk, he’s now permanently banned from the state of Minnesota.
However, the drama is not why I’d recommend watching his season. It’s obvious that most of the women cast for Arie’s season weren’t necessarily there to date Arie. Despite this, Arie does a great job of getting to know every woman in his cast and giving them a fair shot.
My favorite part of this season is how it brings ageism in relationships to light. One of the youngest contestants to ever be a part of the franchise, Bekah Martinez, was 22 when she was cast to date Arie, who was 36 at the time. Despite being so young, Bekah and Arie had one of the most obvious connections of any two people I’ve seen on the show. Bekah was also more mature than the majority of her fellow contestants, many of whom were a few years older than her.
Spoiler alert- Bekah and Arie did not end up together. However, Bekah’s presence on the show called out something that should be obvious: age is only a number. Arie’s actions in the last episode further prove that idea, since he treated his final girl with as much maturity and kindness as a two year old breaking a cookie jar to steal the last snickerdoodle.
Overall Season Rating: 6/10
Overall Bachelor Rating: 3/10
Where to watch: Discovery Plus
6. Juan Pablo Galavis – Season 18 (2014)
At the beginning of his season, Juan Pablo Galavis is presented as quite the catch: a handsome, young single father who just happens to be a professional soccer player!
By the end of his season, you want to punch Juan Pablo in the face.
What happened?
Well, some of Juan Pablo’s “best” moments include the following:
- Tells women “it’s okay” whenever they are upset
- Slut shames a woman for having sex with him
- Kisses every woman multiple times, except for one woman who’s a mother. Apparently, he doesn’t mind his daughter seeing him kiss multiple people, but thinks that this poor woman’s son will think less of her if she kisses a man on national television. Like, what???
- At one point, he angers his F2 Clare Crawley by saying something to her as they travel to a date via helicopter. It’s rumored that he told her “I love f***ing you, but I don’t know you.” If that’s true, that’s disgusting.
- When said F2 (deservedly) told him off, his only response was to tell the cameras, “I’m glad I didn’t pick her!”
Despite his huge ego and problematic behavior throughout the season, I still think Juan Pablo got more hate than he deserved. His choice to date his F1 instead of proposing to her was commendable. Many past Bachelors weren’t ready for marriage, but forced themselves to get engaged to preserve their own image. Juan Pablo had the guts to admit that he wasn’t ready to get engaged after 8 weeks, which is a perfectly reasonable stance to have on marriage in the real world. While his behavior throughout his season wasn’t great, that decision was remarkably mature.
The best part of Juan Pablo’s season was watching him get dumped by his F3 Andi Dorfman after her Fantasy Suite date. I’ve never enjoyed a breakup more thoroughly!
Overall Season Rating: 5.5/10
Overall Bachelor Rating: 3/10
Where to watch: Hulu
7. Colton Underwood – Season 23 (2019)
Colton’s season was my first foray into Bachelor Nation. A former NFL player, Colton has a surprise- he’s also a virgin!
While I don’t mind that Colton was a virgin, it’s pretty strange how often it was mentioned throughout his season. Several of the girls chose to make a huge point about bringing it up during their introduction. While sexuality is important, it’s also personal. I don’t think they were wrong in mentioning it, but ABC’s decision to make his virginity Colton’s tagline is bizarre and unnecessary.
Luckily, Colton’s season is partially redeemed by a few really great women. Both Hannah Brown and Tayshia Adams went on to be entertaining and authentic Bachelorettes. Cassie also seemed to be a total sweetheart.
Unfortunately, my opinion of Colton has completely soured post-show. Spoiler alert: After breaking up with his F1 Cassie over a year after his season ended, he stalked her.
Overall Season Rating: 5/10
Overall Bachelor Rating: 0/10
Where to watch: HBO Max
8. Peter Weber – Season 24 (2020)
Peter Weber was a 28-year-old pilot from Los Angeles, California. He was also, in my opinion, the most immature Bachelor of all time.
Peter’s season is when The Bachelor crossed the line from romantic to completely painful to watch. The drama and theatrics between his contestants is over-the-top and unneeded. It’s so ridiculous, I can’t help but guess that the producers orchestrated most of it and edged the poor contestants on with alcohol and lies.
While I don’t believe Peter is a malicious person, he’s certainly immature and reckless. He consistently caves to his contestant’s tears. I swear, it’s almost like the moment a contestant cries, he decides he’s head over heels in love with her. I’m not in the psychology profession, so I can’t analyze that behavior- but the reason behind it can’t be good!
Also, Peter doesn’t seem to have a significant connection with any of his women. The whole reason I watch The Bachelor is for the love story. Without any good connections, we’re missing any semblance of a love story, and I’m just over here torturing myself by watching drunk girls bicker over champagne.
Overall Season Rating: 1/10
Overall Bachelor Rating: 2/10
Where to watch: Prime Video
9. Matt James – Season 25 (2021)
I like to be as positive as possible, but it’s difficult to say anything positive about Matt’s season.
While Matt himself and several of his women seem like wonderful human beings, they are completely overshadowed by contestant drama. While “contestant drama” meant silly squabbles about naps in past seasons, in Matt’s season “contestant drama” was elevated to a whole new level.
What level am I talking? Well, one of his contestants accused another girl of being a prostitute on national television. This rumor will now follow around that poor girl for the rest of her life.
Life-ruining rumors aside, Matt James’ season cast a historic number of women of color. Guess how much screen time those women got? Check out this infographic to see:
Regardless of my feelings about his season, I have nothing but respect and admiration for Matt James. He is by far the best Bachelor to grace this franchise. The editors of this show did him a disservice by hiding his personality.
In the second to last episode of Matt’s season, the producers decided to bring on Matt’s father who abandoned him as a child to have a conversation with him about family and commitment. I’m appalled that the network thought it was appropriate to not only bring his father on the show to have such a difficult, private conversation, but to air that conversation to the whole world. It made me extremely uncomfortable- I can’t imagine how uncomfortable it must have made Matt.
Despite all of that, Matt handled his season with maturity and compassion. He is the only Bachelor to immediately squash contestant drama as soon as it came to his attention. Not only that, he correctly identified the problematic women and eliminated them in order to protect their victims.
In all honesty, Matt James’ season was such a disaster, it’s made me consider quitting watching The Bachelor altogether. While seasons of The Bachelorette are usually enjoyable, it’s rare to find a season of The Bachelor that isn’t completely consumed by petty drama and producer theatrics (as evidenced by this list). Even a fantastic lead like Matt can’t make this show watchable.
It’s a shame that the producers of The Bachelor wasted a great lead like Matt and a fantastic opportunity to make their show more racially and ethnically diverse. Hopefully next season brings about some real change, or I’m not watching.
Overall Season Rating: 0/10
Overall Bachelor Rating: 10/10
Where to watch: Hulu
Note: This post was originally published on Ciao by Shay on March 15, 2021. It was migrated to Happy Health Stylish upon my blog’s rebranding.