The INSIDER Summary:
- "Bachelor in Paradise" returned for its fourth season Monday night.
- The show made open references to the sexual misconduct scandal between Corinne Olympios and DeMario Jackson that briefly stopped production.
- But the scandal was left as a cliffhanger and the show leaned into the controversy.
- Fans were not happy about the way the controversy was handled on the first episode.
After temporarily stopping production due to a sexual misconduct scandal, the fourth season of "Bachelor in Paradise" premiered on ABC Monday night.
The promos for the show's return referenced the scandal between contestants Corinne Olympios, 25, and DeMario Jackson, 31, but the exploitative editing made fans angry and resulted in one promo being pulled from the air. But the producers used the same tactics on Monday night to build up the drama.
During the premiere, host Chris Harrison started the episode by explaining that fans would see how the scandal played out.
“As many of you already know, this was the season of ‘Paradise’ that looked like it might not happen," he said. "After two days of shooting, we decided to suspend production. Yes, there was trouble in paradise as accusations and allegations ran wild. It was an extraordinarily stressful and emotional time for our cast and all of our crew, including myself."
As the episode continued, the interactions between Olympios and Jackson were narrated by contestant Alex and they were given quite a bit of screen time at the start. Brief teases of production being suspended and confusion among the contestants were sprinkled throughout the episode for dramatic effect, but then as it came to an end, the episode ended with a "to be continued." Fans have to tune in Tuesday night to see what happened when the cameras stopped rolling.
But this build-up and resulting cliffhanger was unnecessarily exploitative and fans were not happy with the show leaning into the controversy.
I actually think it's gross how they hyped up this sexual assault allegation for the season premier bait. #BachelorInParadise
— Sᴘɪᴛғɪʀᴇ♔ (@KAYDEEkylie) August 15, 2017
the way ABC is leaning into the Bachelor In Paradise controversy is really gross
— Katie Minard (@KatieMinard) August 8, 2017
Am I the only one who finds the obvious use of this scandal for ratings tasteless? #BachelorInParadise
— Brianna (@wtvrbriii) August 15, 2017
They're going to take this DeMario and Corinne drama into next episode for ratings aren't they? #BachelorInParadisepic.twitter.com/YvSa6A0sB9
— Abigail (@hi_i_read) August 15, 2017
Using the Corinne/Demario situation as a cliffhanger seems like a weird thing to do? #bachelorinparadise all about ratings I guess 🤢
— teals (@teala) August 15, 2017
I'm very uncomfortable watching DeMario and Corinne flirt, especially knowing what's about to happen. #BachelorInParadisepic.twitter.com/ZvHM33eDTC
— Abigail (@hi_i_read) August 15, 2017An investigation by Warner Bros. concluded that there was no misconduct, but the way the whole situation has been drawn out and shown on air feels cheaply built for ratings.
Unsurprisingly, the episode hit a premiere ratings high.
"Bachelor in Paradise" returns for another two hours on Tuesday night.
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