The Bachelor: The Success of Proposals

The Bachelor – Is it the Beginning of Everlasting Love?

The Bachelor and The Bachelorette TV shows attract the audiences each season as viewers watch hopeful candidates try and find their true love. The latest season of The Bachelorette has just come to an end with a dramatic twist that had the audience on the edge of their seats. This year’s bachelorette was 28 year old Desiree Hartsock who experienced heartbreak in the penultimate episode when her top choice rejected her.

In the end Desiree picked her man, a former baseball player turned mortgage broker Chris Siegfried who she picked over the other remaining contestant, Drew Kenney. He got on one knee and made his proposal to the beauty telling her he wanted to be her first and her last as he slipped a diamond ring on her finger, she accepted of course.

Will They Live Happily Ever After?

There are around 7 million viewers who tune in each week to watch episodes of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette. They consider it to be a show full of true love and romance, complete with fantasy dates and incredible locations, not to mention stunning diamond rings! The question is how many of these relationships that are formed on television actually turn out to be a success in real life and not just in the ratings?

After ten years in the making there have been 17 seasons of the Bachelor in the US. The two shows combined have created 24 official relationships, of which only five now remain together as of 2013. Let’s take a look at the ones that worked and the ones that failed. Lets take a look at The Bachelor stats and see how everyone is getting on.

• Season one the couple, Alex and Amanda managed to stay together for almost one year.
• Season two was a short relationship as Aaron and Helene managed five weeks together.
• Season three saw Andrew and Jen get together but they broke up seven months after the final show.
• Season four was the turn of Bob and Estella that only lasted one month of real life dating!
• Season five’s relationship was another short one lasting only one month when the couple, Jesse and Jessica failed to make it work.
• Season six was a bit more successful, at least for a while. Byron and Mary managed a few years together, they got engaged in 2004 and split up in 2009 after a few domestic issues.
• Season seven saw a couple who enjoyed some on again off again action. Charlie and Sarah got together in 2005 and broke up in 2007. They then tried again a year later but by 2010 it was over for good.
• Season eight was not a good effort, Travis and Sarah broke up a week after the finale aired.
• Season nine, ten and eleven and twelve all failed too, but now we come to season thirteen, unlucky for some but not for Jason and Molly. This is a couple that started awkwardly after Jason ended his engagement with Melissa from the show and asked Molly, the runner-up out for coffee just moments later. Jason and Molly turned their engagement into a marriage, the first for The Bachelor, and they are still together now!
• The following three seasons also failed but the final show, season seventeen has a happier ending with Sean and Catherine still together after uniting in 2012.

So it seems the show isn’t the perfect way to find a happy ending, but the question on everyone’s lips is whether or not the engagement rings are kept or given back when it all falls to pieces. What do you think?