Kaitlyn Bristowe just dished some alleged “big, insider scoop” about The Bachelor. According to Us Weekly, on the most recent episode of her Off the Vine podcast, the Season 11 Bachelorette claimed that footage of Zach Shallcross in his London hotel room was actually filmed in Los Angeles.
On the most recent episode of the reality dating show, Zach and his group of contestants flew to London. But the Coronavirus pandemic finally caught up to the Bachelor franchise. The Anaheim Hills native became ill and tested positive for COVID.
Sadly for the ladies who were hoping to spend time with him, Zach was confined to his posh suite in the Park Plaza Westminster Bridge. In an effort to keep the Bachelor’s search for love on track, producers set up the show’s first-ever virtual cocktail party and rose ceremony.
During the episode, viewers were treated to footage of Zach lying in bed in his hotel room, blowing his nose and sipping hot tea. In other words, we were given visual proof that the show’s lead was really sick. But now Kaitlyn is claiming that not all of the footage shown was shot in the U.K.
“When they show B-roll of Zach,” the Dancing with the Stars winner said, “he’s, like, in his hotel room, in the bed, blowing his nose, he’s got a little fake cup of tea. That’s a hotel in L.A.”
It actually makes sense, when you think about it. Zach was in isolation with a highly contagious disease, one that killed over 1,000,000 American citizens in the past three years. Production wasn’t even allowed to enter his room to set up equipment for the virtual cocktail party and the rose ceremony. Zach was given all the equipment and instructions to set it up himself.
I did wonder how the production crew was allowed to film Zach in his room when he was supposedly in isolation. Even Kaity Biggar could only talk to him through his hotel room door when she took him a gift basket to help him feel better. I do understand wanting to pad out his story a bit with scenes of him in bed. I do feel the tiniest bit betrayed that they lied to us. I’ll get over it. Isn’t this show known for bending the truth now and then?
Kaitlyn theorized why Bachelor producers might have needed to film the extra shots once Zach returned to LA. She said, “They must have [been] like, ‘Oh s**t, we need some B-roll of Zach looking sick.’ [But] he’s back in L.A., and they’re like, ‘Can we just get you blowing your nose and, like, holding a cup of tea in the hotel room?’” Clever, Bachelor producers.
She continued, “It’s the hotel they always put all of their people in when we do, like, [After the] Final Rose or the Women Tell All, Men Tell All. That’s where they stay, in this, like, very specific bed that has writing on the back.”
Kaitlyn laughed that the whole fake London hotel room switchup was “funny,” and even admitted to being a bit jealous of Zach’s sick time spent in bed. “I was like, ‘Damn, I could have used five days off, with some tea in bed, during my season,’” she said.
TELL US – DID YOU EVER WONDER HOW PRODUCTION WAS ABLE TO FILM ZACH IN HIS HOTEL ROOM, WHEN HE WAS SUPPOSED TO BE IN ISOLATION? DO YOU FEEL IT WAS DISHONEST OF THEM TO ADD THE EXTRA FOOTAGE?
[Photo Credit: ABC/Nino Munoz]