Fans of The Bachelor will be seeing a lot less social media drama this year, if some big Instagram clues are anything to go by.
There’s reportedly been a shakeup in the Bachie mansion, with one big change for contestants in Jimmy Nicholson’s season.
And the change has everything to do with social media.
Unlike past seasons, the ladies won’t have control over their Instagram pages and other accounts while the show airs.
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Instead, their pages will be managed by a “third party”, a decision supposedly meant to prevent any rumours or leaks spreading online.
How do we know all this? All you have to do is look at the ladies’ Instagram accounts.
All of the contestants for this season of The Bachelor appear to have handed over their Instagram accounts before the season airs in keeping with the new social media rules.
Contestants appear to have handed their accounts over to a third party.
(Credit: Channel 10/Instagram)Each woman’s Insta bio now reads: “This account is currently managed by a third party on behalf of [contestant name] from [date] July 2021.”
The women have also had their comment sections turned off in recent posts, specifically posts about the new season of The Bachelor.
There’s talk that the contestants will keep their comments disabled for the duration of this season to avoid drama and rumours.
The change may also be designed to prevent any of the ladies from going rogue on social media and spilling details from this season’s episodes before they go to air.
So Dramatic! podcast host Megan Pustetto claimed that a Bachie production insider told her the changes were part of a “contract amendment” the contestants signed when they arrived at the mansion for filming.
“The amendment asked them to sign over all of their social media passwords to Warner Brothers and Channel Ten throughout the entire duration of the show,” Megan claimed.
According to the podcaster, the ladies will be locked out of their own social media accounts for over two months, their comments disabled and DMs restricted – which looks to be true based on what we’ve already seen.
While there’s no way to confirm the full scope of the claims about this season’s new social media policy, it’s clear that things will be running differently in 2021.
In the past, most contestants have appeared to have control of their social media pages – for better or worse.
Fans have speculated the new social media policy is to prevent a repeat of last year’s Nadine Kodsi scandal.
The former Bachie contestant took to her Instagram Stories and revealed that Irena and Bella would be Locky Gilbert’s final two, spoiling the season for many avid fans.
Locky and Irena are still together now.
(Credit: Channel 10)It was a shocking revelation, but certainly not the first time a Bachelor contestant has let major details slip on social media before they were supposed to.
This year will see a big change in how contestants’ social media accounts are handled, and it could affect what we see the ladies post.
But eagle-eyed fans will likely still be on the lookout for any Instagram hints as to how Jimmy’s season will play out.
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