If you’ve been following this season of The Bachelor, you’ll be well aware that things have taken a little, er, turn in recent episodes.
Gone is the usual format – extravagant one-on-ones, wild and whacky group dates and dramatic cocktail parties that could rival an episode of The Bold and the Beautiful.
Yes, like the rest of the entire world as we know it, The Bachelor was forced to shut up shop when the COVID-19 pandemic struck, plunging everyone into lockdown with it.
Well, for a little while, at least.
You see, we watched the Oscar-worthy performance (that was sarcasm, FYI…) of Locky finding out that the gals would all have to be sent home in the wake of the pandemic, along with himself too, of course.
Then, we witnessed the first episode of Bachie‘s aptly named Love in Lockdown, whereby the girls and Locky filmed the show from their own homes, with Zoom dates and virtual cocktail parties rife.
Yep, it sounds odd. And yep, we can indeed confirm it was odd, but hell, lockdown was odd – so why then, did it seem like this on-screen Bachelor lockdown wasn’t quite like the one we experienced?
This was… strange to watch.
(Network Ten)During Thursday evening’s episode, fans were left pondering how some of the scenes were filmed – yes the Zoom calls between the girls and Locky were part and parcel, as was the simple fact everything was filmed inside each girls’ home.
But, we couldn’t help but wonder about the piece-to-cam scenes – err, you do realise someone else has to be behind the camera to film said scenes, right Channel Ten?
Interestingly, reality TV gossip podcast So Dramatic! has done some digging on the matter to confirm exactly how the filming went down – and yes, apparently all the COVID rules were firmly abided by.
According to the podcast, filming resumed about two weeks into Australia’s major lockdown, giving the girls time to head back home and hunker into their iso-routines (hello, banana bread and aggressive meme posting).
Bella is an iso mood.
(Network Ten)But when filming did resume, Ten sized it up by allocating just one camera person for each contestant. So yes, a random was allowed into their home to film.
That said, no one, and we mean blanket ban no one else was allowed to come. So each gal was required to do her own hair and makeup.
Apparently, everyone involved was also subjected to regular COVID tests, as well as continuously observing socially distancing in their at-home set-ups.
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And if you were wondering about those awkward roses sitting on tables beside them for virtual cocktail parties, it turns out they were couriered to each girl ahead of the each evening’s “event”.
Finally, in a Bachie first, the women were allowed to resume their usual jobs when they went back home – case in point Irena, who returned to nursing on the frontline like the absolute gem of a human she is.
So that settles it – for the next few lockdown episodes, bear that in mind as we ourselves remain parked firmly on our couches. They’re really not so different to us after all…
WATCH: The Bachelor‘s love in lockdown teaser:
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