ABC’s botched Bachelor: Why Arie Luyendyk Jr. is an underwhelming and backwards-thinking pick

Decider

Bachelor fans were stunned by Arie’s selection this morning — because they forget all about him. The so-called “fan favorite” was runner-up in Emily Maynard’s season in 2012, which was five years ago. “Five. That’s a long ass time in Bachelor years,” says Lea Palmieri. “Why does ABC keep reaching back to the distant past for these bros?” she asks, referring also to last year’s Bachelor Nick Viall. She adds: “You know, maybe making a decision that indicates the franchise is moving forward, instead of 5 steps back would’ve been nice? The whole entire lifeblood of this show is the community discussion, at work, on Twitter, at brunch, and choosing someone that not everyone knows, remembers, or cares about, rips that apart and takes the fun out of the franchise. A franchise we are desperately counting on to be fun!”

PLUS: Finally, a Bachelor who’s employed!, this looks like a last-minute choice after a report that producers were in “full-blown panic mode” yesterday, Bachelor fans were gobsmacked by the choice, Arie’s dad was “The Flying Dutchman” with two Indy 500 victories, Zach Braff thinks he looks like Arie, Bachelor creator Mike Fleiss tweets “Make ABC great Again,” and Fleiss retweeted a tweet gloating that Reality Steve got it wrong when he tweeted last week: “I feel confident in reporting that sources are telling me Peter is the next Bachelor & it will be announced soon.”