Throughout the pandemic most of us have turned to binging endless episodes of TV series, documentaries and other assorted bits of entertainment. On prime time TV it’s been difficult as most shows are in reruns, sports are pretty dull without fans (the few sports that are aired) and cable channels seem to play the same things over and over again.

ABC however, thought it a brilliant idea to re-air what they refer to at the GOAT, or The greatest of all time. As if seeing one of those seasons wasn’t painful enough, they thought they’d show some again. Granted, Bachelor Nation is huge and millions have rewatched but I myself as many others I know, have come to detest the show, all it’s drama and quite frankly, it’s continuous attempts to make each season THE MOST DRAMATIC EVER.

Cue – let’s not only re-air old seasons but let’s cast a gal for The Bachelorette’s new season that has been a staple of the franchise for years, Clare Crawley. Thinking that her age (39) has given her wisdom and maturity to really represent that she is there for the right reasons, she began filming a mere few weeks ago.

Wondering why they would cast someone with such a lousy history on the show really had many shaking their heads. Particularly since the show has lost most of its original appeal ending with last seasons complete train wreck of Pilot Pete and his lunatic mother. But producers obviously had their reasons for casting Clare, thinking this could be really good. OK – here’s a brief history of Ms Crawley:

We first saw her in 2014 when she was a contestant on Juan (Iss okay) Pablo’s season (Juanny Pabs as we called him in our house). She ended up being the runner up, dumped at the final rose ceremony. Juan whispered something in her ear to which she blew up at him and said she would never want anyone like him for the father of her child. She told him! And off she went.

Never knowing when to quit, she agreed to appear on not one, but two consecutive seasons of Bachelor in Paradise. The first go around saw her in brief liaisons with Robert Graham and Zack Kalter. With nothing really sparking, she left the show. On the following season she had a brief interlude with Jared Haibon, (now married to Ashley Iaconetti from Cris Soules season. A much better match with Ashley). She left in week four when no one gave her a rose. Damn. That had to hurt.

Of course when the franchise introduced Winter Games, good old Clare had to participate. Now here is a mouthful: she caught the eye of Benoit Beausejour – Savard initially and had a nice thing going with him until of course, another contestant, Christian Ranch caught her eye as well. He didn’t treat her well but as we all know, nice guys finish last and she dumped poor Benoit. Left the show after choosing Christian then after he dumped her, she apparently ran back to the arms of Benoit and they became engaged on live TV. Such a whirlwind.

They broke up. Shocking.

This brings us to now. Two weeks into filming Clare has quit the show, shocking the producers and all involved. But not me folks. She is already in love (happens fast with her) and felt it wouldn’t be fair to lead on the other men. So, she bid the show adieu and is in an alleged relationship with Dale Moss, one of the contestants she just met. And in love. So let’s see, Clare is 39, has had a string of nothing but broken relationships, was ridiculously cast as the Bachelorette and the producers are shocked she quit. Let’s face it folks, this girl is a hot mess. And that made for a seriously DRAMATIC event.

But now, another twist: because I guess we can’t live without a season of this tired show that needs to go away, they have recast the season with Colton Underwoods throwaway, Tayshia Adams. Now I actually liked Tayshia, thought she was a very smart and pretty girl. I hate to see her put herself through the process of being told who to keep each week, how to pretend to like the bad boy of the season whoever that may be and blah, blah, blah. Really folks, do we really care anymore?

The handful of successful marriages or engagements from the franchise are nice. Off course you throw enough people together, somethings going to work out. But having done this for 20 years and are truly out of ideas to make the show watchable, I think that they should throw in the towel. I’m sure Bachelor Nation will disagree. But you know what? For the past 3 minutes of reading this blog, I bet you didn’t think about Covid 19.

Who will tune in for Tayshia? Who really cares?

Inquiring minds want to know.