Chicken Enthusiast. Never Been Kissed. Sloth. While there are definitely requirements to land a spot on The Bachelor or The Bachelorette, having a job is certainly not one of them.
Since its 2002 premiere on ABC, the reality series has taken liberties when it comes to the contestants’ job descriptions.
“The idea is for the viewer to quickly get a sense of who this person is by glancing at what we call the lower-third chyron. And oftentimes their occupation will do that — ‘dentist,’ for example, or ‘weatherman.’ However, so many traditional monikers have been replaced with terms like ‘consultant’ and ‘sales director.’ What do these even mean, really?” an unnamed producer told Entertainment Weekly in 2018. “So, we decided a few years back to make an effort to not just be satisfied with ‘consultants’ and ‘entrepreneurs.’”
The producer went on to cite Haley and Emily Ferguson, sisters who competed on Ben Higgins’ season 20 of The Bachelor in 2016. While they worked as cocktail waitresses in Las Vegas at the time, their job descriptors were simply “twins” on the series.
“[In those cases] who they are is defined less by [how] they make a living and more by some other dominant trait. Haley and Emily, the twins from Ben’s season, are a good example. They were working in a club as bottle servers/cocktail waitresses, and while this is an occupation that people can easily digest, it didn’t seem to identify them. They were twins before anything else. And thus they were both ‘twin’ on the show,” the producer explained, noting it’s “rare” for a contestant to complain about their descriptor.
“We try to work with them to figure it out in advance, but it does happen. It’s more common with men, who can be surprised that we don’t just give the OK to every person who would like to be called an ‘entrepreneur,’” the ABC employee said. “That occupation seems to be the catchall for ‘I really don’t know what I’m doing with my life but this sure sounds cool.’”
While the job titles were extremely wacky for several seasons — Juan Pablo Galavis’ season 17 had a Dog Lover AND a Free Spirit — the show has toned it down a bit more recently. One exception? Victoria Larson, whose job title is simply “Queen” on Matt James’ season.
“I’m Victoria, like the queen, and I’m looking for a king with a good heart. So, I heard that’s you, King Matt,” she declared on the season 25 premiere in January 2021. “Queen Victoria is here. I know I’m so confident and so fun, I know I made a good impression, so I just wanna put like, my best foot forward. … I am the queen of this kingdom.”
Scroll through for the most ridiculous job titles featured on the ABC dating competition:
Leave a comment