The latest scandal to rear its ugly head from The Bachelor is that one of the young women looking for love with the new “Bachelor” Jake Pavelka was fooling around with a staff member from the show, according to reports. The incident became public when ABC aired a brief promo about the contestant. “She’s been having a sexual affair with somebody else in the Bachelor House,” one of the other women is heard saying on the clip, which has now been removed from the ABC website.
According to the NYpost, fansofrealityTV.com also revealed several weeks earlier that a male member of the show’s production crew and one of the contestants were romantically involved while “The Bachelor” was shooting in the fall. In addition, the website claims to have some inside information regarding the affair.
Officials from the show have refused to comment but this is somewhat interesting since reality shows prohibit cast and crew members from fraternizing off camera. Mark Burnett, producer of several hit reality shows including “Survivor” claims that his crew members are warned that merely talking to a contestant is grounds for immediate termination.
“The Bachelor” has been lucky with ratings – impromptu happenings like when Jason Mesnick changed his mind a month after initially proposing to Melissa Rycroft have proved to be a ratings boost for the show. In the Reunion show, he announced he was really in love with the runner up Molly and dumped Melissa on national TV.
The episode where the alleged scandal takes place will air in late January, according to reports. However, no one seems to know which bachelorette was caught fooling around this season and the fate of the crew member. The bachelorette will however be one of the 15 that remained on after the first night of eliminations.
The new season of the Bachelor premiers January 4th on ABC.