Title: Counting Kisses on Night One

It's the premiere of Zach's season and Ben and Ashley have some brutally honest thoughts! 

Have we seen this many kisses before on night one?? Ben breaks down every first impression, right down to the licks. 

And, we look forward to what we can expect from the franchise after the reaction to this season's premiere!  

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the Benn and Ashley I Almost Famous podcast
with her radio. It's a big week at the Almost
Famous Podcast. We are no longer in the off season.
In fact, Ashley I con Eddie did a tremendous job
interviewing this year's bachelor, Zach. You can go back and
listen to it if you haven't already. It's worth listening to.
Ashley did not hold back with questions and and Zach

(00:23):
didn't hold back with answers. I thought it was a
great interview. I left it being excited to meet him.
I'm gonna meet him next week uh in uh in California,
uh at the Pebble Beach a T and t um
pro am, And I'm excited to meet him. I think
he's probably a great dude. I have my thoughts on

(00:44):
the first episode. We'll talk about later, but I thought
your interview was great, Ashley. Thanks Ben, that's so sweet
of you. You did a good job. Now I wasn't
on that interview because this last week I was at
my favorite event, or at least one of my favorite
events of the year. It is the Hilton Grand Vacations
Tournament of Champions. It's a golf tournament we won't bore

(01:06):
you with golf. I will say that somehow, some way,
Chris Harrison did beat Wells and I both somehow some way,
pretty sure that was the obvious winner. No, not at all.
We're close to the same, all three of us. You know,
we go back and forth on who be two and
how who beat two? Chris kind of has that, I

(01:27):
would say the older brother or dad um thing over
Wells and I were. No matter who's better at anything,
he always somehow finds a way to win. Well, maybe
it's because he has over ten years of experience on
the course. So were you guys? Yeah, well he's never
played this though he's never played this event, this was

(01:48):
his uh first time playing at Lake Nona Wells. I
would say he's the most talented golfer. I think Chris
would admit that too. Out of the three of us,
I uh will be the most streaky, meaning I could
get hot and go really low or I could go
really high. And then Chris is kind of that just
like that turtle who just walks slowly, doesn't do anything crazy,

(02:13):
but he just did what he needed to do to
beat us both. That's all the golf knowledge we will
give obviously, um, a big thing coming out of this
weekend for some people, not really as much for me.
But you can listen to Chris Harrison's new podcast, the
most dramatic pod ever, and get super enjoyable. I can

(02:34):
catch you up on the episodes out now. I am.
I've gotten caught up to. Yeah. It's great to hear
his voice again. There's something just so soothing and like,
I feel like listening to it that I would enjoy
listening to it even if I wasn't a Bachelor fan
and didn't know him. Well, I think that's probably the hope, right,
I mean, he has he has a building fan base.

(02:55):
Gonna happen. Yeah, But his relationship advice is very good.
I mean, in general, his advice is very good. He's
seen a lot of things, but he uh, he was
there this weekend with us. Um so was Chris Lane,
who was married to uh Lauren Lane formerly Lauren Bushnell,
who obviously I know well uh, And I was nervous again.

(03:19):
You can get the details of this whole thing. We
won't go into details here on Chris's podcast. I was nervous, anxious,
maybe more or anything. I haven't seen Lauren since we split. Uh.
It didn't really haunt me, but it was just like
a thing where it's like, hey, you know, how often
do you want to run into your exes? Maybe some
they're not they're cool with it. I don't do it often,

(03:40):
Like it's not like a habit of mine. Uh. And
so I was just like, no, this could be weird
and and hopefully it's all good. I don't. I'm sure
it is right. She's married with two kids. I'm married.
Life has gone very good for the both of us
were both very happy. But that first interaction was going
to be a little weird. But but it didn't happen.

(04:01):
You didn't Lauren, Uh, I don't. I don't even know
if she came. But I did see Chris uh and
Lauren's dad, who was there helping Chris out throughout the week.
And it was awesome, It really was. It was really
good Chris Uh, very very kind, very nice. Um. There

(04:21):
was no weirdness, there was no like awkwardness. It was
just good to see him. It was kind of good
to rip that band aid off. It kind of felt
like that first Interactually, Guy, I remember being around him, Yeah,
sweet guy, and Uh. We ran into each other within
ten minutes of me walking into hotel and he didn't
see me. So this is not me being the bigger

(04:42):
man here. But I went up to him, said hey, Chris.
He said hey, ma'am, and that's and then conversation started
about the week. It was great to see Lawrence dad
and it was very nice too. He actually approached me
said hey Ben. Um, so it went great. I guess
overall there was no drama. There is interesting and you
can hear about the details of this. Uh the locker

(05:04):
room that we have at this event, it was Chris
Harrison and me. There's fifty people playing in this thing,
a lot of people. It's Chris Harrison, then me, and
then Chris Lane on the other side of me. Like, yeah,
I was sandwich between the Chris Is. And so when
I saw that that, I saw that before I had
actually ran into Chris Lane, and I was goodness, gracious,

(05:24):
um this Yeah, but it was awesome and I'm really
happy that I got to like meet him again, uh
in person, get to talk to him, get to to
see them. It was in a in a weird way,
therapeutic just to to see them again. And they're great people. Uh.

(05:45):
And so I I definitely. Um wanted them to know that, hey,
we're all good here, like this is great, but uh,
it was a really great week. Sarah came down and
watched Wells. Lauren Zema came down and watched Chris. Jessica
came out and watched me. All of us got to
hang out, my parents, my mom and dad. My dad's
my caddie. My mom is my moral support at times,

(06:08):
my water bottle holder. She is the best. And we
all got to go to family dinners every night, all
of us. We did probably five family dinners, just getting
together and having drinks and having food and talking about
life and laughing. It's a great week um, and what
I'm very thankful for every year. And it was great

(06:30):
to have Chris and Wells um there with me because
this is Chris or Wells the second year, Chris's first,
so sometimes I've done this alone, so it is great
to be all of us together. So can you give
us like a little behind the scenes tidbit of like
how the chemistry is between all the ladies, or like

(06:52):
give us a little dirt from the weekend. You know
that the dirt from the weekend is minimal. Um, there
isn't a lot, because a moment a something something, you
have to have a story. We there's a lot of stories.
So here's a good moment. So I'm on the eighteenth
hole on Sunday and I hit a ball and I

(07:12):
hit it way right by, twenty yards right of the green.
It's a part five, so I had quite a long
ways in so it wasn't a terrible shot. It wasn't
a good shot. I walk up to my ball and
is rolled underneath Sarah and Wells's feet. They were doing
an interview and my ball rolls up and sits underneath
their feet. They don't even know it's there. They have
no clue that it's rolled u underneath their feet. And

(07:32):
so they're in this interview with who knows who, like
NBC or somebody, and I have to walk up behind
them ask them to please move their interview so that
I can hit my ball out of like the media
area that no ball is ever supposed to be him.
That's a good moment. The chemistry between the three girls
was awesome. None of them are huge golfers. Uh. Jessica

(07:56):
walked all eighteen holes with me one day. Uh. I
don't spect her due to every day she doesn't, you know,
love golf, and it's a long walk. I mean, you
put in twenty five thousand steps by the time you're
done on a golf course. So they sat and they
drank wine together. Um, Sarah and Wells are on the
way to Disneyland. Um after disney World, actually sorry, disney

(08:21):
World after the tournament, to do a nice little tour
with Wells brother, Brett and his wife. It's kind of
a week it felt like of like bliss more than
anything else. Um, it just kind of felt like a
week where everybody like is enjoying being in the hot sun,

(08:41):
having drinks. If you want to golf, you golf. If
you don't, you sit at the cocktail bar here and
you just hang out and you watch all the celebrities
walk by. And there's a lot of celebrities there, a
lot of former athletes that I loved growing up. So
it does feel like a week of bliss. My my
week wasn't easy, you know, but it was a lot

(09:01):
of fun. Um, and so I enjoy I just enjoy
being there with my parents and with with Jess and
then obviously to have friends there. So great week and like, no,
no, no no, I can't wait to go back. Um, I
won't bore you with golf knowledge. Well, I want to
jump into one more thing before we do the first

(09:22):
episode recap. How is Chris dealing with I mean dealing
is that the right word? How is he celebrating? Um,
just having the number one podcast last week and just
like kind of feeling back. I laughed at this. You know,
I've been doing this for six years, Ashley. We have

(09:43):
a good podcast. It's a good, solid podcast. It's grown,
it keeps growing. Um, we have a lot of fun
with it. But I've been here for six years now.
Chris has done this for a month and somehow I
found myself this week at this tournament creating content for
him once again, Like he just has this way over
me where if it's on the on the Bachelor, or

(10:06):
if it's with this podcast. We did a whole podcast
about my week, uh, and the and the things that
happened to me just kind of running into Chris and
nothing bad happened, but it was it was a thing, right,
it's it's it's good material for his most dramatic podcast ever.
Here's a good story for example, the stories come out.
I remember we have a buddy of ours, who was

(10:29):
caddying for Robbie Amel. Robbie Amel is an actor and
a bunch of movies. Really good looking Feller looks good
in a golf shirt. And um, his caddy his friends
with Wells from Los Angeles. And we're at dinner one
night and Chris Harrison is talking to me about running
into Chris Lane and this this Robbie's caddy doesn't know

(10:55):
who Chris Lane is, so he googles him and he
kind of waits till the conversations over and all of
us are having this family dinner, and he kind of
stops the conversation goes, yeah, this is Christly and his
wife is so hot. I knew that was coming, and
I was like I didn't say a word. I just
kind of sat there and Chris and Well start laughing
and they're like, hey, you should stop, like that's Ben

(11:17):
Eck Ben's X. And then he's like, oh, that's super awkward,
and so he googles me because at this point Jessica
has not shown up to the term and he goes,
but yeah, but your wife is so hot too. It's like,
I don't say that my wife is hot like that.
It was that was that was good. Obviously it makes

(11:38):
Chris's podcast as well. It's a good story to share.
Chris is handling it great. I mean he's very excited.
He's good at this stuff. I mean when we sat
down to do his podcast with him in the hotel room,
he has a whole paper full of notes and questions
that he wants to get into with us. Uh. The
fans adore him, right, I mean he had tons of
people around asking for autographs and asking for pictures and

(12:02):
asking um for different things from him, and he handles
it really well. I think he's he's in a good spot.
I feel like there's times that I've seen Chris since
obviously the incident, where it felt like, hey, this isn't
the same Chris. I've always known this is there's something
going on here. He's he's hurt. H I would say,
you know, his his love for Lauren's ema is incredible.

(12:25):
I mean, he adores that woman. And I don't want
to speak for them, but I would imagine even listening
to the podcast the last two years has brought them
closer together because they have a tremendous amount of respect
and support for each other. Uh, and they love being
around each other, which is so cool to see. I've
never seen Chris with somebody with a partner right. Uh.

(12:48):
And and I just felt like from this week, it
was a week where I felt like, that's that's my buddy.
He's back, you know, he's he's he's in it, and
he's he's healthy, and he's good, and he he has
great perspective on things again, and he's great advice on
things again. He has a lot of wisdom to share.
But he asked we can have a lot of fun.
So I feel like this podcast has been great for him,

(13:10):
uh and probably great for a lot of people listening.
I just think he's good, Like I feel like he's
in a good rhythm. You guys probably had the episodes
in which he finally got to be able to relax
and have fun. Because the podcast, the first two episodes
are then recapping the past two years. The second too,
are him getting fan questions, and the fan questions are
not easy. They didn't give him softballs at all. Those

(13:32):
those were not filtered questions. And then finally he got
to sit down with you guys and probably have fun. Yeah,
he's kind of on the directory out of that. I mean,
he doesn't need softballs. It's Chris. He should speak what happened.
He should speak to the events that happened. He should
speak to everything. I mean, he doesn't. He doesn't want

(13:53):
to hide away. Uh, and so they shouldn't be softballs.
He should speak to this stuff, and he is and
he's willing to and I think that's ultimately a really
good thing for everybody. And now his show will turn
into um a really fun show for so many people
to listen to and get his perspective and advice on.

(14:13):
And I think that's gonna be a great seat for
him to sit in because it's unfiltered. Chris is not
a filtered human. He can he can put a tie
on and stand in front of a camera and do
great things. But he has just a lot of raw
grit to him too, and life experience that you want
to hear and you want somebody to share, and you
don't want it to be necessarily buttoned up on a

(14:34):
television show like I think this podcast is gonna be
a lot of fun because we get the un the
unfiltered Chris Harrison, the one that we've known and the
one that we've really enjoyed being around and now other
people are gonna be around. And I would tell you
listening to his show, he is himself like that is,
he is more himself on that show than he's I've
ever seen him on a media stage before, and that's

(14:57):
exciting for me. So yeah, listen to It's part of
the our heart family. UM, it's part of our team's family.
It's a great show. It's good to be be with
both of them. Very excited about um just getting to
spend that time with with friends. And we're gonna see
Wells again next week in California. We're gonna see Zach again,
the current Bachelor in California. Uh. And speaking of Bachelor,

(15:20):
actually I think we should take a break. We come back.
We have the first episode of this season to break down.
Cannot wait. I have not talked to you about it yet.
There was no text last night, there was no phone
calls last night. I have no clue how you felt
about this first episode. I know how I feel, and
you all listening, we'll know soon. Before we get into

(15:48):
details of the episode, I will say my overall thought
on the first night is what it is every season,
and you know how I feel about the first episode.
I think it's pointless, I do. I don't. If there's
one thing about the show that could change, it would
be how Night one operates. Now we do have to
meet everybody. The limo entrances are fine and they're nice. Um,

(16:10):
but I don't remember anybody's name. I don't remember how
they introduced themselves. I don't remember much about Night One
in two more weeks, and so I just feel like
there has to be a little switch up here. Uh.
It felt like it does every season. This is not
a critique of this season. This is not being critical
of what I think the season will look like. It
just felt monotonous to me, and it felt, Uh, it

(16:33):
felt very predictable. They're gonna have somebody crying, They're gonna
have somebody upset, They're gonna have somebody trying to steal
more time than others. Not everybody's gonna get to talk
to him. Oh No, what's gonna happen if I don't
get to talk to him. The shan Low segment I
think was meant to mix it up. But what did
we get out of that? We didn't get really any advice.

(16:55):
We didn't get much more than a monologue of of
Zach lifting weight. Um, if you know, I would have
loved to see Sean and and Zach sit down and
Sean go Zack, you weren't the popular choice to be
the bachelor? How are you going to handle that this season?
Like the fact that, like maybe some of these women
even here didn't expect you to be a bachelor. The

(17:15):
fans watching this show right now didn't know that you
were going to be the bachelor. That was not for
How how do you respond to that? Zach? What do
you what do you want to get out of this season?
If you know you're going into it as the underdog?
We didn't get any of that. It just kind of
felt like we skipped over and tried to make Zac
look like this really desirable do that everybody wants, And
it's like, wait, that might be true, and he's good

(17:36):
looking and he's tall, and he might be super nice,
and I'm not going to take that away from him,
but it's not what we know of him yet. We
don't know that as viewers yet, we don't know that
he's a desirable person. You've just kind of thrown us
into that to believe it, and I don't know if
I believe it yet. I think that they were trying
to pretend like that just wasn't a thing. You can't

(17:56):
pretend like it's They were like, oh, were compensating by
its being like, we're not even going to address the
fact that the fandom isn't really into this choice. We're
going to lean into the fact that these girls are
supposedly very into the choice. Like there was that montage
of the girls watching the Bachelor announcement and that was

(18:17):
just so cringe e because uh, the girls were gonna
scream even if you announced Peee Herman as the Bachelor's
good point, I agree, and so you can't ignore it,
and I don't know why they are. The beauty of
the show was the vulnerability of the show, the vulnerability
of the storyline, the vulnerability of the journeys of each
person who is either placed as the lead or coming

(18:40):
onto the show to experience and fine love. Zach storyline
is different. We don't know. Necessarily, you can get more
of the details of this by listening to last week's
podcast with Zack and Ashley. Uh, but we don't know
the details of why he left Rachel. As viewers, if
they don't listen to this podcast, they have no clue
why the Rachel's act situation didn't work out. You also,

(19:03):
as a viewer, probably don't know Zach after last season.
You and I might know he was announced as the Bachelor,
but you're probably as most people are going, why Zach? Now,
not that I'm against it, but why Zach? He's a
nice guy? Okay, cool? And then we just get thrown
into this. And this is why I said, the show

(19:24):
has to I said this last season, the show has
to be very careful of trying to convince the audience
of something that's not true. And this season it felt
like they tried to do it. From night one. They
tried to convince us that everybody wanted Zack and that's
not true. And so are you gonna lose my trust
or are you going to disrespect me as a viewer

(19:47):
to think that my knowledge of the show and watching
it year over year year and try to convince me
that Zack was the most desirable choice. He is not,
And and Zach knows that. Right after you're like podcast
last week, we know that Zach knows that, and that's okay. Yeah,
I don't know if I was the popular choice. I
don't know if Nick vile was a popular choice and
stop that now you were the most shoeing that there

(20:09):
ever has been. Okay, fair that that might be true
also and that and that's great and and but what
do they do with that? They also didn't, you know,
hide the fact that, hey, we don't really have anybody
else here, so like, but they did. And I think
that is what's frustrating to the fandom too. It's like
there's some there's multiple guys that they would have rather

(20:29):
see because they felt like they knew them more via
Paradise or whatever, and still play into that, like, just
give me, give me the opportunity to hear Zach respond
to why he thinks he should be the lead, like
why he is the one that they chose to find love.
Definitely answered that on the podcast, but they didn't do

(20:53):
it on the show. We're talking about the show here
on the On the podcast, I think you get a
lot of details of Zach. I think you're gonna like
him more. I think you're gonna understand him. I think
you're gonna see like what could potentially make him a
really fun lead to follow. My critique of this show
in general on night one was it felt like it
was misleading, and it felt like it didn't ever confront
the elephant in the room that would have been a

(21:14):
beautiful elephant in the room to confront Zach, Who are you?
Why are you here? Why should fans like to follow you?
You remember another like cringe moment of them doing this
was them showing him being a DJ in high school
and then what was the other thing they showed? Yeah,
I just remember the DJ because it's like, maybe he'll

(21:34):
d his own wedding and it's like why would he
do a little throwback clips? And then and then they're
like see now you know I mean, isn't he a
fun guy? Oh? I think he? I think he the
basic Yeah, he was in a band, and so begin
and I'm being very critical, Okay, as we always are

(21:55):
the first episode of the first episode, we always are.
And I'm sure again Zach is I cannot wait to
meet him. I'm very excited to meet him. But to
convince us that he's a cool dude who we're gonna
love to follow, they show us that he was once
a DJ in high school and he played in a band.
Like that's what we got. Like, it's not like he

(22:16):
it's like, hey, those are impressive, and there's a cool
and there's a great traits. Right, but last you know,
our last bachelor was a professional football player, so like
you know, it's it's just different, Like he was he
was cool in high school? Is that what we're trying
to say, Like has he not done anything since? Is
what does his life look like now? And it felt

(22:39):
like they just felt so short on convincing us and
and and they tried so hard, right we have the
he played in a band, he was a DJ, and
then they have the segment with all the women being
excited about Zack being the Bachelor, and then they have
you know, him curling, and then you know, it's like
they tried really hard, and I just think they didn't.

(22:59):
And so the first episode kind of feel like a
throwaway to me because what they tried to do did
not work. That's my opinion, very very very well put,
very well put. Should we jump into the girls now?
I will say there are some there's a good memorable girls.
And I'm glad that they brought back packages because I
remembering correctly that like last year there wasn't packages or

(23:19):
one of the past few seasons there wasn't. And I
do think it gets you to know the main characters better. Yeah,
they're they're really There are some ones that I feel
like he has an actual chance with. Um. I say
that as if there's not normally, but you know what
I mean, Like, there are girls that I can like

(23:41):
five that I can name and be like, Okay, this one,
this one, this one, these are the ones to watch
half for. Brianna is well, she's the last one. At
the moment, we know she's safe. This is like kind
of a little recap that we get at the beginning
of the episode. You know that she's safe because she's
got America's first impression Rose. Um. There were five girls
at after the phone, Rose Bailey your friend being one

(24:02):
of them, and he ends up forgetting her name. Um,
he calls her Baylin and whatever. You know that things
like that happen. Um. Then there's Catherine and that's her.
She's got a package next. And I feel like Catherine
is very much a front runner right now. I would

(24:22):
talk about how attractive she is, and she has like
a nice calumnist there's something there anything else said about Catherine. No,
I think she I think Katherine. I don't remember the
girl's name um, which I'm sure we can find out
very soon and I'll reference it. I think the two
front runners are Katherine and then Um for me, the

(24:43):
girl that no not career, I mean yeah, sure, I
mean she's up there, but it would be the girl
that kind of um consoled Madison as she was walking out.
She was very calm and she was kind of like
I can she like made a Harry wise and like, um,

(25:04):
just carrying comment where She's like I can kind of
see that some of the girls are getting upset and
that that's tough, and you know, she's just kind of
like going to be there for the girls. I don't
know her name, will find that out, but yeah, Catherine
is definitely a front runner to me. She's somebody that
stood out. UM. She's beautiful, like you said, she's calm,

(25:25):
she's collected, and she just feels like she belongs there. Yeah.
Christina is up next as far as the packages goes.
She's so Nashville. She has a five year old daughter.
She's got a vibe. I don't know whether she's going
to be a vibe for Zach, but she's definitely getting
from in the house. She might be a shipster. What

(25:46):
do you think or is she going to be a
girls girl. I think she'll be a girls girl. I do.
I think she Yeah, I think she's gonna be a
big personality. I just don't think she's going to try
to like mess things up. I just think she's gonna
be a big personality in the house that the girls
are going to either like really gravitate to or the
quieter ones are just kind of gonna sit back on
the set. She looks exactly like Kelsey Ballerini meets Lauren Conrad.

(26:12):
Is she the one that at the end of the
episode was doing the kegels? Yeah, I think so. I
like that part. I was like, that girl's chill, like
she's funny. She was responding to their questions really well.
She was like making a lot of humor out of it. Um.
I was like, that girl could go a long ways,
like she's got she's got what it takes m hm.

(26:34):
And then Charity. She is a child family therapist. She
loves her job, she finds it really rewarding. Uh. She
she's eager to get married. Jared pointed out that he
hates it when the girls say eager to get married,
because it's like, are you eager to find like somebody
spend the rest of your life with, or do you
just like want the the what d you doesn't want

(26:55):
that title? We are we looking to into it? I
think what he would prefer then them to say, I'm
just really ready to find love. Yeah, okay, I mean
that's what they meant. Yeah, you know, I'm sure it is.
I don't really remember charity Charity. I know if I
saw her face, I would I know Charity because I

(27:16):
think he made the comment about how beautiful her name was,
Uh you need your name was, so I do remember that. Um.
I think all the packages highlighted women who are going
to be there a while. I don't think any of
the packages home one night one right right. That is
a big thing because sometimes they pepper in packages from

(27:39):
women who like leave night one and it's just like,
why did you even waste that time? Yeah, these girls,
I definitely think are here to stay. So Career's next.
She's in Houston, Texas, and we see later in the
episode that they have a real bonding moment about Texas.
Their conversation is probably the easiest of the night. Would
you agree with that? She's also just like that girl

(27:59):
that barely has any makeup on and looks great and
guys lover. Yeah, it's definitely one of the easiest conversations
I think I'm getting every season. You try to understand
the lead and I think I know zax um thing
when he's feeling awkward or nervous, and he closes his
eyes when he talks, like he's saying words and closing

(28:20):
his eyes at the same time, because I think he's nervous,
which is fairy right. I licked my lips. Everybody has
a thing um with her. He didn't close his eyes
and talk. He he was very in the moment. It
felt very relaxed, and from my perspective, if since he
wasn't doing that, he was just enjoying the conversation, which

(28:41):
is a good sign. Yeah, she made him feel so
comfortable because she was way more comfortable in the environment
than he was. And I think he could just be like, oh, okay,
I'm gonna let her carry this, and that made him
feel just at ease. You need that. Yeah, Okay. So
in Brooklyn, she's the rodeo girl. I don't really think

(29:04):
that anything else stood out about her to me. But
Brianna is next and Brianna was again the first impression Rose.
She has her own beauty company. I feel like she's
gonna be around for a while or do you think
that she's gonna be one of those Well, she's not
a first impression Rose, she's America's first impression Ros. Do
you think that she's gonna be around a while or
this is just America's choice in Zack's like not as

(29:26):
into it as America's. I don't know how you wouldn't
be into it. Yeah, she's stunning, Yeah, and she seems
really sweet. She was great, Um, she didn't. She didn't
cause drama. Like she could have easily been the person
that had the rose walking in and then also just
go in and like be reckless with it, and she wasn't.
And so I think she'll be around a long time. Uh,

(29:48):
And I I feel like she's gonna be somebody that
we really get to know through this show. So America
made a good choice with that first Impression Rose. You
think the producers gave her that rose dress? Yes, there's
no way. She just had it in her luggage. Well,
I mean that's kind of something that I would do. Yeah, No,
I think she I mean, my my guess is that

(30:10):
that was set up well. She looked great in that dress.
Beautiful all right. Next up in the last package was
Katie from Austin, and she's a nurse and she also
really makes me feel like she's going to be there
for a while. I think that he's very into her. Again,
there's the same sort of like composure, calmness, beauty. They

(30:33):
really couldn't go wrong a lot of nurses this season.
If anything ever happens in the house, I feel like
they're very well protected. A lot of nurses this season. Yeah,
I mean, I go back to it. Like the packages
this season seemed to introduce people who we're going to
be around and going to be there, which is why
I went through the packages. You know. I was like, Okay,

(30:55):
let's go through the package because let's just talk about
these girls. Because when I look back on the episode,
thes are pretty much the girls that I remember through
limo entrances. Do you remember any I don't. I have
to say not a lot of entrances really stood out
to me. There wasn't a lot of shock factor entrances,
which I am down for. Let's just get through it.
I thought that it was discussing that that one girl

(31:18):
licked his ear. I mean I wouldn't like that. No,
but I mean it happens. No, you wouldn't. No, I wouldn't.
It's gross. She well, she didn't make it past night one,
so yeah, I know, of course she didn't. Yeah, it's
not it's like, like it's not a great thing. I
mean a couple of things in the limit entrances. One,
why in the world that Jesse Palmer smells Zack's breath.

(31:38):
I don't do that with my wife. I don't want
her to do that to me. He's, you know, sticking
those way up there. It's like, if you think it's
not great, then just hand him a listening stript. Weird
moment there. I don't know why it has to happen,
you know. The really, there's only a few limit entrances that,

(31:58):
um it's it out to me. One is that he
kissed Bailey. Uh yeah, kind of out of nowhere, kind
of just like, hey, do you remember my name? Yeah, Bailey?
And then he leans in and kisses her. It's like,
I mean cool, Like, if that's how we're gonna play this.
He felt so bad about forgetting her name on stage
and this is only a couple of days after this,

(32:20):
and I think he was just like, how do I
make her feel comfortable and know that, like she actually
did make an impression on me, But but I just
I didn't remember her name fair enough. Um. I don't
know if we've ever have we ever seen like a
legit first kiss. No, we've seen like girls come in,
come in and kiss him. Um, but have we seen

(32:41):
the bleed? Actually, Like, I don't kiss somebody. It's like
on the limit entrances. I don't think so. I mean
in a sense, and he already met Bailey kind of
so like he's met her before. But in a lot
of ways, it would be if you take away the
fact that they met on live tell television, it would
be somebody just getting out of a car for the

(33:03):
first time, saying, hey, this is a great first day,
and then you're like cool and then you just lean in.
That's so true. I don't know, no, no, I don't
think that's happened in the past that we've been watching. Yeah,
but it's just the weirdest thing that even like these
people sit down for ten minutes and kiss. I was
thinking about this last night. Well, someone we're gonna talk

(33:25):
about you did it? You did it? Did you kiss
I don't. Yeah, but like back in your day, you
like kiss one or two people tops, Yeah, it can
have been more than one. Yeah, Like Crystals only kissed
Britt and we didn't even know that until after the fact.
Some we're gonna talk about here coming up, um, right
after this break, we're gonna talk about the most kisses

(33:49):
we've ever seen on Night one? How do we feel
about it? Wait? Ben, is it really technically like have
we Bachelor data? This? This is the seven seven kisses? No,

(34:13):
don't do it, guys. It's so nice to only have
one or two like actually means something. I know that
what's her name? Madison? She just threw herself at him,
so like does that you know? And and Holland you know, um,
Holland him It was Madison. It was Madison. Sorry Madison. Yeah, yeah,
Holland had the entrance I did remember you went to
Holland last season. You were in the wrong Holland. I

(34:34):
thought it was kind of funny, funny. It wasn't dirty
enough to be like, yeah, this is kind of funny.
Another entrance that I have to say I remembered was
actually Madison's because I think her insecurity started creeping up
early when he didn't like the taste of the syrup,
which like, why was he so weird about the syrup?
You like it sugar? I don't know so, Ashley. If

(34:57):
you remember back a few years ago, I had this
ery on this show. When you're the lead, you start
making out when conversation feels duck, when you feel awkward. Uh,
you might be physically attracted the person, You might be
attracted to the person, but you have nothing else to say.
And I think I said it a few seasons ago,

(35:18):
I said, I am watching as a viewer to see
how many kissing scenes we see and how many conversations
we see. I think it was Matt James this season
when we were complaining throughout the season that we don't
really know these women, that all we're seeing is Matt
kissing them, and we don't know these women because we
didn't feel like Matt was asking the follow up questions,
asking the questions that were obvious, asking the things that

(35:39):
would bring out who the person is and why they
are the way they are. Night one for me makes
me concerned for that for the rest of the season,
because I felt like he was kissing people. Now he
was asking, and it was sweet at times, and and
maybe it felt appropriate. But night one is a very
easy night for conversations. You know nothing about this person.

(36:01):
You can ask anything and you're gonna learn it, and
you're gonna follow up and you're gonna hear more and
get to understand who these people are. Night one, to
me feels like it's a very odd time to kiss
seven people because I, from my perspective and my judgment,
would say, you're covering up the fact that you don't
know what else to talk about. And if you're already
feeling that way on night one, when it's the easiest

(36:22):
to have things to talk about, how is it gonna
look in week six. It's interesting that you say night
one is the easiest thing to the easiest time to talk,
and now I'm thinking I kind of agree. It's because
everyone's strangers, so you literally like, so tell me about
your life, and like those those things can pick up

(36:43):
a conversation really easily. Yeah, it's the dates that are
like nine hours long and they're so quiet that makes
you feel a bit more awkward. We have to understand
that as when you're in that these conversations are no
more than ten minutes long. They there are most ten
minutes would be a long first night conversation. They're very short,

(37:05):
and so within that five to ten minutes, if you
are kissing them, then you are obviously either moving very
quickly and you're just feeling the physical vibe. If it
was with one person, I'd say, WHOA, there's a connection there, right,
it's the it's it's something, there's some fire that they're
seeing in each other. But when it happens seven times,

(37:27):
I am hesitant and I am concerned about the fact
that you can't carry a conversation for five minutes to
ten minutes with somebody that you've never met before, and
as a result, you have to kiss them to show
them that you're interested. Is there not another way to
show him you're interested, Marty? Just tell them, Hey, I
really enjoyed this conversation. I'm very like attracted to you.

(37:49):
I'm excited to get to know you more. There's so
much more I have to learn about you. Instead, the
default is let's just make out, which also is not
a great thing for the other woman to see. It
was something that most bachelors are very protective of is Hey,
I don't want to kiss somebody in front of other women.

(38:11):
You know some of these women, one of these women
might be my wife. I don't want her to see
me making out with somebody else. But there was no
shame in that this season. There's no shame. Everybody saw everything,
like every kiss the women are watching now. That could
be the producers, could be I don't know, but night

(38:32):
one is not the night to do it. It's an
open stage. It's an open area. There's not a lot
of place to hide. If it would if if I
was on the advisement committee, I would say, hey, just
cool up for night one. Start night to do it
that time. Here's a small theory. Maybe because there wasn't
as much of an interest in him, they thought, how

(38:54):
do we make women really go crazy and how do
we get them to be possessive of? And that could
be watching him get physical with another girl. Possibly. I
don't know. I'm just really spitballing here. I mean, I
think I don't really think that's what it is. I
think your theory is correct. I think he probably just
felt a little awkward and he was like, what do

(39:15):
I know how to do? Which is the concern for
most people going into this season that Zak is going
to be very awkward and hard to watch, right, I
mean that's that's that is the critique of this season
going into it. So this didn't help me on that.
All right, well, Ben, I mean you're on fire today.
You could literally have done this podcast on your own.
He's got these theories and got bullet points, and you

(39:38):
really analyze this episode. I love it. Well. I want
Zack to thrive, I do. I want this to be
a great season for him. I want him to come
out of this finding love. I think Zach is I
will say this, I think he is the type of
person that will come off the show with a partner
and I would not be shock if they're going to
be together forever. I do think he has the desire

(40:01):
to find love. I think he has um the openness
to this experience. I also think Zach is looking at
this thing like I kind of hit the lottery, Like,
you know, I have thirtiesome beautiful women here trying to
date me and just like falling over me. And I
don't know how many times that's happened in Zack's life.
Were like you know, he's been pursued in this kind

(40:23):
of like capacity, and so I think it's a good
opportunity for him. I do. I think Zach could give
us a great love story, and I'm excited to watch that.
I would just say, yes, my my night. One critiques
are very critical because I didn't get anything that I
was wanting to get her. I think a lot of
viewers were wanting to get out of this first episode.

(40:45):
I just concur That's all I can say that I
agree with you. I'm pretty much everything you're saying. I mean,
Jesse even said Zack's like has this like he's so funny,
has this great sense of humor. It's like, what, we
haven't seen any of it, and we didn't see any
of it, Like, okay, then show him cracking a joke.
She'll make him fun of himself. Speaking of like trying
to be funny, I guess was Madison's moment when she

(41:08):
was dancing what was it called the giddy the jitty
they with the dance whenever. I've never heard of it before.
But also I'm like, mom, is it okay? I'm say,
uh so they're doing the dance thing and then she
kisses him and it's awkward. And then he's like he
but first he was like, I don't want to dance anymore.
Let's not dancing, Moore, that's enough. And then she kisses

(41:30):
him and he's like, let's continue to dance. So awkward,
he wasn't into it. But it was also like she
was being a little cry She was, but it's also
you know, I don't know what kind of expectations everybody
has going in to night one. It felt like she
had a lot, like I just want him to recognize me.

(41:52):
It's like, well, you got one thirty chance for that,
so don't freak out if on night one you're not
the one that stands out. You've got a long time
in front of here, still out, hang out, have a drink.
I was like, all I want is a little like
sparkle in his eye, like to see him like maybe
like double take at me. That's all I'm asking for.
I mean, it's just a lot, and you're kind of
in a whirlwind as the lead. You're turning in circles,

(42:14):
like every second you get there's somebody coming from this direction,
in this direction, in this direction, and to focus on
one person, to recognize one person, and to have that
sparkle like that that is doesn't happen every season. So
I wish, you know, she would have been told, hey,
just take a seat, hang out, you're good. She may
have made it through the night. She may have made

(42:36):
it through the night she she died. She could have
made it through the night. She reminded me a lot
of how Lace uh kind of felt on um my season.
Lace was overwhelmed with just like so much happening and

(42:56):
there is a lot happening, and there's cameras, and there's people,
and there's conversations, and then you all all, you all
are pursuing this one lead. And if if if you're
not like maybe in a great space, if you're not confident,
if you have some like insecurities that maybe you haven't
spoken to or tried to work through, they will come

(43:17):
out and they can come out and they can come
out with a vengeance. And sometimes we don't see those
insecurities for a couple of weeks on this show. But
you know, Lace just needed to go home, like she did.
She just and then that that was not necessarily even
my decisions. She just knew she needed to get out
of there because it wasn't creating a healthy environment for her.
I think the same thing from Madison. She needed to
go home. As soon as she started to cry on

(43:38):
night one, like she was, the first thing I thought
was like, this girl needs to get out of here.
This is not going to be healthy for her. This
is not gonna get any better for her. This is
not going to be one of those people, as we've
talked about, who leaves this show no matter when they
leave it and say I'm glad I did it. Yeah,
leaving on night one is usually and it would be
crying over. It's obviously not about you thinking that that

(44:01):
guy is your person. It's about like just the national rejection. Yeah,
which which sucks. I'm sure. I mean, I'm sure that hurts,
and I'm sure it's weird, and I'm sure you have
I mean, you know, she said I give up my
life for this. I don't know what kind of life
she gave up for this. Don't do that. If anybody's
listening and they're thinking about going on the show next season,
don't give up your life for this show. Like figure
out a way to you know, block out some time,

(44:24):
but like, don't go into this thinking that life's gonna change.
For you. Traditionally it doesn't. Historically it doesn't, and so
don't have that perspective, and it puts too much pressure
on the situation. It puts so much weight on every
interaction with the lead. You want to make sure this
person is right for you. You want to make sure
you're right for them, and just hang out, have fun

(44:46):
with it. Treat it like a sorority house or a
frat house, like, just enjoy the ride for as long
as you're riding. M all right. Well, when we look
at the rejects, Kara, Laca, Holland, Olivia, l Olivia, m Becca, Sonja, Vanessa,
and Victoria, I don't remember any of them except for

(45:07):
like who licked him and then Holland who wanted him
inside her? Do you remember? And it's pretty pretty typical
of the first row ceremony. It is there was one
girl that I had never seen. She was like a
taller blonde um who was very pretty that kind of
like snuck up and she was gone. I don't know
who what her name was, but I was like, huh,

(45:29):
we never saw anything about her, but I don't even
if we saw her limit limo entrance. Um. So that
was maybe a little of a shock. There's always one.
Gotta be the grocery shore jail. Yeah, yeah, definitely, So no,
nothing surprising on night one. Don't think any of our standouts,
any of the people focused on, didn't get shown and

(45:50):
they had to go home, so night one's over. It
did look eerily bright, like the sun was every time.
Every season it gets brighter and brighter. I was gonna say,
like some seasons you can kind of see the sun
coming up over the mountains there. Um, this season, it
felt like the sun was nice and high in the sky.

(46:13):
Time it was lunchtime. Those poor girls had to go
back to the hotel and sleep and then wake up
and get back on a flight and go home and
be like, I don't know what just happened to me?
Not a flight, It was weird. Yeah, what flight are
you talking about? For all the people that had to
go home on nightline. Oh, those girls had to go home, Okay,
they had to fly home. I don't think they ride
their bikes. Oh no, sorry, thinking thinking about the other girls.

(46:37):
They go to the hotel for a night and then
pack up their stuff and then move into the mansion.
The next night. They're moving into the mansion so overall,
it was a Night one. I'm not going to get
too critical of the rest of the season. I don't
know the highlights for the rest of season look like
how every season goes. There's tears, and there's people upset,
and there's people leaving, and there's you know, you know,

(46:59):
Zack fully sharing how much he wishes somebody would come back.
And I think it's gonna be, um a fine season.
I was hoping Night one just kind of blasted us
off into this whole new stratosphere of excitement. I would
say this could probably be another season where Week three
I don't watch till Week six and I'm fine with it. Um,

(47:20):
I hope not, but we'll find out next week after
watching the episode. And it's been another season where they
decided not to mix up Night one. I just want
something crazy on Night one. Yeah, mix it up a
little bit, like give us something different. I'll say. In
the scene to the next episode, there's like no fence jump,
but there's no moment that they'll be teasing for a while,

(47:42):
which kind of makes me nervous. Well, I think the
part that they'll be teasing will be the fact that
somebody leaves or that he lets somebody go home that
he really wishes comes back. Yeah, which, hey, I would
be a good storyline. Yeah, alright, Ashley, we uh, we

(48:11):
gotta do headlines. There are a few today. Um, let's
dive into it. There's Bachelor Nation headlines. The first headline
is one that threw me off, surprised me, um, saddened
me um as. I know a lot of people in
Bachelor Nation felt. Former bachelorette Dianna and stevens split after

(48:32):
eleven years of marriage. I know so sad. So if
you guys don't know their backstory, Steven Stagliano was actually
the brother of somebody who was a contestant on another
prior prior Bachelor at season, and the two of them
met through Bachelor Nation and they've been married for eleven years.
And they said, it's with immense sadness that Stephen and

(48:54):
I have decided to end our relationship as a couple.
We've been working hard for a long time, both as
a married couple and its individuals, and have come to
the conclusion to remain separate. We remain loving parents who
are beautiful children Addison in Austin, and will continue to
raise them together with love and faith and we respect
and please respect our privacy during the civil of time
as we navigate the new normal. Um, they've been the

(49:20):
children are eight and six, and she said in two
thousand eighteen she opened up about the marriage and she said,
we think you're crazy if you don't go to therapy. Um.
We are all a product of our environment and how
we were raised, and none of us are perfect. Yeah. Well,
it's tough news. We had her on the podcast last

(49:41):
year as they were moving. UM, I remember talking to her,
wishing the best as they start this new journey. As
they say, UM, co parenting still but doing it in
separate places. Well, Kristen Cavalary seemingly confirms date with Tyler Cameron.
UM romance speculation. This is a good headline. So if

(50:04):
you guys remember on New Year's Eve, UM, it was
Kristen and her hairstylist and his boyfriend with Tyler and
Caitlin and Jason out to dinner and people are like, well,
it seems like everybody at that table is coupled up. Well,
now she's kind of seemingly confirming this because she says,

(50:29):
my last date was public. She said this on her podcast.
My last day was public, So if you really want
to know, I guess you can google it. I know
she said that. Um, she doesn't have to say it,
but it was New Year's weekend, New Year's Eve weekend,

(50:50):
and uh, that's that's all she said. But she will
let you know when she's getting someone serious and is
it a committed relationship. She's the kind of person that
will shout it from the rooftops. But until then, she's
not going to comment on her love life any further, said,
your girl's going to have fun. So they met you, guys,

(51:12):
um when they were doing a collab for something. I
think he was modeling something, perhaps without com James, Yeah, James, Yeah.
So now you know, we always kind of thought this
would happen, always assumed. Well, Natasha Parker leaves Bachelor podcast
because of issues with franchise. Did you hear about this? Weird?

(51:35):
I mean not weird. I mean I'm sure there's a
good reason for it, but she's very vague about it.
She talks about it on click Bait. She said she's
leaving the podcast. She says that she's not going to
get into the who, what, why, and where and all
that stuff. Um, but in the past six months, she's
seen stuff happening in the franchise that is basically not
for her. She says, sometimes being part of the franchise

(52:00):
is hard to continue with and just like let that
be that. She says, the click pay producers are amazing
and she wants to continue podcasting. But he's like in
her own way, so we really don't get much. We
don't know what it is. We don't know what happened
in the last six months that made her make this decision.

(52:21):
Six months. Yeah, so maybe we'll find out if she
does come out with her new show. I'll be listening
to that. Well. Next inline is this shooting her shot
Bachelor alum Michelle Young since flirty message to Michael B.
Jordan's So this is this really funny TikTok trend where

(52:42):
basically it goes my mom says, never get into a
stranger's car, and then you show a stranger who's really
hot pretty much a celebrity. IM pretty sure it's always
a celebrity in the next little flash, and then you
show yourself or this guy getting into the car to
crazy manner. I personally love the Joe Burrow one, but

(53:03):
in Michelle's case, she's putting she's putting Michael b Jordan's
in that car, saying get in, and she jumps right in.
So she's not saying this really directly to Michael b Jordan's,
but she's putting the video out there and we are.
I am hoping that this becomes a thing and then
he sees it and reaches out. I hope so well.

(53:25):
Speaking of romance, bachelorette Gabby Wendy in Jersey Shore's Vinny
caught holding hands on Flirty night out for Dancing with
the Stars tour stop. All right, the headline is misleading.
They weren't caught holding hands on a Flirty unit out

(53:45):
for Dancing with the Stars. The held hands on stage
a Dancing with the Stars. I'm reading these little bits,
you know that they are um in Atlantic City, that
they did Ford shows together in Atlantic City, and everybody's like,
you know, doing this the dating speculation and they're like

(54:05):
always flirtatious, blah blah. But then like I get to
the crux of this article and it just says that
they're holding hands on stage and it seemed genuine like
this is no, this is exactly what they do. And
headlines and it's so silly. They held hands when they
bowed to the audience at the end. It seemed like

(54:27):
they held hands a few times, but it could have
been a part of a routine. So in the end,
still kind of they are they? Are they not? Are they?
Or are they not? Situation with Gabby and Vinny. I
think they could be playing into it. We're rooting it on.
Can it just happen? Do you think at this point

(54:47):
it's just like they're just kind of playing with it
and it's not legit because it would have like we
would have seen more and heard more if it was
still happen. Next headline one that will celebrate Bachelor Paradise Alam.
Michelle Money engaged to golfer Mike Weir. Me and you
forever is her quote. Alright, So Michelle Money and her

(55:07):
her now fiance golfer mic Weir have been together for
seven years and they haven't talked about um basically not
getting married in the past, just being like, we are
committed to each other forever, but we don't need a
piece of paper to make it legally official. But now
they've changed their mind. Michelle talks about on her into story.
I think she just was like you know, let's it's

(55:30):
just a change of mind, truly, and the two of
them had really cute Instagram posts I love you, I'm
so lucky, um mine, and of course Bachelor Nation was
very prominent in the comments underneath um all congratulating them
and so happy. Michelle Money is a serious favorite of
the franchise. She definitely is. We're really really excited for her. UM. Well,

(55:56):
that's all the headlines we have for you today. I
do want to say, Ashley that as you were breaking
this down, the ratings for last night came out. Oh god.
The headline is speaking that the Bachelor producers and exects
do believe the season will be down and may um
hurt the show drastically in some capacity. Last night the

(56:18):
show had two point eight million viewers and a zero
point six rating. It's down from last year's even premiere
of three point five million viewers and a point eight ratings,
So it's down seven thousand viewers. That is not good.
It's down to two point eight million viewers um, which
is a drastic decline from even four years ago. Klein

(56:42):
in a year, massive decline, huge percentage there. So it
makes us wonder once again If the headline is that
the Bachelor producers are concerned internally about this season having
low ratings, why in the world are they making the
decisions they're making. That's not for us to side. That's
for us to analyze and to critique and to make

(57:04):
assumptions about. And we'll do that every week right here
on the Almost Famous Podcast. Yes we will, So until
next time, I've been been as Follow the Benn and
Ashley I Almost Famous podcast on iHeart Radio or subscribe
wherever you listen to podcasts.