Bachelor Breaking News: The Departure of Mike Fleiss

Jared and Ashley NEED to discuss the breaking news around the decision from Bachelor creator Mike Fleiss to move on from the franchise after more than 20 years.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous podcast
with IR Radio. Hey, Almost Famous nation. Ben is still away,
but we got breaking news. So who's going to break
down the breaking news with me? The guy that sleeps
in the same bed with her, which is why I'm here. Ni,
So I was the easier. They were like, who can

(00:22):
we get? Actually, look to your left, get that guy. Well,
here he is. Because I can't break news on myself.
Everybody knows I'm very awkward if I have to like
it to myself. No, no no, no, no, I can break
the news down, baby, I'm saying that. Like you know,
I can't talk to myself, so I need to have
somebody here to talk about things too. But Ben and you,

(00:43):
you could just get out on a mic with nobody
else listening and just sound normal. Yeah, I mean we
talk to ourselves constantly. Well, I'll say that you do
feel a lot more comfortable talking to yourself around the
house than I in the house, out of the house, anywhere.
I talk to myself all the time. So if you
just put a mic on me, I'll have a phone conversation.
We're burying the lead here. So we're here because Bachelor

(01:05):
creator Mike Fleiss is parting ways with the franchise after
more than two decades. That is right, Bachelor creator Mike
Fleiss is parting ways. So let me read the Variety
article really quick. We don't get a ton of detail
in it, and every article out there basically uses the
exact same quotes and the information. There's not a lot

(01:27):
of detail. Bachelor creator Mike Fleis is parting ways with
the mega dating franchise he launched more than two decades ago.
Flights will be replaced by new showrunners Claire Freeland, Jason
Erlick and Bennett. You know, Bennett's a great friend of mine,
and I have no idea how to say his last
name Grabner. I don't know, Anne, It's Bennett, and we're

(01:53):
very happy for Bennett. But yeah, so they've all had
long term ties to The Bachelor. Jared and I know
firsthand that Bennett is the one that has been the
most involved with the American version of The Bachelor for
the longest, non interrupted time. He has been there since
we began. So Mike Fleis is walking away or parting

(02:16):
ways with The Bachelor. What's crazy about this article? It
says nearly fifty five seasons of the collective shows have
all been created by Flis. What Bachelor shows have not
been created by Fliz? I don't even know, Yell. I
believe that they all have so obviously the fact that
the franchise is moving forward, Charity season is filming right now,
Paradise has already been announced, and I would imagine that

(02:38):
The Bachelor is going to be picked up once again,
Fleiss said, first and foremost congratulations are in order for
Zach and Katie. I wish them a long and happy
life together. I want to thank wb TV and ABC
for twenty one extraordinary years. They found the perfect creative
team for me to entrust the Bachelor franchise and keep
this lightning in a bottle bold and moving forward. Let

(03:01):
the journey continue, Those with l said. He said it
in a statement directly to Variety. The man is most
known for his tweets. He's not most known for his tweets,
but he is very well known for his tweets because
he's always teasing that something very very dramatic is going
to happen, and then like nothing really super dramatic happens,

(03:22):
or he says a good, big, huge news, So we
will be missing those big teas. I mean, he might
still do those who knows he's not deleting his Twitter.
I was surprised that he didn't announce this in a tweet.
I mean, I've no idea if he did or not.
I imagine not if he's setting out a statement right now.
But I think that the show's not going to I mean,

(03:43):
I guess we'll find out if we see any changes
in the show. You know, they even say in this
article that he hasn't been really a part of the
day and day for over a decade. For over a decade,
so you know, I don't think that much is going
to change with the show. But Fleiss, I mean, let's
be on his flace created. He created one of the
most polarizing and popular reality TV shows that have ever

(04:07):
hit airways. So and Mike, if you are listening to this,
we are grateful that you created this show, because if
you didn't, then Jared and I really probably wouldn't have met. Yeah,
have our family our whole life now. So we are
very grateful for your craft. Well we were never We
never interacted with Mike all that much. They would be
kind of I remember seeing him for the first time.

(04:28):
I think it. He might have showed up at the mansion.
I can't really remember, but he would always wear philp
flops and like this Tommy Bahama shirt, and I'm like,
I thought that he was always in black with his
tinted sunglasses. That's what I always think of. And when
you look at him up online. Oh no, I remember,
I remember Phili flops. That's what I remember. I don't
know why that stuck in my head, but I remember
somebody saying like, oh, that's that's my place. He is

(04:50):
the guy I was like, oh my god, especially when
you first cast it on the show and you're filming
and you know, it's so nerve wracking, and so we
never had too many interactions with Mike, but I remember.
That's where I'm meeting up to, is that this past
season of Paradise that Ashley and I had the opportunity
to go on, we were walking to an interview and
we saw Mike with his family, and it's always nerve
wracking because he's not our boss, obviously, but also he's

(05:13):
the guy that like is obviously giving like a saying yeah, okay,
you can have Ashley and Jared back, which we're always
super grateful for us, so it's like, oh my god,
like this is weird. And then me but we had
such a pleasant car He came up. You know, we
said hi, and he knew who We were very grateful
to have you guys, like really, thank you so much. Yeah,

(05:34):
it was a really nice interaction. He said that, you know,
he thanked us for everything we've done for the franchise,
and it's like, ah, you don't need to thank us,
but that means the world to us. So thank you,
because you know, we don't know if he cares who
we are, but he did. What Let's talk about how
his departure will impact the show, because you know, it
says he didn't have a like day to day hands

(05:56):
on create. It wasn't a day to day producing that
he was, although was he considered the show runner. This
is what we understand from just other producers and all
the seasons that we were involved in. It was that
he had the ultimate say in a lot of the

(06:17):
big decisions, most notably who would become the lead. And
then he'd show up two things like tell alls and
he'd make a visit to the mansion a couple of
times a season. It's not creating storyline, so like that,
So I would imagine, how do we think him leaving
will affect the show. I do think it's gonna be
I think it's going to affect a lead choice, especially,

(06:39):
I think it's gonna affect the lead choice. I'm just
gonna kind of leave it at that. Yeah, it could.
But also I'm imagining it's not Flice. I would imagine
that Flice over the years hasn't come in and be like,
I want this person to be the Bachelor, and that's that.
I'm sure that just like any business these you know,
a lot of the producers have brought him options and
saying okay, well down to so you know this person,

(07:01):
that person, and this person, and like, we think that
this person could be really good here, but we also
think that that person could do really well here, and
then he probably makes the ultimate decision. So I don't know.
That's why I think I think the ultimate decision might
be changed because I think if you were to look
at like the possible batches from the from Clayton the
Zach eras, I think you look at the lead choices

(07:24):
and you're you definitely think that Zach could be like
in the bunch of contenders. But you also think that
Zach's not the one that gets chosen of the contenders.
I think that he's the one that made those choices. Yeah,
I mean honestly, I guess time will tell, you know,
watching the show and see if we as an audience
notice anything different with it now that the creators stepped aside.

(07:44):
My assumption would be, I don't know what my assumption is.
I guess we'll find out. Twice leaving could mean lots
of things. Yeah, but I think the most important thing,
or not the most important thing. But like, my lasting
impression of Flice leaving is that it really is a
changing of the guard almost because even though he hasn't

(08:05):
been involved, Like Flice created The Bachelor. That's crazy. Imagine
being Imagine meeting someone and be like, yeah, I am
created survivor. Like huh mean you created it? And really
I thought of it and then I made it happen. Yeah,
that's what Mike Flie can say for the rest of
his life, be like, yeah, you know the show The Bachelor, Yeah, yeah,

(08:27):
I created that. Yeah. So what was he known as
do we think? Was it executive producer? And now he's
not executive producers? I have no idea. It says creator,
so whatever that means, okay, but it's will forever be
the creator. So you can't like step down as creator.
Well yeah, I guess it can't be former creators. So
I don't know what exactly he's stepping down as because

(08:49):
like he said, it's just it's as creator. It doesn't
say that and his hands on and he hasn't been
hands on, so maybe he wasn't. Again, I think that
he was just executive decision maker and that's what we'll
be changing. So whether that's lead choices or whether that
is what other what other things could possibly be changed?

(09:13):
Maybe I think everybody really talks about lead choices and
Cassie well, of course, because those are the biggest decision
to be made, who's going to be the Bachelor of
the Bachelor, Like you know, should we travel here, we
travel there? Those are all minute decisions, Like the biggest
decision is who's going to be the lead. So yeah,
I mean flights leaving, We'll see if we notice any
changes with the show. But then also, like Fly said

(09:35):
and this in this article said, it seems like the
show's in really good hands. Now, I don't know two
of the three producers, but the one producer that we
do know personally is so good at his job, and
I have no doubt that he's going to continue creating
a great show for all of us to watch. YEP,
but I agree. I agree. Well, thank you Jared for
you know, being so wonderful and articulate and feelings better

(09:58):
than I could. Ever, that's very wrong. It's not wrong.
I don't know where you come from. I think you're
just trying to be nice, and you said that, but
I'm not. I just say things, and it's just to
say it's just to make noise. That's what I do
on these podcasts. I just say things to make noise
and then hopefully sometimes it makes sense. Love you guys. Bye.

(10:21):
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