Author: Christina Schoellkopf

August 03, 2016 6:06pm PT by Christina Schoellkopf

 ABC/Craig Sjodin

Sarah Herron, a fellow contestant and the target of his mocking, isn’t having it.

The Bachelorette viewers assumed that Chad Johnson couldn’t get any worse, but Hurricane Chad hit Bachelor in Paradise even harder than when he first touched down on JoJo Fletcher’s season of the recently wrapped ABC series. 

On Monday night’s premiere of the franchise’s spinoff series — which ships past fan favorites off to Mexico in hopes that they shack up and find love — Chad lived up to his villainous reputation when his intoxicated and abusive behavior got him kicked off the show. Some of his worst offenses were calling Lace Morris (from Ben Higgins’ season of The Bachelor) a “f—king bitch,” telling the hotel bartenders to “suck a dick” and threatening to “murder everyone here.” Adding, “I’ll kill your children and murder your family. Dolla, dolla bills, yo.”

But the moment that has taken social media by storm on Wednesday is his attack on fellow contestant Sarah Herron. He drunkenly ridiculed the 29-year-old, who is returning for her second time in a row to Paradise, telling her to “suck a dick” and calling her a “one-armed bitch,” among other mocking rhetoric. Herron is missing half of her left arm and leads a nonprofit called SheLift, which serves to empower women with physical disabilities. 

Host Chris Harrison ultimately intervened and found himself in an altercation with Chad after he gathered the contestants the morning after to announce that Chad was being kicked off the show. “You went to sleep last night with a mimosa and a robe on,” Chad yelled at the host, a quote that was quickly picked up on social media. “F— you, dude.”

As The Hollywood Reporter previously reported, Chad apologized to Harrison when the pair reunited during The Bachelorette: Men Tell All taping. But last night, Chad took to Twitter to post a video about his comments aimed at Sarah, admitting, “I’m disappointed in myself.”

His sincerity, however, was quickly called into question when he continued to tweet on Wednesday afternoon, seemingly backtracking on any humility and calling the episode “hilarious.” He also claimed that another disturbing moment on the episode was untrue (a contestant said he defecated in his shorts, though viewers thankfully never saw proof.)

Sarah, for her part, chose to take the high road. The former Bachelorette contestant from Sean Lowe’s season turned the Chad incident into an opportunity to spread a positive message. Taking to Twitter, she encouraged Bachelor nation to “stop bullying” instead of getting angry, and shared a clever way for Chad to truly apologize. Despite her anticipation leading up to the episode, the Bachelor veteran called upon the 28-year-old Oklahoman to show a little heart: “I would love for you to say you’re sorry by making a charitable donation to my nonprofit.”

Chad only addressed her plea for a charitable deed with the below retweet.

When speaking to THR ahead of the premiere, Chad blamed his behavior on having a low tolerance.

“I don’t normally drink, I work,” he said. “I go out maybe once, twice a month. So I show up to Bachelor in Paradise and I hadn’t drank probably in three months, since The Bachelorette. When you’re at that low of body fat percent — like 3 or 4 percent — drinks affect you way more.”

Tuesday’s episode of BIP ended on a “to be continued” note, with Chad refusing to leave the set. Previews for next week’s episode show the luxury real estate agent returning to confront the rest of the cast. Will he continue to yell at the host and mock him for drinking mimosas? 

Harrison says viewers will see remorse from Chad come next episode.

“When Chad was there, he was just a black cloud,” the host told People about his decision to boot Chad. “He had really been verbally abusive to some of the staff, some of our crew and was rude to me.”

Adding, “After he goes to a certain length, you see him get very sad and sorrowful and very apologetic. You can tell he doesn’t like that and he doesn’t want to be that person.”

Watch Chad’s epic bow out on Bachelor In Paradise Monday at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.

March 15, 2016 11:23am PT by Christina Schoellkopf

Lauren Bushnell, Ben Higgins  Courtesy of ABC

The pair also addresses runner-up JoJo taking the reigns as ABC’s next Bachelorette.

Will The Bachelor star Ben Higgins and his bride-to-be Lauren Bushnell be the next couple to say “I do” on live TV?

On Tuesday, less than 24 hours since the Bachelor sweethearts took their relationship public, the couple told reporters during a conference call that they have not ruled out the option of broadcasting their big moment down the aisle. 

“We haven’t ruled anything out,” Bushnell said. “All of the support from everyone has been so amazing that it would be something that both of us would consider I think moving forward, depending on what opportunities come to share our life with everyone around us who’s been supportive. And that include like Bachelor Nation. So, it’s not ruled out, but it also, we don’t know what opportunities are going to present themselves, all we know is we want to get married and we want a wedding and we want our family and friends there. So, how that comes about, I’m not exactly sure. But we’re excited.”

The stars from the ABC reality dating series have already shared an intimate moment on live TV. Shortly after the 20th Bachelor season finale wrapped Monday, Higgins re-proposed to Bushnell during the After the Final Rose live TV special.

The Higgins TV wedding would come as broadcast networks continue to push the envelope with live programming in a bid to draw live viewers in an increasingly competitive DVR landscape. NBC and Fox, for example, have found ratings and critical success with live musicals including The Wiz Live and Grease Live. As live TV viewership continues to dwindle, live programming events like awards shows and sports have become increasingly valuable.

The wedding would mark the second time ABC has had a couple exchange vows live on the air. The franchise broadcast TV’s first live wedding in January 2014 when season 17’s Bachelor Sean Lowe and his winner Catherine Giudici made history by saying “I do” during a special telecast. A handful of the franchise’s alums have gone on to get married in televised ABC wedding specials, Trista Rehn and Ryan Sutter, Ashley Hebert and J.P. Rosenbaum, and Jason Mesnick and Molly Malaney, though they weren’t live.

Higgins and Bushnell also used Tuesday’s press call to address Bachelor runner-up JoJo taking the reigns as ABC’s next Bachelorette — specifically if choosing JoJo fits the diverse casting that fans have been asking for — but they kept their responses short. “[JoJo] deserves it. I think it will be an interesting experience for Lauren and I to watch on our couch,” Higgins said. “How they decide who the Bachelorette is is not up to me. Honestly, I did not know even I was in consideration to be the Bachelor until a phone call.”

March 07, 2016 8:37pm PT by Christina Schoellkopf

‘The Bachelor: The Women Tell All’  The Bachelor/ABC

Jubilee, Olivia and Lace each take their turns in the hot seat, and Caila confronts Ben for the first time since their break-up.

As Bachelor Nation anxiously awaits the season finale next week — in which one lucky woman will receive Ben Higgins’ final rose — fans were treated to a dramatic reunion with season 20’s special episode of the annual The Women Tell All.

On Monday, the contestants who failed to steal Ben’s heart dished on what happened behind the scenes, what went wrong with their relationships and what’s next on their agendas. Here’s a breakdown of the most dramatic moments of the night. 

1. Jubilee is confronted for making racial comments. 

The show quickly took a serious turn when Jami and Amber called out Jubilee for saying she was “the real black girl” on the show. At first, Jubilee tried to dodge the subject. But Amber and Jami were not going to let Jubilee off that easy — they asserted that the war veteran at certain points used the “N-word” and told them that they were not “black enough.” Ultimately, Jubilee admitted that using the term “full black” is something she would say, but she tried to claim that the phrase is not “offensive.” In the end, she plead the fifth and said she would not be “claiming” that she ever made those insensitive remarks on The Bachelor. 

2. Lace meets her (creepy) secret admirer.

Lace — also known as “50 Shades of Lace” for her self-proclaimed “crazy” personality — had quite the eventful night. Not only did she agree to join the upcoming season of Bachelor in Paradise, but she also had an unusual encounter with a diehard fan. In the middle of her heart-to-heart with host Chris Harrison, a man jumped up in the audience to proclaim, “You are crazy. Crazy beautiful. And I don’t want to seem crazy myself but I have to show you this one thing.” The audience member proceeded to lift up his shirt to reveal a tattoo of Lace’s face! (Do you think it was real?) The Lace fanatic was lucky enough to snap a picture with his crush on-stage after a very cautious Chris told him to “keep your distance.”

3. Olivia and Emily get into another catfight:

No surprise here! Olivia and Emily were at it again, but this time, Emily was reunited with her twin sister Haley. The twins ripped into Olivia for “disrespecting” the women on the show. Plus, Haley could not help but dig into Olivia for stating that she liked “to talk smart things” in contrast to her fellow contestants. 

4. A chicken is present. 

“Sheila” the chicken interrupted Emily’s monologue by nearly attacking Lace. 

5. Chris hits a nerve with Caila.

Poor Caila. The software sales rep made it to the Top 3, but was voted off last week in the season’s most-emotional goodbye yet. On The Women Tell All, Caila shared that she still has incredibly strong feelings for Ben, but added that she is hopeful for the future: “I fell in love with him … It’s really hard to watch back, but you know what was really good for me was to see his relationships with Lauren and JoJo because the way he looks at them, I want someone to look at me that way some day.”

6. Amanda stands up for her babies.

You go, Amanda. The mother of two finally had a moment to address Olivia’s quip about her life being like watching a Teen Mom episode. While Olivia was in the hot seat, Amanda stated, “Did you not talk about me and my kids and say that any guy should be running the other way from somebody with kids? Do you not think that’s rude?” Watch the confrontation unfold in the video below. 

7. Caila and Ben get closure after their tough breakup. 

Finally, Ben stepped out to face the women for the first time since he sent them home. The show’s leading man first turned to Caila to answer any of her lingering questions and to provide a sense of closure. He turned to her with a heartfelt message, “I hope you know how much I learned from our conversations … We just explored life to a level that I never expected, so I appreciate you and I appreciate you coming back here tonight.” 

8. Leah does not feel bad about lying. 

Remember Leah-the-liar? The contestant from Denver, Colorado had the audacity to interrupt Caila’s special moment with Ben to bring up her own drama. Earlier in the season, Leah claimed to Ben that Lauren (who is now in the Top 2) was a different person around him than she was with the other women. Well, believe it or not, Leah still could not let that go. You would think she would take this opportunity to apologize for her actions, but instead she just got angry with Ben for ratting her out. “Why you had to go and tell you know Lauren right away and put me in a position where I had to figure out whether I was going to openly discuss it with all the girls, when nobody else should have been involved, or lie and say that I didn’t talk?”

Luckily, Ben still has his common sense and put Leah’s little story to rest. 

“You said something to me that night that was gonna affect another relationship and I had to confront it,” said Ben. “I never used your name, but when it was brought up in front of you, your response then was your response and that was up to you.”

9. Olivia apologized to all the women on the show.

Can you believed this actually happened? A very tearful Olivia turned to the contestants to express her deepest apologies, especially to Amanda and other young moms whom she may have offended. 

10. Ben opens up about saying “I love you” to two women.

Yes, Ben did discuss his shocking decision to tell two women that he loved them, but to be honest — he did not look very guilty about it. Ben seemed too head over heels in love to care much about the matter. He was eager to share with Chris how much he cares about the lady who received the final rose: “I am more in love than I’ve ever been … I would marry that woman tomorrow if I could.”

11. There are unforgettable bloopers.

Possibly the best moment from the show was the hysterical blooper reel. From bugs to booze, watch some of the best of the night. 

Do you look forward to watching Lace on Bachelor in Paradise? What was your take on Olivia’s final words on the show? Who do you think will receive Ben’s final rose — JoJo or Lauren? Share what you think in the comments below.