Exclusive Interview: Reid Rosenthal

The My TV Nominee Interview Series continues with another 2009 nominee. This time, I spoke with Best Male Reality Star Nominee Reid Rosenthal from The Bachelorette. My favourite bachelor of the season and an incredibly sweet person offscreen, Reid candidly answered all my questions about the show, the girl, the guys and how it really all went down.

What made you decide to go on The Bachelorette?

Good question. I didn’t sign up. A friend of mine from my office saw me dating a bunch of girls, not finding the right one. She signed me up on the website. And a year goes by, felt like a year and I get a call, I thought it was a joke, I hung up on them the first time. I was working on a real estate TV show at the time and told them about it everyone said I should do it, they said “everyone will love you”. And the real estate market was dead, so when’s a better time?

What would you say is the biggest difference between what we see on the show and what really happened while filming?

It’s a lot more entertaining to see the whole thing edited together. The relationships between the guys, was probably the biggest thing that got left out. I feel like if they showed all of that people would feel differently about those people. Overall, it’s pretty accurate. The show gets a bad rap for making things up, but they’re really good about showing what really happened. They just make some things into bigger deals than the really were, but it all happened.

Do you have any regrets from the show?

No, none.

You turned out to be the favourite Bachelor of almost my entire writing staff but didn’t come onto our radar until close to the end of the season, do you feel like you got your fair share of airtime or that the early episodes were more devoted to the guys who caused drama in the house rather than the real contenders for Jillian’s heart?

I kind of like that they built me up in a certain way with my, I guess you can say, “character”. Too much airtime can be a bad thing.

Your decision to come back in the finale to propose, my writers and I saw it coming from the moment Jillian let you go, was it your idea or the producers?

The minute I got kicked off I was like “what the hell just happened?”. I asked them the second I got in the limo, and a couple days later they said they had pulled some strings to get me back on. There are things the world never sees of why I wanted to come back, a complex set of reasoning was there.

How much producer involvement was there in the drama of the show: ed’s leaving and coming back, no one revealing the truth about wes, the attacks on juan, jake’s big announcement, your proposal?

Ed was a surprise to me, he’d been talking about leaving but no one thought he actually would. I didn’t think he liked her as much as it came off in the end, but maybe he was just playing us guys. My game play was either I’m going to like the girl and she likes me, or not. I’m not going to play games with the guys in the house. Ed just seemed like he had more of a strategy. When he left I though I had it made, I was going to the end. I didn’t feel at ease opening up that quickly, but I thought that when the show ended it could have worked out. It was all really just weird.

Was the Juan controversy really that big a deal in the house? And why didn’t anyone seem to stand up for him?

Dave is a confrontational guy, they just butted heads, it was a funny thing.

What are some of your favourite and least favourite moments from your time on the show?

My favourite moments were all part of the Canada trip. I was left alone on the train and I was hanging with the producers, we had to keep ourselves busy. And my date that night, there was this whole magnificent ice sculpture, it was unbelievable.

My least favourite… a lot of the guys didn’t understand the way I thought, so they would kind of gang up on me. They called me “inspeculator gadget” cause I was always trying to figure out what was going on, what we were doing, what the producers were up to. They got annoyed by me. And I think she liked me more than some of the others, she gave me more attention and they didn’t like that. And, obviously, when I got kicked off, I thought I would have one last chance to explain to her my thought process and what the other guys thought of her, I was really surprised.

Who were your favourite guys in the house? Do you keep in touch with any of them?

I still keep in touch with Mark, Tanner P, Simon, both Mikes, and Wes occasionally over Facebook or something, I hung out with Dave once since the show ended, Kiptyn, obviously, and Jesse. That’s it. That’s the weird part, we were pretty close on the show but Ed and I don’t talk anymore, I guess that makes sense.

Because you were returning in the finale, you didn’t get to participate in the Men Tell All episode, are there some things about the season that you would have liked to get off your chest and tell the audience, Chris and the other guys?

Not really. They knew me pretty well and I got portrayed accurately.

How uncomfortable was the After The Final Rose episode and seeing Jillian for the first time?

It wasn’t really that strange actually. It was a little weird at first, I was still confused about her decision. The weird part was being in front of the studio audience, some girl asked me out.

Speaking of that proposition, did you jump right back into the dating pool after the show?

I took a little bit of time after the show. I don’t like to stew on things, it just didn’t work out. So, I took a couple weeks but that was all.

Are you dating someone now?

Let’s just say I’m dating.

Do you think your time on the show changed your outlook on romance and relationships or just your outlook on reality TV?

It definitely helped my outlook on relationships because you spend so much time analyzing one relationship. You talk about it, do interviews, spend the whole time on it. Chris [Harrison] said recently that it’s kind of like therapy, and it really is. I definitely learned something and am a better person.

Do you get recognized now for the show? How has the exposure effected your everyday life?

It’s been a positive thing, I’m meeting with producers in NY, it seems like there are some TV opportunities coming to me. I have a few ideas to meet with people about.

and

Are you watching the new season?

I’ve seen a few episodes, it’s fine. The show’s never been for me anyway, it’s just not my kind of TV. I’m a big nerd, I watch the discovery channel, Curb your Enthusiasm, Seinfeld and Entourage, that’s about it. From what I’ve heard, though, the girls are crazy, my mom tells me they’re incredibly dramatic.