You can be the judge of whether The Bachelorette crossed the line last night when it showed Andi Dorfman and her remaining suitors, learning about the death of eliminated contestant, Eric Hill.
Eric’s tragic and untimely death, and Andi’s feelings about it, had already been dealt with earlier in the season. It seems a tad exploitative to allow the cameras to run as host Chris Harrison delivers the bad news. What’s more, the cameras pull back and production personnel enter the room to comfort Andi, breaking the fourth wall, so to speak. The show has done nothing like it before.
You’ll remember that Andi’s last conversation with Eric was not a good one. After he accused her of being an “actress” in her interactions with him, she asked him to leave the game.
Harrison defended the decision in his weekly Entertainment Weekly blog.
There were those who didn’t think we should shoot it at all and not include this news. I vehemently disagreed. I thought we should not only shoot it, but felt we should include it on this show for you to see as well. I knew this was going to be a brutally sad moment for all of us, but that’s why I felt so strongly we should show it. There were a few reasons I felt strongly about this. First of all, I knew this was going to greatly affect all of us, especially Andi. How could we not show or talk about an event that absolutely changed and affected everything and everyone on our show? For 13 years we’ve built this franchise by showing you everything that happens, whether it’s good, bad, dramatic, or sad. I just didn’t see how all of a sudden because something so tragic affected all of us that we just wouldn’t show it; it didn’t make sense. What happened was horribly sad and tragic, but to me acting like it just didn’t happen and going on like Eric never existed seemed horribly dishonest and disrespectful. I don’t believe we get to choose in life what we get to deal with and what we don’t. I don’t believe you get to just act like things didn’t happen because it’s uncomfortable or sad. You have to take the good with the bad in life.
Read Shnugs recap of last night’s show here. Eric Hill’s accident occurred during the filming of Hometown Visits. Last night, Andi made the trek to the homes of the final four bachelors, and in the end, only 3 suitors received a rose.
