Before we were formally introduced to Alexis’s “dolphin” suit, Josephine’s weiner, and Jaimi’s balls, I decided to do a little investigative work on the contestants’ bios.
Photo: ABC / Rick Rowell
(I mean, come on. This suit has gills. Surely an aspiring dolphin trainer like Alexis would know that dolphins are mammals and subsequently lack gills. I see no blowhole on this suit. But Alexis can continue to troll us, because this marine-life attire will probably be the pinnacle of genuine entertainment on this season.
The preliminary idea was to look at all the questions that appear across the contestants’ bios and then assign each woman a commonality score. (Did you know that there are over 75 unique questions in the bios? Never mind how torturous it felt for me to input into my spreadsheet an inordinate amount of questions about vegetables, camping, fictional characters, and luncheons for the deceased–imagine how mind-numbing it must have been for all these dolphin-loving women to come up with half-decent answers for all of them.)
A high commonality score means that the contestant’s bio features a lot of questions that get repeated across the spread of bios. A low commonality score means that the contestant’s page contains the most unique questions amongst her competitors. The score is calculated by adding together the number of occurrences for each question on the page. So, for instance, if 10 contestants have Question A, 5 contestants have question B, and 15 contestants have Question C, someone with Questions A, B, and C would have 10 + 5 + 15 = 30 points.
Prior to the premiere of the show, it was a bit futile to try to attach meaning to the scores. It was entirely possible that the selection of questions for each page was completely arbitrary. However, knowing that each page was curated by someone out there behind the scenes of The Bachelor, my suspicion was that there was at least some intention behind the selections. Going into the premiere, I expected that higher commonality scores would see early exits, and lower commonality scores might at *least* get some airtime past the first couple episodes.
Here are the contestants with the highest commonality scores:
1. Briana (Score: 116)
Photo: ABC/Rick Rowell
Don’t recognize her? Me neither. She had very low visibility in the episode. I counted two significant* appearances for her. One was her limo introduction, which The Internet reminds me consisted of her checking Nick’s heartbeat. She was eliminated at the end of the episode.
*I’m defining a “significant” appearance as a confessional, an interaction with Nick, or an introduction in the beginning.
2. Susannah (Score: 115)
Photo: ABC/Rick Rowell
Susannah was the one who massaged Nick’s beard. Beyond this, she only had one significant appearance in the episode. Unfortunately, we will not be witnessing further beard massages from Susannah, because she was given the boot.
3. Alexis (Score: 112)
Photo: ABC/Rick Rowell
Just happy our beloved shark-dolphin can be featured again. Alexis did get a rose, though right now she’s certainly been pigeonholed into a comic relief role. Let’s see if that changes.
3. Christen (Score: 112)
Photo: ABC/Rick Rowell
Christen did get her own introduction in the “Countdown to Nick” special that aired before the premiere (in which we learned that she’s a virgin). But apart from teaching Nick to ballroom dance, but didn’t do much else in this episode. I counted three significant appearances for her. It does look like she’ll get some screen time next week, but mostly as Liz’s trusted (for whatever reason) confidante.
5. Astrid (Score: 110)
Photo: ABC/Rick Rowell
Astrid talked to Nick about sex in German, which is funny, because German is one of the least sexy languages I’ve ever heard. She got three significant appearances, by my count, but she did get a rose at the end of the episode. The only thing I’m hoping for right now is that she can pull some Esperanto out of her back pocket.
So, three out of five women advanced to the next episode. I guess you could say that’s a good track record, considering my initial hunch that these women would all get eliminated early. But I do think it’s significant that they all had low visibility throughout the episode–except for Alexis, who was mostly used as a comedic prop. Usually the funny contestants just have too much personality for this vanilla world.
Moreover, none of these women had featured introductions in the premiere episode, so I’d say the likelihood that any of the three advance far is pretty slim.
Here are the contestants with the lowest commonality scores:
1. Brittany (Score: 60)
Photo: ABC/Rick Rowell
So…let’s be real. Any contestant who instructs the Bachelor to bend over for a faux medical examination is probably not making it very far. Brittany had low visibility throughout the episode (just two significant appearances), but I guess she made a strong enough impression to stay another week.
1. Hailey (Score: 60)
Photo: ABC/Rick Rowell
Hailey also got her own introduction in the “Countdown to Nick” special. Apparently she knows Daniel the Canadian, because I guess all Canadians know each other. She received a respectable amount of significant screen time, providing some humorous remarks around Alexis’s shark-dolphin suit. I counted seven significant appearances for her in total. She did get a rose, and I’m curious to see how far she makes it. I’d say she received a fairly mixed edit. One could see her gripes about the shark-dolphin conundrum to be funny, or annoying–and she didn’t have any appearances that contributed positively to her character or to her relationship with Nick.
3. Jasmine B. (Score: 61)
Photo: ABC/Rick Rowell
For having such unique questions, she certainly didn’t pick a unique outfit. Jasmine B. only got one significant appearance (the one pictured above) before being eliminated.
4. Vanessa (Score: 62)
Photo: ABC/Rick Rowell
Vanessa had pretty good visibility throughout the episode (eight significant appearances) and had her own introduction in the beginning. The show also devoted ample time to her interaction here with Nick. She wasn’t showcased as the early front runner in the way that Rachel was, but her highly positive edit, centered largely around her job as a special needs educator, puts her into Complex Personality territory. Nick also loved her dress, for whatever that’s worth. (Maybe because it wasn’t red?)
5. Whitney (Score: 68)
Photo: ABC/Rick Rowell
Whitney only had three significant appearances in the episode and donned a red dress, so the odds are probably not in her favor. She did receive a rose from Nick, but I can’t see her advancing far at the moment.
So, four out of five of the lowest-scoring women made it to next week, but two of them had a relatively good amount of screen time, and one of them is already receiving a positive / complex edit. There could be a bit of correlation here, but I’d like to see how far all four of these women get (as well as the three with high commonality scores) before determining how arbitrary (or not) the selection of questions might have been. If you want to see the rest of the commonality scores, I’ve put them at the bottom.
I also wanted to draw attention to one other bit of analysis I did around the types of questions that were featured in each woman’s bio. I categorized each question as one of the following:
- Romance / relationships / family (What do you look for in a guy? What’s the most romantic thing anyone has done for you?)
- Serious / intellectual (What is your greatest achievement to date? Where do you see yourself in five years?)
- Basic likes / dislikes (What’s your favorite movie? What is your least-favorite sport, and why?)
- Embarrassing / negative / confession-based (What’s your most embarrassing moment? What is your biggest regret?)
- Personality shapers (If you could be any fruit or vegetable, which one would you be and why? How much do you like camping?)
I then determined each woman’s majority type. So if the contestant had nine questions on the page, and four were around romance / relationships, three were basic likes / dislikes questions, and two were personality-oriented, she would have a romance majority.
And I do want to focus on the ones who specifically had these romance majority type, just for the sake of speculation. They are:
Taylor
Photo: ABC/Rick Rowell
Taylor had moderate visibility (six significant appearances) and also had an introduction in the beginning. You may recall that things got off to an awkward start between her and Nick when she basically introduced herself by saying, “Hi, I’m Taylor–my friends haaaate you!”
Lacey
Photo: ABC/Rick Rowell
Lacey made a joke about humping right off the bat, so I’d call this an interesting development.
Hailey
Hailey strikes again! Her whole intro also revolved around sexy time, as she implied that she had gone commando to the cocktail hour.
Corinne
Photo: ABC/Rick Rowell
I mean…this can’t be a coincidence, right? Corinne was the most physically assertive of the women and is receiving a strong (read: negative) edit so far, so I’m personally not surprised that her bio would be skewed in a more interesting direction beyond just standard personality questions. And, for the record, Corinne was by far the most visible contestant in week 1. She got twelve significant appearances by my count–that’s double what Rachel got, and Rachel received the first impression rose!
I’ll be curious to see how the stories for these women pan out….Who knows, perhaps there is something subliminal to these biographies. Or perhaps the selections were all built around revealing how many women wish to be dolphins or the Little Mermaid. We’ll probably never know for sure.
Commonality Rankings (from lowest to highest score):
1. Brittany (60)
Majority: Personality
Status: In the Running
1. Hailey (60)
Majority: Romance
Status: In the Running
3. Jasmine B. (61)
Majority: None (more than two types with equal representation)
Status: Eliminated
4. Vanessa (62)
Majority: Personality
Status: In the Running
5. Whitney (68)
Majority: Likes / Dislikes
Status: In the Running
6. Taylor (69)
Majority: Romance
Status: In the Running
7. Rachel (70)
Majority: Confessions / Negative
Status: In the Running
8. Michelle (71)
Majority: Personality
Status: Eliminated
9. Kristina (72)
Majorities: Serious; Likes / Dislikes
Status: In the Running
10. Elizabeth (73)
Majority: None (more than two types with equal representation)
Status: In the Running
11. Olivia (74)
Majority: Confessions / Negative
Status: Eliminated
12. Corinne (77)
Majorities: Romance; Personality
Status: In the Running
13. Lauren (80)
Majority: Personality
Status: Eliminated
14. Jaimi (81)
Majority: Personality
Status: In the Running
14. Josephine (81)
Majority: Personality
Status: In the Running
14. Sarah (81)
Majority: Personality
Status: In the Running
17. Lacey (82)
Majority: Romance
Status: In the Running
17. Raven (82)
Majorities: Personality; Likes / Dislikes
Status: In the Running
19. Liz (85)
Majority: Personality
Status: In the Running
20. Jasmine G. (91)
Majorities: Serious; Personality
Status: In the Running
21. Ida Marie (95)
Majority: Likes / Dislikes
Status: Eliminated
22. Angela (96)
Majorities: Confessions / Negative; Personality
Status: Eliminated
23. Danielle M. (102)
Majority: Personality
Status: In the Running
24. Dominique (103)
Majority: Personality
Status: In the Running
25. Danielle L. (108)
Majority: Personality
Status: In the Running
26. Astrid (110)
Majorities: Confessions / Negative; Personality
Status: In the Running
27. Christen (112)
Majority: Personality
Status: In the Running
27. Alexis (112)
Majority: Personality
Status: In the Running
29. Susannah (115)
Majority: Personality
Status: Eliminated
30. Briana (116)
Majority: Personality
Status: Eliminated
Bachelor Edgic 