Bachelor 2025 finale: Why this might be what kills the show for good.

This season of The Bachelor, which is the show’s 29th, is by all appearances proceeding in much the same way the previous 28 seasons did: We’ve gotten through hometowns, the “Women Tell All” special, and fantasy suites, and now lead Grant Ellis is expected to give his final rose to one of the two remaining contestants in Monday’s finale episode. Deadline spoke to a dozen former and current crew members for its exposé, which quoted employees calling Freeland and Graebner “secretive and passive-aggressive” bosses who lead with “fear.” It also contained an anecdote about them forcing the crew to wear name tags because they hadn’t learned staffers’ names. Related From Slate The Golden Bachelorette Reveals the Truth About Older Men and Dating As for where it all went wrong, both the Deadline piece and some fans pointed to one particular moment from last year’s outing of The Bachelorette, which featured Jenn Tran, the series’ first Asian American lead. Ratings have been on the decline for a while—prior to Tran, Joey Graziadei’s season was a rare highlight that brought on a ratings bump, and I wrote at the time that Bachelor producers should simply cast someone as good as him every season if they want the show to perform better.