Reality TV fans freaked out when Georgia Love sent fan-favourite Matty home on The Bachelorette finale last night and announced that Lee Elliot had won her heart.
The shock was understandable considering Matty was the first contestant to tell Georgia that he loved her and their chemistry was undeniable during a hot tub rendezvous in the previous episode.
Now that we’ve all had a few hours to process the shock result (just), Lee is keen to defend himself and his relationship with Georgia. In a move as old as reality television itself, Lee is blaming the producers for making him look like the underdog.
Listen to Amy Cooper and Laura Brodnick discuss whether Georgia made the right choice on the ‘Bach Chat’ podcast. (Post continues after audio.)
In fact, Lee told Fairfax that if the true story had been shown on TV, then viewers would have seen it was a “one-horse race”.
“They really downplayed me,” Lee said. “Yes it hurts, but the only person it matters to is G, she knows [what happened during filming] and she was there to hear it.”
While Lee said that the editing made the show “difficult to watch initially,” when he watched the final episode, he understood what the producers were going for – a surprise ending.
“I understand it, I get it,” Lee said. “In the finale, they actually showed me opening right up.”
Bachelorette fans might have been able to process Georgia’s choice better if it wasn’t so reminiscent of The Bachelor finale earlier this year when Richie Strahan chose Alex Nation over fan-favourite Nikki Gogan. Some fans on Twitter even called Matty “Nikki 2.0” last night.
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I don't understand what circles Mamamia writers live in, but in my world and friends, it was obviously Lee right from the donkey-leading, dreadful Dad-joke puns start. He captured Georgia's heart and mind at that moment. Go back and watch the first episode. It was Tim and Anna 2.0. Don't worry Lee, most of us realised what was going on. But the product placements were set for a whole season's worth of shows, so they had to go on. Poor Matty was the producers' pawn, bless him. Perfectly lovely bloke. In summary, absolutely nothing like the Richie season.
I don't think "editing" could have faked Matty's genuine distress at the finale. He looked in physical pain - so either Georgia strung him along the whole time and made him feel that he was in with a chance or he's mad. Don't think he's mad as the exact same thing happened with Nikki. Poorly done Chanel 10