Coastal's Interview with The Bachelor / Bachelorette main guy - Mike Fleiss

1) It has been reported that the reason for you to produce, "Who wants to marry a multi-millionaire" in 2000, was because you wanted to be a producer of a show that people got married while the show was being televised?

Yes, who wants to marry a multi-millionaire was a spoof on a traditional beauty pageant where fifty women would come out, answer the questions, show off their bodies in bathing suits, maybe a talent competition, all in the hopes of impressing a multi-millionaire and marry at the end of the show. In the beginning, I had intentions of doing it live, but in the end, it was taped on a Thursday and aired on the network the following Monday. It worked incredibly well setting all kinds of ratings records. In the aftermath it became a scandal, but I attributed this to because this was the birth of reality television and nothing this unique or outrageous had been seen on tv before, the audience, the press, the country, the network; everyone didn’t know how to digest it. So due to the scandal, no more episodes or seasons were aired. In the aftermath of that show, I tried to capture the energy of that show re-creating it in a different form which became The Bachelor.


2) Obviously since the first season of The Bachelor, things have changed. Are there any parts of the first few seasons that you wish you could go back to or re-do? The popularity in the beginning isn’t the same as it is now, does that affect it too?

The popularity of the show has been there for a long time, but the biggest difference in the show is when they first started doing the show, there was no social media. Very few people had cameras in their phones back then and they were able to fly under the radar a little bit better. Now, no matter where we go, in Europe or the South Pacific, there are people who recognize the show, and take pictures, tweet and write in Facebook about what they are seeing. It is therefore really hard to keep the whole thing secretive. The fact that people take pictures and whatever is a small problem compared to some of the spoiler websites that are really trying damage the show. Coastal asks: You are not talking about the average message boards like After the Rose and others. Fleiss responds “Yea, I think you know which site I am talking about. I won’t dignify that site by referring to it specifically, but I think most Bachelor fans know what I am referring to.”
In terms of regrets from past seasons, I always regret not making Charlie Maher(runner-up from the first season of Bachelorette) the bachelor, because back then we felt that introducing a new bachelor for the show was going to be a big deal, but now I realize that it is better to feature a bachelor or bachelorette that the audience is already invested in.


4) If you had your choice, what would the Bachelor and Bachelorette evolve to? Could you see it going further, can you see it changing?

The one thing that I would still like to see happen is for the couple to proclaim their love for each other and to actually get married at the end of their season. It hasn’t happened yet, but if they had a couple that was so crazy in love by the finale, why couldn’t they have the Justice of the Peace, Minister, Priest, or Rabbi there to actually conduct the wedding and to make it official right there on the spot. I would love to see that at some point. To actually see the couple get married live on the After the Rose special. Like so many things on the show, it is dependent on what the participants want to do or feel comfortable doing. We take great pride in being honest about the show and not forcing anything one way or the other, but if a couple said we want to get married right now, we would facilitate that for sure.


5) Of all the seasons, which one was your favorite and why?

I would have to say Jason Mesnick’s Bachelor season was my favorite so far that’s aired. I felt the story of a single dad was very compelling, I felt that Jason was an excellent Bachelor, I felt that he really cared about what he was doing on the show and was really looking for a wife. The show had a great ending to it, a surprise ending when he switched from Melissa to Molly, but also a great ending in that he and Molly are happily married to this day. That season had everything in it that you look for in a great bachelor season.


6) One of the visitors to the site had this question for you; Have you ever had a crush on any of the contestants of the show, and who?

After laughing for a bit, “I am a single person, but I am in a relationship now and I don’t want to talk about that”.


7) In the 10 years of the Bachelor/ette, you have filmed in many destinations: Are there any others that you wish to visit in upcoming seasons of the series?

I would like to do South America at some point. I love Hawaii, it is so wonderful there and I would like to go back to there. We just went to my favorite city in the world which is Prague, so we got that one done finally. I would still say South America at this point, just because we have been almost every place else. The other thing that we’d like to do is more stuff closer to home. There is stuff that we haven’t done on the west coast of the United States and Canada.


8) Have there been times in the franchise history that you have incorporated fan's ideas into the shows? Would you ever if you haven’t yet?

Rob Mills, ABC, Chris Harrison and I we listen and spend a lot of time at the chat boards and twitter where we pick up little insights all the time. Some of the biggest ideas we got were to use a bachelor from the bachelorette season and a bachelorette from the bachelor seasons as the next one, they use to bring in ones brand new but the audience kept saying we love Ali or we love Jason or we love...so once we started paying attention to that, we said why wouldn’t we just use them. You know, we love our fans and that was one thing inspired from the fans. We know that without them, there is no show so we try really, really hard to give them what they want. You know, sometimes we don’t. I don’t think anyone on the show in terms of the producers was really happy with this last season, with Ben’s season, we tried to make the best of it like we always do, but it wasn’t what we set out to make. I think there was some frustration on part of the audience with the way it unfolded, but I am virtually certain that the audience will get what they are hoping for with Emily’s season. It is probably the most romantic season that we’ve ever had.



9) When using the locals of a foreign country for location scouting or other chores, have you ever had unexpected results? Unexpected filming locations, things to do?

Not really, my team is pretty on top of things. There are very few things unexpected in terms of the logistics. Zermatt is a good example, we weren’t sure where we were going to shoot the finale of Ben’s season when we got there, then we found out we could shoot on top of the Matterhorn and it was probably the most spectacular finale location we ever had.


10) My fellow Canadian, Jillian Harris, a part of her season was filmed in Vancouver, Whistler, and Canadian Rockies.....Have you ever considered returning here to film, as there is far more to offer here than what you've covered already?

Yes, we would like to return to Canada and film more in Vancouver and Victoria. There is a lot more to see and do in Vancouver, Whistler and the Rockies than what was seen on the show, and of course Victoria is our provincial capital so that is where you will find all the history and neat things to do and see. “Yea, I would love that”


11) This year, Bachelor Canada is having their inaugural season....what do you think about it, and could it succeed considering your fan base up here?

I am sure Bachelor Canada is going to be a big success. Canada has been great to our show and the Canadian audience really loves the program. I had a chance to meet the producers of the Bachelor Canada and they are top flight people, they are very, very smart. They are very, very talented; they understand the show incredibly well. I am really looking forward to watching that season, I am. I think they are going to do a good job.


12) There have been rumors circulating on message boards and spoiler sites that you look for certain types when you cast. Do you have a vision of what type of contestants will work for a given season? Do you have any set formulas of how you cast certain contestants? 

No, our casting is really based on one principle; we are looking for sincere people that are really looking for love. That is the beginning, middle and end of it all. That is what we really want. We try to weed out people who want to further their professional ambitions or are there for the excitement of being on television, and for the most part, we do a pretty good job of that.



13) How many more season of the Bachelor/Bachelorette do you think there will be? Is the end of the series anywhere in sight?

I think the show is going to be on for a very long time. It is still very popular, it is still a top rated show and is still one of the top five shows among female viewers, and it still gets more magazine covers than any show on television. I think the show is going to be around for a good long time.



14) What made you decide to open up the Bachelor Pad 3 to regular fans who have never been on this show before? Is it going to be a Fan vs Favorites type of season?

Oh that’s a good question. The Bachelor pad audience is smaller than for the bachelor or bachelorette, but it’s maybe even more intense. The people that love Bachelor Pad really, really, love it so we just said we want to do something for those fans so we thought it would be great to give a handful of the real hard core followers a chance to really be on the show themselves. We are really excited to see how that plays out. We haven’t decided yet whether it will be a fan’s versus fave’s kind of a season, we are still working on how the game play is going to work. There will be more former cast members than there will be fans so that’s all I can say about that at this point.



15) With Emily's season almost finished filming.....can you tell us a bit about it, and if Emily has truely fallen in love, or at least well on her way to finding her love?

I think that Emily is falling in love for sure, and I really think that this arguably the most romantic season that we have ever had. Emily is really a fantastic Bachelorette, the prototype. She’s beautiful, funny, smart, and just a beautiful person but what really makes her great in terms of the show is that she really, really, really wants to find someone. She wants to complete her family and give little Ricki the father figure in her life, or a father so the stakes are high with her and she’s taking it seriously. The guys are crazy about her because she’s spectacular. Is there anything that has happened through the season with the guys and that you would like to give us a hint on? “I can say that it is a horse race. We are not done shooting yet, but at this point she has strong feelings for more than one guy.”


16) This is kind of a fun question, but would you ever consider holding a lottery of sorts for fans or members of the media/message boards like myself to take part in some of the filming that you go through in a season, provided of course all the legal papers are signed?

Absolutely, that would be a good idea. We should try to do that at some point. As I said before, we love our fans and we’d love to give them a chance to be around while we are filming and see how it happens. More than that, we’ve had Chris Harrison and some of the producers go to viewing parties on Monday nights, we’d love to hear what the fans think. To have fans around would be fun for the fans and would be good for us to see what the fans are responding to and what they are enjoying about the show. If you come back to Vancouver/Vancouver Island, would you give me a chance? “Absolutely, if we come to Vancouver, I promise to give you a call so you can come by.”


17) One last question...... Is there anything that you would like to add or discuss that we haven’t previously asked you about?

No, not really...I appreciate the interview and I appreciate what you guys do on your site. You guys are really great for the show.