The highly anticipated new season of The Bachelor Australia is finally here after a year long hiatus, and things certainly kicked off with a bang.
Of course, the twist this season – called The Bachelors – is that, in a global first, there’s not one, not two but three eligible bachelors looking for love with roses in hand: Felix Von Hofe, Jed McIntosh and Thomas Malucelli.
WATCH: The Bachelors first look
But that’s not the only thing that’s changed. The Bachelors’ is set in the Gold Coast, not Sydney, plus, there’s no limoscene ceremony where each contestant gets out wearing a ball gown and then greets her Bachelor on a red carpet outside the mansion.
Instead, host Osher Günsberg tells the Bachies that they’re each going on a string of blind dates with various women but they have only 10 roses each to hand out.
Osher also gives Felix, Jed and Thomas an engagement ring each, so all three men will be ready to propose – if they choose to – at the end of The Bachelors journey. Channel Ten sure isn’t pulling any punches this year, that’s for sure.
Before the blind dates start, each Bachelor is properly introduced to the audience but no major revelations are revealed aside from Jed, who in the lead up to The Bachelors’ premiere has commonly been compared to Machine Gun Kelly online, being a “farm-boy at heart” who grew up rather religious.
Speaking of, Jed is the first Bachelor to take the dating plunge. He meets Catelyn, a psychology graduate who describes her “secret talent” as not looking like a typical psychology graduate… Whatever that means.
The two instantly hit it off despite Catelyn skipping small talk and straight up asking deep questions like, “If you’re 25 are you sure you’re ready to settle down?” Jed even says to Catelyn, “ I reckon you’re perfect.”
Therefore, it’s unsurprising that Jed offers Catelyn a rose… which she politely declines.
“So, it’s been lovely getting to know you. But unfortunately, I’m not going to accept this rose. I feel like, definitely a friendship and a huge level of comfort between us. But I’m not quite sure that it’s romantic,” Catelyn said.
WATCH: Meet the three men on The Bachelors
“I wish the best for you and I hope that you meet someone. I’d love to stay friends and stay in contact.”
Jed immediately becomes passive aggressive and practically runs away from Catelyn; a shift in tone that Catelyn obviously picks up on as she yells, “Please don’t hate me” as Jed leaves.
Outside, Jed then is rather sullen and clearly hurt. “Am I not hot or something?… I thought I was the one making those decisions but apparently not. F**k me,” he said.
And then for almost the rest of the episode, Jed refuses to give out his 10 roses.
After multiple dates, he’s clearly let Catelyn’s rejection get to him which was not even that “brutal” – cough, toxic masculinity, cough -and doesn’t even try to engage with the lovely ladies vying for his love and doesn’t offer a single rose to anyone.
Eventually though, he meets Jasmine and the two have a spicy yoga date and things seem to be going well… Until Jed leaves the date without giving her a rose.
However, Jed quickly turned around and offered her a rose; whether he had a change of heart as he left or a producer sternly told him he needs to start giving roses out, who knows?
She accepts and Jed’s ego is stitched back together; especially as on his next date with Angela, he confidently introduces himself to her as “the man with the rose”.
WATCH: The Bachelors trailer
Near the end, Jed starts giving out more roses – he even shares a kiss with one contestant – but clearly isn’t having as much fun as fellow Bachelors Felix and Thomas… In fact, Felix goes on a date with “cat-lady” Abigail despite not having any roses left. But never fear, he asked Jed for one of his roses, so Abigail gets to stay on The Bachelors.
For those playing at home, Felix will now have 11 women to choose from whereas Jed will only have 9. Thomas just has the standard 10.
The Bachelors’ first episode ends with all 30 women entering the Bachelor Mansion, although they’re rather confused – they clearly weren’t told there are three Bachelors this year and think they’re all competing for the same man. Hilarious.
The Bachelors continues tonight at 7.30pm on 10 and 10Play.
