Speaker 1: This is the most traumatic podcast ever and iHeartRadio podcast.
Speaker 1: Hey everybody, Chris Harrison coming to you from the home
Speaker 1: office in Austin, Texas. Hope everybody's being safe as a
Speaker 1: massive hurricane is just made landfall here in Texas, going
Speaker 1: through Houston and guy's going all the way up to
Speaker 1: the East coast. So everybody be safe this week with
Speaker 1: all the crazy weather going on. I'm excited about the
Speaker 1: show today because someone who was a part of well,
Speaker 1: you know how I say, used to say, this is
Speaker 1: the most dramatic moment ever. Well, this was the most
Speaker 1: dramatic moment ever. It was Jason Mesnick's season of The Bachelor.
Speaker 1: It was two thousand and nine and he got engaged
Speaker 1: to Melissa, and then there was the infamous switch where
Speaker 1: Jason broke up with Melissa asked Molly out for a date.
Speaker 1: The rest is Bachelor and history for all of them,
Speaker 1: because now Jason and Molly are married and Melissa went
Speaker 1: off to Dance with the Stars, did a bunch of
Speaker 1: other stuff and is now happily married to her old
Speaker 1: boyfriend Tie. They have three kids. But it was a moment,
Speaker 1: a light bulb moment in the history of the show.
Speaker 1: And again when I say, well, you know, when people
Speaker 1: say what was the most dramatic, this was it. So
Speaker 1: you know, the show had been on for gost two
Speaker 1: thousand and nine, so we've been on since two thousand
Speaker 1: and two, so you know, good seven years. This was
Speaker 1: season thirteen of The Bachelor, which is hard to believe
Speaker 1: because it seems so much long longer. But this really
Speaker 1: blew things up in a way that it's hard to
Speaker 1: even fathom now because there wasn't social media. There wasn't
Speaker 1: a lot of what we have now that made things
Speaker 1: so big. But despite not having social media and despite
Speaker 1: not having all those avenues to talk about it, it
Speaker 1: was massive, very controversial and a lot of ways. So
Speaker 1: the show we're doing today is with Melissa Ryecroft. It's
Speaker 1: a conversation I've really never had publicly with her. We've talked,
Speaker 1: but it's been a while since I've seen her and
Speaker 1: run into her as she is very busy again a
Speaker 1: mother of three. But it's a conversation I've wanted to
Speaker 1: have for a very long time. So I'm so excited
Speaker 1: to have Melissa Yecraft on the show today because not
Speaker 1: only were going to talk about Bachelor, bacherette stuff. But
Speaker 1: she was also a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader just a year
Speaker 1: before she came on The Bachelor. She was a Dallas
Speaker 1: Cowboys surely a very popular one, had been there for
Speaker 1: two years. And you know the reality show that is
Speaker 1: blowing things up right now on Netflix. We got to
Speaker 1: dive into that as well. So so much to talk
Speaker 1: about with our guest today, Melissa Ryecroft. Melissa, it's so
Speaker 1: good to see you again. Welcome to the show. I've
Speaker 1: been I've been waiting for this talk for a long time.
Speaker 1: Uh oh no, in a good way. I just I
Speaker 1: just haven't seen you in a while. I mean, obviously
Speaker 1: you have been raising three kids. What's what are the
Speaker 1: what are the ages? Again?
Speaker 2: I have a thirteen year old now ten and eight,
Speaker 2: so in a way in it, but they're getting bigger.
Speaker 1: Your oldest is thirteen.
Speaker 3: And my young my Caubooz is eight. Like that's really
Speaker 3: sad to me.
Speaker 1: It's wild. So eight is that? Let's see? I said,
Speaker 1: is it like fourth grade? Third grade? What is that?
Speaker 3: Oh, it's been a long time for you, hasn't it.
Speaker 1: No? Suse yes, Second, he's going in a second. So
Speaker 1: he started, Okay, so because I know they start around
Speaker 1: four or five, depending on old they are. That's kindergarten. Yeah,
Speaker 1: then first, second, third, Yeah, okay, that has been a
Speaker 1: look minor, I mean one out of college, one's about
Speaker 1: to graduate. And this is crazy, I know, And you know,
Speaker 1: I was thinking, this is one thing when I when
Speaker 1: I bring on former constants from the show, that seem
Speaker 1: and I don't mean this in a bad way because
Speaker 1: it just ages both of us, but it's to me,
Speaker 1: it honestly feels like a lifetime ago. But it's also
Speaker 1: weird because it was season thirteen of The Bachelor, so
Speaker 1: obviously we'd done it for a while. It was seven
Speaker 1: years in. But at the same time, at two thousand
Speaker 1: and nine, man, it feels like a long time ago. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean I still probably get recognized more for Bachelor,
Speaker 2: oddly enough than anything else, which you know, and you know,
Speaker 2: I mean again it's aging. It's this was twenty plus
Speaker 2: years ago at this point, you know. But yeah, I
Speaker 2: mean I was twenty three, I think going into or
Speaker 2: maybe twenty two, twenty three, like just a baby, and
Speaker 2: people will still come up to me like, oh, you
Speaker 2: look so better off. I'm like, it's been twenty years.
Speaker 2: But yes, I mean it was a long time ago.
Speaker 2: But when I even see clips online, I'm like, that
Speaker 2: doesn't even it doesn't look like me, it doesn't sound
Speaker 2: like me. It's weird to have that part of your
Speaker 2: life documented, right or everybody?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I can't imagine. I mean even when I see
Speaker 1: pictures of when the show started, and every now and
Speaker 1: then a clip will come out from the early early days,
Speaker 1: you know, Alex Michelle or Bob Guiney or Trista, which
Speaker 1: was you know, five six years before your season. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's that time capsule gets dug up and you're like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, I was are your voice is still
Speaker 1: high and you know, your cadence was different, and yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean you were fresh out of college. I mean
Speaker 1: you had gone to North Texas, you had danced for
Speaker 1: the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders for two years, and then you
Speaker 1: came on.
Speaker 3: The Bachelor, and then I came on The Bachelor. Yeah,
Speaker 3: oddly enough.
Speaker 2: And I think I've told you the story that I
Speaker 2: was going through a breakup with.
Speaker 3: My now husband right now with Ti.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Hi, Yeah, we.
Speaker 2: Had been together for about two years and broke up
Speaker 2: and I just had a real hard time getting over
Speaker 2: it had one of my girlfriends who was a cheerleader
Speaker 2: nominate me.
Speaker 3: I don't know how the process is now.
Speaker 2: Back in the day, you could go online and just
Speaker 2: type in I guess somebody.
Speaker 1: I'll be honest, I don't think they know how the
Speaker 1: process is now.
Speaker 3: And yeah, it just kind of happened. It was.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was funny. I'm shocked. I think you were
Speaker 1: the first, maybe in even the only Dallas Cowboy cheerleader.
Speaker 1: I don't know if we've had more since then, but
Speaker 1: I'm shocked we didn't have more, because, you know, being
Speaker 1: from Dallas where I grew up, and I knew some
Speaker 1: of the people from the Cowboys, and I had met
Speaker 1: some of the cheerleaders from time to time. I may
Speaker 1: have even been there while you were. I don't know
Speaker 1: if I did. Did I ever come in the room
Speaker 1: or like take pictures, or was on the field.
Speaker 3: It all feels a lot. I don't remember. I don't
Speaker 3: remember the details. I have no idea.
Speaker 1: Because I'm a big Cowboy fan and I know the
Speaker 1: Jones family fairly well, and so from time to time
Speaker 1: I would come to a game, and every now and
Speaker 1: then I would go in and meet some of the
Speaker 1: cheerleaders or take a picture, And I was I wonder
Speaker 1: if our paths ever came so close to crossing or
Speaker 1: did cross and we just obviously didn't know each other.
Speaker 3: Weird. Yeah, no, I think about that stuff.
Speaker 2: But yeah, it was The cheerleaders back then were very
Speaker 2: different than I mean, we were celebrities in the Dallas world,
Speaker 2: you know, like coing out to bars and stuff. We
Speaker 2: were little local celebrities.
Speaker 3: I guess. Yeah, now they're bona fide celebrities.
Speaker 1: Right, it's gotten so much bigger.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's definitely a different thing. There was a girl,
Speaker 2: do you remember Jasmine?
Speaker 1: Yeah, of course, Yeah, he was.
Speaker 2: A DCC and now okay, one of the vander Pump
Speaker 2: spin off on wrong So yes, there was one other.
Speaker 3: I think she was the only one, but there was
Speaker 3: one more.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I was just I mean because as I
Speaker 1: was looking back this morning, as I was getting ready
Speaker 1: to talk to you, and I'm like, man, two thousand
Speaker 1: and nine, and in the lead up and open to
Speaker 1: this conversation, I said, when people ask me, and I
Speaker 1: always get asked, you know what is actually the most
Speaker 1: dramatic moment you've ever been through on the show, Because
Speaker 1: I say that quite a bit, and I said it
Speaker 1: over twenty years, but I say it was this moment
Speaker 1: it was two thousand and nine, now.
Speaker 3: Twenty years later, still holds.
Speaker 1: The most, still still does. I mean, there were there
Speaker 1: were crazy moments, you know, whether it was Chad threatening
Speaker 1: to kill me on the beach in Mexico or you
Speaker 1: know the Jake Pavelka season that got wild, and you
Speaker 1: know a lot of things went off the rails and
Speaker 1: were bad or you know, bad in a good way
Speaker 1: TV wise, but this moment was And this is what's weird.
Speaker 1: That's why I wanted to talk to you, because obviously
Speaker 1: I've spent time with you and we've chatted before. But
Speaker 1: I think now that we've had time to kind of
Speaker 1: really think about this and we've grown up and gotten
Speaker 1: a little bit more experienced in our lives, it's funny
Speaker 1: to think back on what an indelible mark this made
Speaker 1: on my life. But clearly it was one of the
Speaker 1: biggest moments of your life and Jason and Molly's course,
Speaker 1: and to have shared in that is really wild to
Speaker 1: me because usually, you know, a big moment for somebody
Speaker 1: like you, you would just tell me about it, but I
Speaker 1: lived it which was weird, which was so weird. I
Speaker 1: should not have been there. I shouldn't have been there,
Speaker 1: you know, Yeah, you shouldn't have be there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was I imagine for you it was completely awkward.
Speaker 2: What what I specifically remember is when they would cut
Speaker 2: to the commercial quote unquote, we're taking a break, and
Speaker 2: it would just be silence nobody. And now that I've
Speaker 2: done a few things, but that's not what happened. You
Speaker 2: cut for commercially, you talk, you joke, you laugh, there
Speaker 2: was it was silence with everybody for what two or
Speaker 2: three minutes while we just kind of sat there.
Speaker 3: It was.
Speaker 1: It was And for those that don't remember, or maybe
Speaker 1: you haven't been born yet at the time. So on
Speaker 1: season thirteen to The Bachelor, Jason Mesnik was our bachelor.
Speaker 1: We get to the end and we are in New Zealand, yeah,
Speaker 1: and which was beautiful. And so we're in New Zealand
Speaker 1: and it was pretty close coming to the end, but
Speaker 1: we kind of knew he was going to choose Melissa,
Speaker 1: and that's what happened. There was a proposal, It was beautiful,
Speaker 1: We had a great time. We pop champagne, We go home. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we jump in the pool, yeah, we had all these
Speaker 1: moments and we you know, one of the funny things
Speaker 1: before I move forward. I don't know if you know this,
Speaker 1: but the proposal. Maybe this was like an omen Maybe
Speaker 1: this was God saying guys, don't do this. But right
Speaker 1: as the proposals about to happen, obviously we know he's
Speaker 1: about to get down on one knee, the power goes
Speaker 1: out in the control room. No, just it's never happened before,
Speaker 1: it's never happened since. But right, I mean, we have,
Speaker 1: you know, so just so people know, we're set up,
Speaker 1: you know in usually houses or resorts or something. So
Speaker 1: we'll take over a hotel room or maybe someone's bedroom
Speaker 1: and we turn it into this huge control room. So
Speaker 1: there's like ten monitors, there's audio behind us, there's you know,
Speaker 1: there's all this equipment in this room. And it says
Speaker 1: if someone just flipped one switch and it was just shoom,
Speaker 1: that was God. That was that was God. That was
Speaker 1: God saying, guys, stop this. And so I'll never it
Speaker 1: because Ken Fuchs, our director, without even blinking an eye,
Speaker 1: dropped everything threw off his headset, went sprinting, and it
Speaker 1: was like we're good four hundred yards away sprinting down
Speaker 1: this hill to get to the mountaintop where you guys were,
Speaker 1: and he started just running from camera to camera to
Speaker 1: make sure everybody was getting the shots. Luckily, you know,
Speaker 1: the photogs on that show are the best in the
Speaker 1: world at what they do, and so everybody just kept
Speaker 1: doing their job and getting their shots of the you know,
Speaker 1: the isoshot of Melissa, the isoshot of Jason, and the
Speaker 1: two shots and then the jibs getting these big But
Speaker 1: we didn't see that proposal. We didn't hear it. We
Speaker 1: didn't know what we had until we got back home.
Speaker 3: So you didn't know. I said, yes, technically.
Speaker 1: We did well, we did because we ran down celebrate. Okay,
Speaker 1: so we get home after that little anecdote, we get home,
Speaker 1: when did you guys know that things weren't well?
Speaker 2: I mean, pretty quick, I'm going to be honest. Once
Speaker 2: once the relationship turned to strictly phone calls, because back
Speaker 2: then you didn't have FaceTime, you didn't.
Speaker 3: Have Zoom, you didn't you didn't have that.
Speaker 2: Phone calls And I think I think what I learned
Speaker 2: was that the cameras created a protect around us of
Speaker 2: there's always kind of something fun to talk about you
Speaker 2: have your best stories, you have your best self, and
Speaker 2: once that was gone, we didn't have a ton in common.
Speaker 1: Right well, and the show facilitates that. And I will
Speaker 1: say we and as the show got better at facilitating
Speaker 1: the relationships that we built in the in the early days,
Speaker 1: and I think you were still considered early days, I
Speaker 1: would say we didn't do a good job of facilitating relationships.
Speaker 1: We did a good job at building them. Like you said,
Speaker 1: we made sure that Melissa and Jason only got to
Speaker 1: see each other for a short amount of time, so
Speaker 1: it was always the honeymoon.
Speaker 2: Phase, right exactly, exactly, Yeah, And once the honeymoon phase
Speaker 2: was gone, it was still you know, in my mind,
Speaker 2: I just thought, we just need to see each other again.
Speaker 2: This is because you know, I can't when I tell
Speaker 2: people what this process was like for me, Like I
Speaker 2: went from going into this a single woman, quote unquote
Speaker 2: falling in love to what I thought I was falling
Speaker 2: in love. I left an engaged and I couldn't tell
Speaker 2: a soul. I couldn't tell my best friend, I couldn't
Speaker 2: tell my parents found out because remember they were not
Speaker 2: even on the show. My parents wouldn't go on the
Speaker 2: show call them and just say no right and tell them.
Speaker 2: But I couldn't. I couldn't delve into details of what
Speaker 2: I was going through, And so I have this roller
Speaker 2: coaster of emotions and now I've got a relationship that
Speaker 2: is not even one hundred percent and I can't talk
Speaker 2: to anybody about it because nobody even knows I'm engaged.
Speaker 2: It was a really weird mind place to be in,
Speaker 2: and so in my mind, I went.
Speaker 1: He's back in Seattle with his kid.
Speaker 3: He's back in his job with his kid, doing his
Speaker 3: thing too.
Speaker 1: Then you're in Dallas and my little cubicle.
Speaker 2: It's like, it's like life, this huge life event happened,
Speaker 2: and then we separated, pretended it didn't and continued with
Speaker 2: our lives.
Speaker 1: You must have been like, did I did Did any
Speaker 1: of that even happen?
Speaker 3: Mine?
Speaker 4: Key?
Speaker 3: Am I thing buried?
Speaker 1: I mean, it must have just seemed like some weird
Speaker 1: fever dream it because it's like being shot out of
Speaker 1: a cannon. Then you're just like, Okay, go back to
Speaker 1: your life. And again that's where we didn't do a
Speaker 1: good job back in the day of facilitating those relationships. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we had those quote unquote happy couple get away weekends,
Speaker 1: but we didn't do a good job. And like you said,
Speaker 1: communication was a little more difficult because you just had
Speaker 1: you just had to have a long distance phone call, and.
Speaker 2: You had to be at the same time, you know,
Speaker 2: it had to be when I was off work and
Speaker 2: you were off work.
Speaker 3: And yeah, but.
Speaker 2: Yeah, just I realized pretty quickly personalities were pretty different,
Speaker 2: interests were pretty different. But I really thought, once this
Speaker 2: is all over, the show is aired, we can finally.
Speaker 3: Be a couple.
Speaker 2: We'll be normal again, and it'll be fine. So that's
Speaker 2: how I went into the after the final Rows, even
Speaker 2: though no we can talk. You know, they bumped our
Speaker 2: taping up like a month, and I remember asking, and
Speaker 2: I was like, why did they bump our after the
Speaker 2: final rose up? It wasn't supposed to tape until like
Speaker 2: end of February, right, Oh that's.
Speaker 1: Right, that's right, And we did it right after Christmas, yes.
Speaker 2: And I was told, oh, it has to do with
Speaker 2: Bachelorette taping. I'm like, okay. I remember talking to Jason.
Speaker 2: I was like, do you know why they're doing this?
Speaker 4: And he goes, no, I have no clue.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I remember from the other side, I can
Speaker 1: tell you. I got a phone call. I might have
Speaker 1: even been like Christmas Eve. It was. I know it
Speaker 1: was right around Christmas because I remember I was with
Speaker 1: my family. I was on vacation, and they said, you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know anything yet, but things aren't looking good
Speaker 1: with Jason and Melissa. And they said, you know, we're
Speaker 1: going back and forth, but just be prepared because why
Speaker 1: the reason they called in the middle of Christmas week
Speaker 1: is where are you going to be right after New
Speaker 1: Year January? Yeah, just in case. And I was like, well,
Speaker 1: I mean I don't know. I'm like, I can you know,
Speaker 1: it's my job. I'll be available, and they said, okay,
Speaker 1: we'll keep you post. And it wasn't a week later
Speaker 1: that they called and said we are shooting something around
Speaker 1: January seventh, whatever it was. I forget the shoot date,
Speaker 1: but this is not going to go well, and we'll
Speaker 1: keep you posted well.
Speaker 2: In reference, yeah, we actually got engaged over Thanksgiving, so
Speaker 2: you can do the math.
Speaker 3: It was not a very long time.
Speaker 1: No, that was a short honeymoon right.
Speaker 2: That we were at home trying to make but in
Speaker 2: I will say there was no breakup. Like I didn't
Speaker 2: know production had been contacted.
Speaker 3: I didn't know.
Speaker 2: There were conversations of we're going to end this. That's
Speaker 2: where when what happened on the After Final Rows happened.
Speaker 3: I was like, what they just had to tell me?
Speaker 1: All you had to do, yeah, was not pull the
Speaker 1: rug up? So what Mliss is alluding to? So we decide,
Speaker 1: you know, pretty early on, we started this special called
Speaker 1: After the Final Rows. Now it's commonplace and they do
Speaker 1: it every season. We didn't used to always do that,
Speaker 1: so we do this show after the Final Row. We
Speaker 1: always had a little bit of a studio audience and
Speaker 1: it's a lot of fanfare or whatever. And with this one,
Speaker 1: I get the call and they say, we're going to
Speaker 1: do this at Telepicture Studio. It's where they used to
Speaker 1: shoot the show Extra back in the day over there
Speaker 1: at Telepictures in Burbank. And I don't even know if
Speaker 1: that's the studio or the building exists anymore. I know
Speaker 1: that Extra is not there anymore, but we're going to
Speaker 1: do it in a dark studio without an audience.
Speaker 3: And I didn't know that was abnormal. I had no
Speaker 3: idea that that was not I'm like.
Speaker 1: What and they said yeah, they're like they're like, that's
Speaker 1: one good thing. I do think maybe it was good
Speaker 1: they said, you know, we're going to do without an audience,
Speaker 1: because what's going to happen is I think Jason is
Speaker 1: going to break up with Melissa and he's going to
Speaker 1: ask Molly for another chance. He's asking about Molly and
Speaker 1: I think he's going to go back and ask her
Speaker 1: for another chance. And I'm like, oh my god, like
Speaker 1: what the f is? And so I'm like, okay. So
Speaker 1: we get there that day and it is the studio
Speaker 1: is just two chairs.
Speaker 3: You didn't know what was going to happen.
Speaker 1: No, I didn't know one hundred percent either, because you know,
Speaker 1: you know, honestly, Jason back then, I don't know if
Speaker 1: he knew for a hundred percent he was he was
Speaker 1: a mess. He was he was a puddle of a
Speaker 1: man at the time. I mean, he was such a wreck.
Speaker 1: Not to take him off the hook at all, but
Speaker 1: he was an absolute mess. And I did this really
Speaker 1: overly dramatic open that you know, we're not going to
Speaker 1: have an audience, you know, out of respect for everybody involved,
Speaker 1: as if that made it better. Uh, you know, but
Speaker 1: here was the biggest bizarre mistake, because well, we'll continue
Speaker 1: to talk and then I want to go back and
Speaker 1: tell you the biggest mistake we made among others. We
Speaker 1: get in that studio and the first person to come
Speaker 1: out is you. I don't know, and yeah, you you know,
Speaker 1: because obviously he had to break up with you first,
Speaker 1: so we and I don't know if he it might
Speaker 1: have just been you and I first, or if it
Speaker 1: was Jason. I want to say, if I recollect maybe
Speaker 1: you and I sat and talked a loan first to
Speaker 1: get a vibe for the what your thoughts were on
Speaker 1: the relationship, and then y'all were together. But when did
Speaker 1: you know in that talk that he was going to
Speaker 1: actually break up? Did you feel the vibe as you
Speaker 1: walked in?
Speaker 2: Still, to be completely honest, I felt something was wrong
Speaker 2: going into that day, and I, you know, he and
Speaker 2: I had like a conversation after because I remember before saying,
Speaker 2: if there's something you need to tell me, like, just
Speaker 2: tell me now, like I would love to know now
Speaker 2: what we're getting into, and he said nothing. And I'm
Speaker 2: in the little hair and makeup green room and I
Speaker 2: had an outfit that I was going to wear and
Speaker 2: they did not like that outfit, and they put me
Speaker 2: in that little strapless metallic draft, which is nothing that
Speaker 2: I would normally wear. They gave me the ring and
Speaker 2: told me to put it on, and then they made
Speaker 2: me watch the proposal. I'm doing all of this before
Speaker 2: I go out to talk.
Speaker 1: To get you emotional right.
Speaker 3: And my mind.
Speaker 2: And this is again reality TV was so new, and
Speaker 2: to me, this was not a show of oh how
Speaker 2: am I going to act? So I didn't necessarily know
Speaker 2: I was being prepped for something, but I felt. I
Speaker 2: was like, I feel like this is really weird. Why
Speaker 2: why it feels weird going into this?
Speaker 3: It feels weird? What I look like? It feels weird.
Speaker 3: I'm watching this and the way he greeted.
Speaker 2: Me, and I don't remember if I was there first
Speaker 2: or him. It was a really awkward hug greeting.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And in my again, my whole thing was once we're together,
Speaker 2: we'll be fine. He'll hold my hand, we'll have eye contacts.
Speaker 1: And there was none of that, no eye contact. I
Speaker 1: remember him just turning his head like a little very.
Speaker 2: Cold from the start, and I went, Okay, here we go. Interesting,
Speaker 2: We're gonna do this in Brint of Christ.
Speaker 1: All right, And it was just us, you know, there
Speaker 1: was like three camera guys, but they were pulled back
Speaker 1: really far there and show blacks and everything was really dark.
Speaker 1: So it's unlike kind of anything I had ever showed before. Either.
Speaker 1: It was really strange and sterile almost.
Speaker 2: It felt like it was just the three of us
Speaker 2: in a dark Yeah is what it felt like.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I felt and, like you said, awkward as it starts
Speaker 1: and Jason starts talking and he says, you know we're
Speaker 1: going to break up? Yeah? Whatever, Yeah, I saw this
Speaker 1: change come over you.
Speaker 3: I you know what it was embarrassment.
Speaker 2: I think when I was so embarrassed that I had
Speaker 2: gone on this show with people telling me not to
Speaker 2: do it, my parents telling me don't do it.
Speaker 3: I knew people were going to watch this love story.
Speaker 2: They were gonna watch me get engaged, they were gonna
Speaker 2: watch me be happy, and then they're gonna watch me
Speaker 2: get dumped and broken up with.
Speaker 3: And I was so mad at him.
Speaker 2: In that moment, because again, we had just had this
Speaker 2: conversation of just tell me if something's happening, tell me.
Speaker 3: I don't.
Speaker 2: I mean, listen, I'm with you. We're not on the
Speaker 2: same right now, but he'll be against me. So yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean there were a lot of weird emotions. And
Speaker 2: then I'll be honest, I was looking at you. I
Speaker 2: was looking at production, going, everybody is about to happen
Speaker 2: to me and nobody. They sent me out here in
Speaker 2: the stupid dress with his stupid ring.
Speaker 1: And I think you even said in your cute little
Speaker 1: twenty three year old boys like, I'm so mad at you. Well,
Speaker 1: and then I.
Speaker 2: Started hardly talking in the third person, which I never do.
Speaker 1: I don't know how many time I don't remember that.
Speaker 3: That's so I can't watch it.
Speaker 1: I can't Melissa Ryecroft is this doesn't happen to Melissa.
Speaker 1: Melissa does this to guys?
Speaker 2: It was no, I never did, that was the thing.
Speaker 2: But I think I was just really embarrassed. I was
Speaker 2: so mad at him at the time, and I just
Speaker 2: wanted to get off that stage and get out.
Speaker 1: Well, I can think now too, it's you know, that
Speaker 1: would be like my son right now, which is crazy
Speaker 1: to think he's twenty two about to turn twenty three.
Speaker 1: That would be him right now doing being faced with
Speaker 1: something like that, and you are wholly unprepared mentally, emotionally
Speaker 1: to handle something like that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and not.
Speaker 2: Even realizing at that point again because this was all new,
Speaker 2: but that millions.
Speaker 3: Of people were going to watch this reaction.
Speaker 2: And I remember as I was leaving and I went,
Speaker 2: I'm going to somehow look like the horrible person. Right,
Speaker 2: he's the bachelor, he's the guy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you have to know that's interesting.
Speaker 2: Yeah, my fault and that I've done something and now
Speaker 2: I you know, I'm going to be the villain in
Speaker 2: all of this.
Speaker 1: So at least that wasn't the case that he he
Speaker 1: became the biggest villain in the history of the show.
Speaker 2: Can I just say the one thing that I really
Speaker 2: hated out of all of this because you, I mean,
Speaker 2: you were there a little bit, but not a lot,
Speaker 2: like Molly and I were friends and all the girls
Speaker 2: that we were genuinely friends. Jillian and I have coffee
Speaker 2: in the morning. I never had anything towards Molly, and
Speaker 2: I don't think I had anything towards me.
Speaker 1: I feel no, for sure.
Speaker 3: Not.
Speaker 2: The media set this whole thing up of you must
Speaker 2: hate each other, and I'm like him.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna be honest.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I got at her because she was there for
Speaker 2: the same reason I was. We got along, right, and yeah,
Speaker 2: there was never anything anything between us, And to be honest,
Speaker 2: once I came home and got over the stuff, I
Speaker 2: wasn't even mad at Jason.
Speaker 3: I was like, you did me a favorite, dude, I'm happy, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: As you get older, you learn, you're like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: I just read to everything that's happened, and yeah, totally
Speaker 1: you yeah, but that is I do remember. Well. First
Speaker 1: of all, my perspective was a It was the most awkward,
Speaker 1: horrifying thing to be sitting through because it's like two
Speaker 1: friends of yours are getting are breaking up, and you're like,
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna sit here quietly, and and by the way,
Speaker 1: one foot away from you, I'm just gonna stay here.
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna look at you. It was so awkward.
Speaker 1: I just wanted to dig a hole underneath my chair,
Speaker 1: crawl in it, and just go away. But so, you know,
Speaker 1: as a young kind of host, because I you know,
Speaker 1: I've been doing this seven years, but it was this
Speaker 1: was different, and it was unlike anything I had ever
Speaker 1: hosted before, unlike anything that had ever happened. Again, this
Speaker 1: had never happened on the show before, it never happened
Speaker 1: on reality TV before. It was very groundbreaking and very
Speaker 1: earth shattering at the time, and it kind of if
Speaker 1: the Internet had really been firing at that point with
Speaker 1: social media, it broke the Internet.
Speaker 3: I'm so glad it was not, by the way, I
Speaker 3: am so glad.
Speaker 1: Would you imagine could you imagine if social media had
Speaker 1: existed back then?
Speaker 2: Uh No, I mean I am so thankful, Like I
Speaker 2: think there's people going, oh my gosh, but do you
Speaker 2: know how huge you guys would be. And I am
Speaker 2: so thankful that all of that happened. And I actually
Speaker 2: had time to go home six process go through all
Speaker 2: those emotions. Because again, you know how I was telling you,
Speaker 2: I went through all the happiness on my own. I
Speaker 2: also had to go through this breakup on my own.
Speaker 2: Like I went back home after this filming. Oh man,
Speaker 2: we couldn't tell anybody. Hey, I was engaged for six
Speaker 2: weeks and then I got dumped. Oh and he went
Speaker 2: back to the other girl.
Speaker 1: You're going to see it all, play it on national TV.
Speaker 2: I'm at home in my cubicle, just like spiraling, Like
Speaker 2: I don't understand what's happened in my life the past
Speaker 2: two months. It was a very surreal moment, and I
Speaker 2: cannot imagine if on top of that, I was dealing
Speaker 2: with people on social media who you've got half that
Speaker 2: are nice and then you've got half that are just nasty.
Speaker 1: About everything you're being kind, I would say three quarters.
Speaker 2: Right as a twenty three year old, I mean, that'll
Speaker 2: totally affect you.
Speaker 1: I think, yeah, no, I do you know, I don't
Speaker 1: relish the people that go through. It's changed now, it's
Speaker 1: actually it ebbs and flows. It was huge for a minute, right,
Speaker 1: it was like it got really really big. Now I
Speaker 1: don't know how much social media cares anymore. The show
Speaker 1: is just not as as relevant socially relevant as it
Speaker 1: used to be. But for a while, you know, when
Speaker 1: some of these women like Caitlin Bristow or some of
Speaker 1: these women would go through the show, I'm like, good lord,
Speaker 1: they're just getting hammered from all sides. And again it's
Speaker 1: the worst of the worst. And if you're young, like
Speaker 1: being older, you know, by then I understood. And people
Speaker 1: sent death threats to me all the time. I mean
Speaker 1: I would eat those for breakfast, and you just got
Speaker 1: you know, people would say things about you that are
Speaker 1: just horrifying or your family, and you let them roll
Speaker 1: off your back. But when you're twenty two twenty three
Speaker 1: to twenty five whatever these people are when they're on
Speaker 1: the show. That stuff's devastating.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because that I think becomes what you think your
Speaker 2: identity is. When you start here say that about you, Well.
Speaker 1: When you wrap your identity up and the good stuff, right,
Speaker 1: you want to believe that you're that great. You know,
Speaker 1: everyone's telling you you're awesome, you're awesome, and you start
Speaker 1: to actually believe you're awesome, which also isn't true. You're
Speaker 1: not you know, you're not as good as Yeah, you're
Speaker 1: not as good as the press says, but you're not
Speaker 1: as bad as social media says. But people do start
Speaker 1: believing that they are real, these huge celebrities and they're stars,
Speaker 1: and you know, because the world has opened up to
Speaker 1: you in a way that you are not prepared for
Speaker 1: or used to. Red carpets and you're flying first class
Speaker 1: here on the late night shows and you're up here,
Speaker 1: and then you get torn down because people want to
Speaker 1: do that on social media and it's really brutal.
Speaker 2: Well, they want to tear you down, but also there's
Speaker 2: always somebody knocking at that door. There is going to
Speaker 2: be the next bachelorette that's gonna then take all your
Speaker 2: thunder and as awesome as you were for six months.
Speaker 2: Now you're like, well, wait a minute, wait a minute.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what about me? Remember me?
Speaker 3: So I am very.
Speaker 2: Glad I didn't have that. You know, I was able to.
Speaker 2: I had a cool little career come out for a
Speaker 2: few years, but then I was able to just come
Speaker 2: back to Dallas and be a wife and be a
Speaker 2: mom and do what I kind of always wanted to do.
Speaker 1: Did you did you ever talk to Jason, Molly or Melissa, like,
Speaker 1: have you are yell in contact at all? Or did
Speaker 1: y'all ever get a chance to chat?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 3: You know there was one time you remember that show
Speaker 3: Wife Slop.
Speaker 1: Baby, So yeah, y'all did that?
Speaker 3: Didn't No, he did not.
Speaker 2: Thankfully we were this was this was fifteen years ago,
Speaker 2: and ty and I were going through the process of
Speaker 2: it and I was like, I don't know, it could
Speaker 2: be fun whatever.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Thankfully at the end, one of.
Speaker 2: The producers, and she probably was not supposed to tell
Speaker 2: me this, she goes, hey, I just want to give
Speaker 2: you a heads up. They want to swap you with
Speaker 2: Jason and Mollie and Tyne.
Speaker 1: I went, no, that's a no for us. By the
Speaker 1: way great producing. I respect the producers. You know what
Speaker 1: I did to trying to pull that off.
Speaker 2: I hope, yeah, but I went there. They're gonna want
Speaker 2: this weird conversation that isn't even needed anymore, and they
Speaker 2: want the drama.
Speaker 3: Right, We've all moved I had kids, I think they
Speaker 3: had had kids at that point. I'm like, it's just.
Speaker 1: Not I would love I don't really care about you
Speaker 1: and Jason. I would love for you and Molly to
Speaker 1: have a cup of coffee someday, not not on.
Speaker 3: Camera, because she got annihilated with him.
Speaker 1: She got hammered too, and unfairly, so I mean it
Speaker 1: was and look, I mean everyone honestly got unfairly hammered.
Speaker 1: Jason shouldn't have been that, you know, villified either. It
Speaker 1: wasn't you know, it wasn't cool, but it wasn't the
Speaker 1: worst thing in the world. He wasn't the devil, and
Speaker 1: he you know, everybody moved on, and you I love
Speaker 1: the fact that he and Molly fought, you know, fought
Speaker 1: through all of it, stayed together. They're happily married with kids.
Speaker 1: So everybody ended up where they should in life. It just,
Speaker 1: you know, it doesn't always happen in the perfect way.
Speaker 1: As I always say, is the stuff I went through.
Speaker 1: It's like God. God gives you a lot of blessings,
Speaker 1: a lot of gifts. It doesn't always come in a
Speaker 1: beautiful little box with a bow on it under the tree.
Speaker 3: Right right.
Speaker 2: I mean, at the end of the day, Jason and
Speaker 2: I were never a relationship that was going to last anyway,
Speaker 2: whether it ended six weeks after we got engaged, or
Speaker 2: whether we tried to force it create a marriage that
Speaker 2: was ultimately not gonna last.
Speaker 3: Like it was not a relationship that was supposed to happen.
Speaker 1: Because I remember talking to you later because we'll talk
Speaker 1: about this, Melissa and I and I know you guys
Speaker 1: don't remember we ended up hosting a show together. Yes,
Speaker 1: we co hosted a show together. But before that, you know,
Speaker 1: I do remember you going back to Tye and I
Speaker 1: think you know, or I'll just ask you, did that
Speaker 1: give you the perspective of who you are, what you
Speaker 1: really want and to go back and find that and
Speaker 1: to work on that.
Speaker 3: Yes, well it was twofold for us.
Speaker 2: Like I I came out of The Bachelor, I feel
Speaker 2: like a very different person than I went in. I
Speaker 2: came out stronger. I came out realizing I'm in all
Speaker 2: these relationships wanting you to want me, wanting you to
Speaker 2: want me, and I'm not ever sitting there going but
Speaker 2: do I want you?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Are you selling yourself to me?
Speaker 1: Are you a value at in my life?
Speaker 2: I I don't know why I was so insecure because
Speaker 2: I look back at my twenty three year old SLF
Speaker 2: going girlfriend. You had a ton of things going for you,
Speaker 2: and yet you were oddly insecure. And now having a
Speaker 2: daughter now that I like, I get hyper aware of that,
Speaker 2: of like what happens to make you not realize your worth?
Speaker 3: And so I did.
Speaker 2: I came out going I'm not doing this anymore. And
Speaker 2: at the same time, while I was gone on the Bachelor,
Speaker 2: Ty realized that he wanted to be with me right
Speaker 2: when he saw me with somebody else and he saw
Speaker 2: the end that I was engaged to somebody else, that
Speaker 2: that was his is holy crap, you know what. I
Speaker 2: wasn't ready.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 2: I let her go and the worst scenario happened, and
Speaker 2: so he fought back for me. So I think our
Speaker 2: relationship worked because we had both changed. It was not
Speaker 2: the same relationship that it was the first time. But
Speaker 2: would it have happened if I hadn't left.
Speaker 3: I don't think so.
Speaker 1: I don't think it wasn't the break you wanted, but
Speaker 1: it was the break you needed to realize both of you.
Speaker 1: And so you get done with the with the Bachelor
Speaker 1: and you did Dance with the Stars. You did? You
Speaker 1: won that? Didn't you think you won?
Speaker 3: I wont it the second time?
Speaker 1: Not?
Speaker 3: Yeah, the first time, I didn't.
Speaker 1: But I also know that they wanted you to be
Speaker 1: the bachelorette. Yes, they wanted you bad to be the
Speaker 1: bachelrett Yes that was It ended up being Jillian Jillian
Speaker 1: season of the Bacherette, who we love and I, oh
Speaker 1: my god. And no offense, but I had a blast
Speaker 1: to a Jillian. Yeah.
Speaker 3: No, I'm going to take it either load.
Speaker 1: But I you know, and this wasn't me making these decisions,
Speaker 1: So I can just say this honestly, I know they
Speaker 1: wanted you desperately because it just made sense. I mean,
Speaker 1: after what we'd just seen, the trials and tribulations, that's
Speaker 1: what we did at the time. I mean it was
Speaker 1: the perfect segue into making Melissa Ryecroft the batcherette. Tell
Speaker 1: me how that how those talks went and why didn't
Speaker 1: you do it?
Speaker 2: I was in the limo on my way back to
Speaker 2: my hotel after Jason had just broken up with me,
Speaker 2: and Carrie Lee was doing my interview.
Speaker 1: Your producer at the time, right, and she.
Speaker 2: Goes, Hey, but good news is you get to be
Speaker 2: the bachelorette now, and I went, I am fifteen minutes
Speaker 2: off of this stage.
Speaker 1: I'll talk about too soon, right.
Speaker 2: And I went and that's like, you think that's a
Speaker 2: consolation price And I went, no, No, I am.
Speaker 3: Not in that at all.
Speaker 1: It's going to be a no for me to know.
Speaker 2: And then Martin was calling me. They were very adamant
Speaker 2: that I needed to finish my story. That's what the
Speaker 2: audience needs to see that you're happy the audience.
Speaker 4: Hey.
Speaker 2: And my argument, to be fair was, listen, I just
Speaker 2: saw you throw your bachelor under the bus, and I
Speaker 2: would feel stupid saying sure, I'll jump right back into that.
Speaker 1: You guys will never do that to me, right.
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm like, I would be an idiot to
Speaker 2: trust that you would make this work.
Speaker 1: For me, and not very very savvy of you at
Speaker 1: the time.
Speaker 3: At the well, I mean, you know, I was upset.
Speaker 2: I was embarrassed. I was so and I know how
Speaker 2: production works. Now, again, this is all twenty twenty five years.
Speaker 2: At the time, though, I was like, I feel like
Speaker 2: I was a little puppet and everybody knew what was happening.
Speaker 1: Well, by the way, that's not exactly how production works.
Speaker 1: That's how the Batchelor production works. And as you know,
Speaker 1: if you've learned anything, there is nothing like that show
Speaker 1: in the world of television.
Speaker 2: No, what's so funny is you know? Dancing with the
Speaker 2: Stars came pretty quick after all that, and you.
Speaker 1: Know, Dina casts the casting director. She cast a lot
Speaker 1: of shows, but she was the casting director for Dancing
Speaker 1: with the Stars for quite some time.
Speaker 2: But I would ask her stuff. I said, so at
Speaker 2: the hotel, is it my name or is it another name?
Speaker 2: And she goes, yes, it's your name. Why would it
Speaker 2: be anybody else that I was like, oh, because I
Speaker 2: was a whole. I was a character, and like they
Speaker 2: never start aims on Bachelor, but things that I would
Speaker 2: tell her and she's like, oh, my gosh, no, that's
Speaker 2: not how we do it. You're allowed to go out
Speaker 2: during the day, you can go. I was like, I
Speaker 2: don't have to stay in my hotel room.
Speaker 3: I can do things.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we come out of this traumatized and damaged, expecting
Speaker 1: the worst, which is which is probably a good thing,
Speaker 1: because after you do that show and what happened to you,
Speaker 1: you were prepared for everything and everything else was just
Speaker 1: positive in a bonus, I.
Speaker 2: Guess so, but yeah, I did. I was very adamant.
Speaker 2: They did not take my nose. They they fought for
Speaker 2: a long time. They kept up in the money. I
Speaker 2: remember that they what.
Speaker 1: Did the money get to? Did it get over six figures?
Speaker 3: No? No, but this was two thousand and nine too.
Speaker 1: It was h no, No, it's exactly.
Speaker 2: I know that.
Speaker 1: I know Emily Maynard got really high just because of
Speaker 1: you know, she had a daughter and it was it
Speaker 1: was taking a lot to get her. But I know,
Speaker 1: I just remember on the periphery, I would call and
Speaker 1: me be like, you know, do because I assumed you
Speaker 1: were going to be the bacherette. And this is also
Speaker 1: you and I weren't chatting and talking. You know, again,
Speaker 1: we don't have social media where you could just text somebody.
Speaker 1: But I just assumed you were going to do it
Speaker 1: like they because they are persuasive.
Speaker 3: Once those numbers kept going up, I was like, dude,
Speaker 3: I make twenty five thousand dollars a year, my cube.
Speaker 1: Well, and you're at this point, you're what twenty three,
Speaker 1: twenty four years old. It's a year later, and I
Speaker 1: know who's talking to you. It is the creator of
Speaker 1: the show. It's all the executive producers. My guess is
Speaker 1: the head of reality at ABC was definitely talking to you.
Speaker 1: And I think at the time the president of the
Speaker 1: network was coming after you. The president of ABC guys.
Speaker 1: To put in perspective, that doesn't happen eventually. Typically the
Speaker 1: Bachelor bechette may meet them, may may meet them, but
Speaker 1: you were getting the full court press because they felt
Speaker 1: like the franchise hinged on you coming back to us.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I see that now. At the time, I
Speaker 3: didn't realize.
Speaker 2: I was like, I don't I'm telling them, no, I
Speaker 2: don't understand why nobody's listening to me. And every time
Speaker 2: that I would see a phone like a number from
Speaker 2: California calling me, I was like, oh my god, we
Speaker 2: have to do this conversation again. But I understand now
Speaker 2: why they needed me or what I represent, right, They
Speaker 2: needed that full circle moment because it wouldn't make sense
Speaker 2: to bring anybody else in after seeing what they.
Speaker 1: Just saw right. Well, and it's kind of we were
Speaker 1: I say again, the third person, we like the Bachelor
Speaker 1: franchise was catching heat for what we did to you.
Speaker 1: And and one of the interesting things in a lesson
Speaker 1: I learned, as much as I had done television, one
Speaker 1: of the great lessons I learned was we made the
Speaker 1: mistake of not figuring out a way to make to
Speaker 1: explain to people how time had passed and in the timeframe.
Speaker 1: So what happened was we were in New Zealand, Melyssa
Speaker 1: gets engaged to Jason. We're happy, happy, you jump in
Speaker 1: a pool. This is crazy. Oh my god, it's the
Speaker 1: greatest because everybody loved you. I mean, you were America's sweetheart.
Speaker 1: Everybody loved you. And Jason the single dad, and oh
Speaker 1: my god, this is great. Commercial break. Buy some McDonald's,
Speaker 1: buy some laundry detergent, Come back, Dark Studio.
Speaker 3: It aired the same night, didn't it. They did the
Speaker 3: finale and the afternats.
Speaker 1: Well say, it was two and a half minutes later. Literally,
Speaker 1: we take a commercial break and we come right back
Speaker 1: to me. You know, Darth Maul, Darth Vader in this
Speaker 1: dark studio like death warmed over with this very solemn
Speaker 1: we are doing this out of respect? Is like wait,
Speaker 1: like what Melissa's hair is still wet? She just fell
Speaker 1: in a pool two minutes ago, and now we're bringing
Speaker 1: you out for this unbelievably sad, destructive moment. People tore
Speaker 1: us apart. I caught so much for that.
Speaker 3: I didn't know any of that stuff.
Speaker 1: Had taken and that wasn't out of malicious intent at all.
Speaker 1: That was just us being producers and not thinking ahead
Speaker 1: of how was this going to be perceived by Bachelor
Speaker 1: Nation in the public. And I will tell you how
Speaker 1: it was perceived not well, not well. And so another
Speaker 1: another reason why everybody woke up for months at a
Speaker 1: time and just had meeting upon meeting of how do
Speaker 1: we get Melissa back? Because we also kind of needed
Speaker 1: you to validate us again and say, oh, I don't
Speaker 1: hate them. You know these people are okay.
Speaker 3: And to be fair, I have never said I hated No,
Speaker 3: you did not.
Speaker 2: I've never come out and said they're awful, they're horrible,
Speaker 2: because I wouldn't have ended up where I did without Batcheltte.
Speaker 1: And in fact, you, to the contrary, you came back,
Speaker 1: and you were a part of our family, and you
Speaker 1: did things with this and all that. You were never
Speaker 1: malicious and you were never mean. The fans knew to
Speaker 1: do that without you, But that.
Speaker 2: Was also kind of I think, if I recall, my
Speaker 2: first season of dancing was like the first seasons of
Speaker 2: social media. Like I remember having a Twitter and never
Speaker 2: having a Twitter before and figuring that out, and so
Speaker 2: I do remember because I think the r After the
Speaker 2: final rowse aired on Monday, Dina Katz called me on
Speaker 2: a Tuesday and said, Nancy O'Dell has gotten hurt on
Speaker 2: Dancing with the Stars. We want you to come in again.
Speaker 2: I said no. I was like, no, I don't ABC.
Speaker 3: People are weird.
Speaker 2: Take no for answered universal word no, And I called
Speaker 2: Ty and I were back together at this point mid March,
Speaker 2: right and I had told him and he goes, well,
Speaker 2: how much would you get paid? I said, I didn't
Speaker 2: even ask that. I don't care how much i'd get paid?
Speaker 3: Are you kidding?
Speaker 2: And he goes, we'll ask, And so I called Dean
Speaker 2: and I said, all right, this stupid question, how much
Speaker 2: wohld I get paid? And she told me what week
Speaker 2: one costs? And I went or what week one pays?
Speaker 1: And I went, oh, interesting, because it's I think it
Speaker 1: was twenty five k just for week one, right, oh
Speaker 1: it was.
Speaker 3: It was a six figure for week one.
Speaker 1: Oh, just being oh so they did okay, I forgot
Speaker 1: I remember they.
Speaker 3: And then it goes up by twenty five.
Speaker 1: Then it goes out okay. Oh, then it goes oh
Speaker 1: got it, got it, got okay. So yeah, so just
Speaker 1: being on You're like, oh, okay, so we're talking.
Speaker 2: So I was like, ty, I could go for week
Speaker 2: one and get kicked off, you know, and I have
Speaker 2: made five years of what I would make, and I
Speaker 2: obviously I had to talk to you.
Speaker 3: I think it was Martin at the time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yes, And so then and there was a very
Speaker 1: contentious relationship between for our production. And I know you're thinking, wait,
Speaker 1: it's ABC, So there's all this love, there's not. It
Speaker 1: is so dysfunctional, it is so toxic. It is a
Speaker 1: mess because the creator of our show hates ABC, and
Speaker 1: ABC hates the creator of our show. So I was
Speaker 1: always the bastard stepchild caught in the middle, and so
Speaker 1: were you. So were was everybody else who's trying to
Speaker 1: you know, you'd think there's this synergy. There is at
Speaker 1: the point that Melissa is talking about, there is zero synergy,
Speaker 1: and so Dina and them were reaching out and now
Speaker 1: you're thinking, oh, I'll just do this, but the Bachelor
Speaker 1: didn't want you to do it.
Speaker 3: I want me to do it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was I don't know how it happened. I
Speaker 2: assume if I had to think back, Bachelor finally had
Speaker 2: to wave a white flag and go, if we need
Speaker 2: the world to see that she's okay and she's not
Speaker 2: going to do it with us, we have to let
Speaker 2: her do it now.
Speaker 3: They were not happy about it. I know that now.
Speaker 1: Oh, trust me. They were pissed because they felt like
Speaker 1: you were being stolen from us. Our story, Our girl
Speaker 1: was being stolen from us, and her story was going
Speaker 1: to continue, but not on our franchise, and it was
Speaker 1: a huge blow to us. It was an ego blow
Speaker 1: for them, and it was also a financial blow because
Speaker 1: it did I mean, I again, I love Jillian. No,
Speaker 1: she was flight against her, but a Melissa Ryecroft Bacherette
Speaker 1: season would have been massive, off the charts massive.
Speaker 2: In those meetings, could they not understand why I was saying?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 3: Are they like? I don't get it. Why would she
Speaker 3: not want to do this?
Speaker 1: The ego is not would not allow that to happen.
Speaker 1: And it was just like, this is just this person
Speaker 1: who I created, who owes me everything. How dare her
Speaker 1: turn me down? Where it turns from I love you,
Speaker 1: I love you. I love you too, I will ruin you.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you felt that, but I'm sure
Speaker 1: it happened.
Speaker 2: I mean I didn't feel I will ruin you, but
Speaker 2: I was definitely cast off. Like people would always ask, oh,
Speaker 2: why are you not at these Bachelor events?
Speaker 3: Why are you not here? Why are you not there?
Speaker 3: I'm like, I don't get invited.
Speaker 1: You're dead to us. A lot of people try, you know,
Speaker 1: wanted to do Caitlin Bristow was a great example of
Speaker 1: She wanted to be on dancing and made it very
Speaker 1: well known, and they held that over her and did
Speaker 1: not allow it to happen for a long time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then finally cooler heads prevailed and she did dancing.
Speaker 1: And then it kind of became commonplace that you'll do
Speaker 1: The Bachelor and go on Dancing with the Stars, and
Speaker 1: that became kind of a routine because one show kind
Speaker 1: of would help the other and vice versa, which again
Speaker 1: one of the craziest moments in my career was I
Speaker 1: had been asked to help do an interview for another
Speaker 1: ABC show and I thought, it's ABC, right, Like, they're
Speaker 1: my boss too. So I worked for Telepictures, Warner Brothers,
Speaker 1: Bachelor People, but I also worked for ABC, so if
Speaker 1: they asked me to do something, I'm going to do it.
Speaker 1: It's the network and it I was used as a
Speaker 1: pawn the same way and my job was threatened. It
Speaker 1: was crazy. So I saw this happening to.
Speaker 2: You well when I really felt it. And you'll know
Speaker 2: this because you were there too when all the Bachelor
Speaker 2: pen stuff happened, and that was a battle between ABC
Speaker 2: and Warner Horizon, and ABC wanted me to be a
Speaker 2: part of the show and Warner Horizon did not. And
Speaker 2: I have nothing to do with it. I'm not sitting
Speaker 2: here going yep. I'm like, I'm kind of I'm new
Speaker 2: to this whole thing. I'll do whatever you.
Speaker 3: Want me to do.
Speaker 1: This is so after just to catch people up after
Speaker 1: Dancing with the Stars, Melissa and I co hosted a
Speaker 1: show called Bachelor Pad.
Speaker 3: Was a fantastic premise for a show.
Speaker 1: It was It was poorly produced. We brought somebody in
Speaker 1: because it was it turned into a bit of a
Speaker 1: game show. Yeah, there was like I don't know if
Speaker 1: I forget quarter of a million dollars to the winter
Speaker 1: or whatever. It was this prisoner's dilemma at the end.
Speaker 1: And it was a really cheaply shot show too. We
Speaker 1: shot it at the mansion. We literally did most of
Speaker 1: the challenges in the driveway at the mansion. So it
Speaker 1: was the prelude to what became Bachelor in Paradise.
Speaker 3: That ever better though than Bachelor of Paradise because you
Speaker 3: have that end.
Speaker 1: Goal the game. Well, you have the game element, which
Speaker 1: was good and bad because then it became about the
Speaker 1: game and not love. And there were several issues with her,
Speaker 1: which I can dive into, but the whole point was
Speaker 1: I get a call and I will again one of
Speaker 1: those moments with Melissa I'll never forget. I'm at a
Speaker 1: little League game for my son and I get a
Speaker 1: call from the creator of the show and he's like, hey,
Speaker 1: I got great news for you. And whenever he called
Speaker 1: and said I have great news, I knew it was
Speaker 1: nothing good for my career in my life. And he
Speaker 1: goes Melissa Ryecroft is going to co host this new show,
Speaker 1: Bachelor Pad with you. I'm like what who? Like what what?
Speaker 1: And he's like yeah, and he's like, this comes from
Speaker 1: the President of ABC, Steve McPherson. This comes from the
Speaker 1: highest of highs at ABC. She is going to be
Speaker 1: a part of this franchise. And I'm like, okay, well,
Speaker 1: I mean okay, I no saying this. And so you
Speaker 1: and I met and it was wonderful and we had
Speaker 1: a good time and we figured it out. The show
Speaker 1: was not made for two people, and so we you
Speaker 1: and I figured it out, and I hope you know,
Speaker 1: I really went out of my weight. I'm like, okay,
Speaker 1: I'm going to try and make this happen so we
Speaker 1: can both be co hosting this together because that format
Speaker 1: wasn't prepared for that. And you and I co hosted
Speaker 1: that summer together, which was actually great. We had a
Speaker 1: great time.
Speaker 3: It was fun.
Speaker 2: No, it was a lot of fun. I mean I
Speaker 2: at that point, I came in extremely green. You know,
Speaker 2: I was not expecting anything to happen that happened after Bachelor, right,
Speaker 2: I mean, back in our days of Bachelor, you were
Speaker 2: a contestant and then you went back off to your world,
Speaker 2: like it was not a what else can I parlay?
Speaker 3: I knew very well.
Speaker 2: I was walking into other people's territory. It was like,
Speaker 2: this is not my show. I feel weird. He was
Speaker 2: just looking at me a year ago and except a.
Speaker 3: Rose like, I get it.
Speaker 2: I just remember from I could I could definitely tell
Speaker 2: from the production the standpoint. I was like, I they
Speaker 2: have lost this battle, and I know they've lost this battle,
Speaker 2: and I'm just gonna.
Speaker 3: Tiptoe and keep my spot where they want me. I will.
Speaker 2: I think I was unmiked, Like the last three episodes
Speaker 2: of we filmed, They're like, we're not even gonna put
Speaker 2: the mic on you.
Speaker 3: I was like, that's.
Speaker 1: Okay, that's okay, And I know you were also, you
Speaker 1: know we did that together. You're rumored to be heading
Speaker 1: to Dancing with the Stars as the host of that.
Speaker 1: I know you were up for that for a while. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but it was a It's funny that, you know, someone
Speaker 1: who came on the show as a contestant became such
Speaker 1: an important part of this franchise in so many interesting ways,
Speaker 1: and in front of the camera but also behind the scenes,
Speaker 1: like you were the tipping point of a lot of
Speaker 1: things that happened on this franchise weird.
Speaker 2: But I think a lot of it was timing too.
Speaker 2: You know, the it happened, it was going from what
Speaker 2: you call like the og Bachelor's into this new age
Speaker 2: world and social media, and you know, now these people
Speaker 2: are getting notoriety and it's not I mean, it was
Speaker 2: just world was changing right at the time that this
Speaker 2: huge event happened to happen on the show. So it
Speaker 2: really just had it happened two years earlier, I don't
Speaker 2: think any of this would have happened.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: And then flash forward to like Ari season when the
Speaker 1: switch happened again and I was fully prepared. I sat
Speaker 1: him down, I said, let me tell you how this
Speaker 1: is going to go, and let me tell you how
Speaker 1: this is going to go for you. It's not going
Speaker 1: to go well, but it was. I was so prepared
Speaker 1: for that moment with him and Becca and Laura, and
Speaker 1: it was like it's like it wasn't it was a
Speaker 1: big deal, but it wasn't what I you know, wasn't
Speaker 1: the earth shattering moment that became the most dramatic moment
Speaker 1: in Bachelor history. I mean, Melissa, thank you so much.
Speaker 1: I totally really appreciate that the time. I love talking
Speaker 1: to you, and we have to do this again soon.
Speaker 1: In fact, we have to do it real soon because
Speaker 1: we're going to talk about your time as a Dallas
Speaker 1: Cowboy cheerleader, which is all the rage right now thanks
Speaker 1: to Netflix and this document. So as you wrap this
Speaker 1: one up, go check out the next interview with Melissa
Speaker 1: as we talk all about her experience of being a
Speaker 1: Dallas Caboy cheer leader. Thank you, Melissa, Thanks thanks for listening.
Speaker 1: Follow us on Instagram at the most dramatic pod ever,
Speaker 1: and make sure to write us a review and leave
Speaker 1: us five stars. I'll talk to you next time.