Bachelor Nation Investigation: How long did contestants date on Listen to Your Heart?

In this week’s investigation, we take a deep dive on the amount of time it took to film The Bachelor Presents: Listen to Your Heart (and if it was enough).

Obviously, we’re seeing a very edited version of The Bachelor’s Listen to Your Heart. The show seemed to jump from dating to singing in the blink of an eye and it’s very apparent than most of these couples don’t belong together.

In the grand scheme, Listen to Your Heart was a great idea. Take all of the fame-seeking musical bachelors and bachelorettes and toss them in a house together. When it comes to the execution, though, I think Chris Harrison et al. fell short.

Chris and Bri are a lock. These two connected from day one, as one couple always seems to do, and have never wavered since. Aside from the two of them, the only other couple we really know anything about is Trevor and Jamie, and let’s be honest, they don’t seem as rock solid as the aforementioned duo.

LTYH is a new social experiment

Much like the insane process behind Love is Blind, Listen to Your Heart was something entirely new. As Love is Blind progressed, though, we learned that the couples were “dating” for a little longer than the production crew made it seem.

Two episodes in the Bachelor mansion obviously didn’t take place over two or three nights, as the audience experiences it. There was an entire couple who were introduced on a date last week that we hadn’t even seen before.

As I alluded to above, some of these couples are definitely not here for the right reasons. The difference between these contestants and past ones is that this time, both parties are in the know (looking at you, Jed). How long was the actual process though? And was it long enough to work?

According to Reality Steve, filming was underway in late January. The series wrapped on Feb. 13, so the entire process was at least three weeks long, similar to Bachelor in Paradise. Paradise usually runs on television for six weeks, with two episodes airing per week. Assuming the LTYH timing was similar, it seems strange that we’re only getting half of the content out of it, until you remember it was designed to fill the game before Claire Crawley’s Bachelorette season was meant to premiere on May 13.

As it stands, the filming doesn’t seem to have been rushed, but the process itself and the final product certainly is. We’ll have to wait a little longer to see if that remains the case.

Is LTYH about music or love?

This is where the waters get muddy. Chris Harrison even said, this is about music first. If a duo ends up sounding great together and can put on an act for the cameras, they could “win” this strange Bachelor competition. They could also end up touring together, all while acting like a couple. That’s a more lucrative gig than playing bars or future Bachelor/ette date country concerts.

In that sense, this isn’t a Bachelor music show, as it was billed, but a music show put on by The Bachelor. The love is just an added bonus, if it happens. While the first two episodes gave us Bachelor in Paradise vibes, the final few are just going to be American Idol duets. Everyone knows the singing show groups never make it far. Why are we making a show about them?

Unlike every other Bachelor-related season, the production team seems focused on keeping this season short. I’d be less surprised if a Bachelor franchise announced they were airing six episodes in a week over six episodes in a season.

LTYH has room for improvement

It’s too early to say whether or not this process works, but one thing we can all agree on is that it should have been more Bachelor-ey. They could have had four weeks of “Paradise” instead of just two, had more musical styles to mix and match with or even just added a week or two before giving them the duo ultimatum.

The absolute biggest blunder was not mixing up the couples for performances. What if Ryan and Jamie performed together again? Would Trevor and Natascha be able to put on a performance despite their history? How would the Julia, Savannah, Brandon love triangle play out? Would Chris and Bri’s love stand a true test? This seems like a ridiculously obvious miss on the production team’s part.

Could the contestants set aside everything and sing with someone they didn’t like to remain on the show and pursue someone they did? This is the show we should be watching. This would provide all of the drama of a Bachelor/ette season with the added stakes of a singing competition. Instead, we’re left with a mish-mash of a handful of awkward couples and Chris and Bri.

For more, explore The Bachelor section at FanSided.com.