F-cking Bachelor. I have tried to avoid The Bachelor and all its iterations as much as possible but it’s impossible to escape it. A couple of weeks ago, the week of the Bachelor(ette?) finale, Kathleen and I went out for dinner. I forgot my keys that night so I had to wait for Jacek to pick me up and to kill time, I tagged along with Kathleen to Jen’s place because they were watching the show together which is when I learned all about Hannah and the pilot, and some f-ckboy musician, and Tyler Cameron, Kathleen’s favourite. She talked at me so hard about how she picked Tyler from the beginning and all I kept thinking was… his name is Tyler Cameron? Is that a for real name? Tyler Cameron sounds like a name created by the algorithm. If Vine and Instagram had a baby it’s name would be Tyler Cameron.
Stupidly I thought I could stop caring about Tyler Cameron the minute I left Jen’s. Now we have to care about Tyler Cameron because he’s dating Gigi Hadid?!?
They’ve been seen together multiple times since the end of The Bachelor and again just yesterday, with her friends, leaving Justin Theroux’s “dive bar”, LOLOLOLOL. If supermodels and bachelors and the paparazzi are hanging out at your “dive bar”, is it really a “dive bar”.
Gigi and Tyler, as you can see, are like a fragrance ad. A generic one. Maybe I’m just salty because I’m not over Gigi and Zayn yet but anyway, I remember vaguely reading something something about whether or not Tyler will be the next Bachelor. Please. As if that’s necessary now. Until Gigi breaks up with him, why would he need to be the next Bachelor?
I’m sure, in the history of Bachelor and Bachelorette contestants (what are they called? Suitors? Roses?), there have been a couple here and there who’ve gone on to date lower tier celebrities but Tyler is the first to have made the crossover connection to the A list. Gigi is a big deal. And Tyler hooking up with Gigi could mark a new era, Reality 3.0. In the beginning there was reality television in the late 90s – and derision in mainstream entertainment, scripted entertainment stars looking down on the genre. By the end of the 2000s, Reality 2.0, reality television was creating real celebrities, the biggest being Kardashians, Kim Kardashian the biggest of the biggest. She’s now more famous than most actors. Now, with Reality 3.0, established celebrities are turning to reality television for love. It’s a reality show within a reality show within a reality show? This is a simple overview of the ecosystem and I’m sure someone will follow with a more comprehensive analysis that includes digital and social media celebrities but the point is, I wonder if Tyler is a test case, and a beacon of hope for the millions of people out there hoping to be on reality television – that this is how they can be Leonardo DiCaprio. Like aren’t he and Tyler, romantically at least, pretty much the same now? To say nothing of the actor-celebrities who can’t get a date with Gigi and now Tyler Cameron’s hanging out with her, which is a disruption of another kind.
