Many consider season 18 of The Bachelor to be the worst season for one solitary reason: the Bachelor himself, Juan Pablo Galavis. In all of The Bachelor's 24 seasons and different 24 Bachelors, there has never been one so universally panned than Juan. When it comes to Bachelors making mistakes, he made every single one in the book and even invented some new ones.
It wasn’t the kind of drama-filled spectacle that makes for good television, either. Galavis is someone whom fans just didn’t enjoy watching. When he wasn’t passively mumbling “It’s OK” or “It’s fine” whenever his Bachelorettes raised serious concerns with him, he was getting himself into trouble with his “honesty.” Not even his own family could vouch for him during the hometown dates, referring to him as “hyperactive” and “rude.” And it gets worse.
Perhaps the biggest problem with Galavis happened when he alienated and offended fans by saying that having the first gay Bachelor or Bachelorette would be a bad influence on people. Galavis claimed that it would be too “strong” and too hard to watch. He then likened gay people to perverts. The statement may have flown slightly under the radar, since happening in close proximity to a similar homophobic controversy involving Phil Robertson of Duck Dynasty, but Bachelor fans were there and they did not forget. He later apologized (kind of), citing English as a second language being the cause of the “pervert” word fumble.
Two different Bachelorette’s, Andi Dorfman and Sharleen Joynt, had their absolute Galavis limit and, entirely on their own, decided to pack up their things and leave. Most famously, Dorfman, who would later become the star of The Bachelorette, felt so dumbfounded by the lack of depth in conversation with Galavis, that she left the morning after the Fantasy Suites. There were no tearful goodbyes between the two. Dorfman left, shaking her head at the complete lack of emotion from Galavis, and Galavis continued to not do or say much at all. He did shed some tears when Joynt left, but after he gave her the same detached, apathetic treatment he gave Dorfman. Dorfman did mention the fact that some of Galavis' comments come off as rude and Galavis offered no apology, but rather doubled-down on his attitude towards her. He had a similar controversy with another Bachelorette, Clare, where some inappropriate sexual comments were exchanged off-camera. She also gloriously told him off, telling him she couldn’t imagine her kids having a father like him.
His lack of appropriate bedside manner was a common theme throughout the season. But if that’s not telling enough on how rotten the season went, Galavis did the impossible: he got on Chris Harrison’s bad side. After the controversial season ended, Harrison offered Galavis the hot seat, where he could explain a lot of his behavior to America. Instead, Galavis acted hostile and kept accusing Harrison of interrupting him and not understanding him. Following this, Harrison referred to Galavis as someone who thinks of themselves as the victim and is someone who doesn’t want to help themselves.
Season 18 was an absolute disaster and will live on, burned into the brains of Bachelor fans, as one of the most infuriating and insane moments in reality TV history. Fortunately, The Bachelor will return with the safe, respectful nice-guy Peter Weber next January.