25 seasons later, Bachelor Nation fans want to know who are the most-followed The Bachelor leads on Instagram. ABC aired The Bachelor for the very first time in 2002, and it has been a massive hit show - and franchise - ever since. Among other specials, the Bachelor franchise has come out with four main spin-offs: The Bachelorette, Bachelor In Paradise (which was once branded as Bachelor Pad), The Bachelor Winter Games, and The Bachelor Presents: Listen To Your Heart. The original The Bachelor show is still one of ABC's highest-rated series, inspiring many competitors from rival networks over the years.
Despite the fact that the core Bachelor series is all about finding love, the show has evolved over time to serve many other purposes. At this point, many people take advantage of The Bachelor platform to become reality TV stars and high-profile celebrities. They can capitalize on their fame by becoming social media influencers, TV/podcast hosts, models, actors, businesspeople, and so on. And yet, there are obviously still plenty of individuals who do go on the show to find love, and that do end up meeting the love of their lives through this platform.
Alas, the fans are always curious about which men went on to become the most popular Bachelor leads of all time after being on the show. As of this writing, only five Bachelors have crossed one million followers on Instagram: Colton Underwood (2m), Peter Weber (1.8m), Sean Lowe (1.3m), Ben Higgins (1.3m), and Nick Viall (1.1m). The most-followed list then moves on to Matt James (896k), Arie Luyendyk Jr. (752k), Chris Soules (599k), and Juan Pablo Galavis (599k). Within the 100,000-mark are Jason Mesnick (116k), Jesse Palmer (116k), and Bob Guiney (114k).
This ranking can also note the less popular male leads from The Bachelor on Instagram, which include Travis Lane Stork (54k), Ben Flajnik (33k), Andrew Firestone (10k), Charlie O'Connell (7k), Lorenzo Borghese (6k), Andrew Baldwin (6k), and Jake Pavelka (5k). Aaron Buerge has a mostly inactive Instagram account with just about 300 followers. Of note, it appears that Alex Michel, Byron Velvick, Brad Womack, and Matt Grant don't have public Instagram profiles with their respective names and pictures.
Looking at the most-followed Bachelor leads of all time, the list isn't exactly surprising. And yet, there are many extremely popular leads from early seasons that fell significantly behind over the years. At the end of the day, maintaining a successful Instagram profile can be hard work!
The Bachelor season 25 airs Mondays at 8 pm ET/PT on ABC.