The Bachelor franchise is a reality feast for the ages! This show is so successful with its countless seasons and spin-offs, and its popularity doesn’t seem to be slowing down!

Having just wrapped up season 21, many haters are left asking what kind of credibility the show really has—it seems to have stood the test of time, at least in terms of its entertainment factor. So, what makes the show so damn addicting for the millions of fans who watch it?

Every season, the show manages to cook up the right mixture of drama and romance that has fans glued to their seats, and the rest of us flying off the handle and flipping the station. It seems almost impossible that show just stumbles upon the villain, and the nice girl, and the woman who doesn’t take it lying down. And the truth is that it IS impossible. The entire enterprise is contrived and carefully calculated. But you have to hand it to them—they got the formula down to a science!

Here are the 15 reasons the show is FAKE AF!

15. They Create Roles For The Women To Play

It doesn’t take a writer to understand that every show needs at least one bad guy, but besides the villain, there are plenty of other roles to go around. Apparently, the producers shift through months and months worth of footage to decide who the villain, the hero, Miss. Congeniality and the like. According to Cosmopolitan, they assess "who will capture the heart of the star? Who will go home in tears? Who will be this season's villain?"

And of course, the production team waits on the set morning, noon and night, to capture those vital moments that help to paint particular contestants in the desired lights. Cosmo also revealed that "Once on the show, contestants are surrounded by what Bachelor director Ken Fuchs calls his "army" — teams of cameramen, lighting techs, soundmen, and production assistants — staying vigilant for anything approximating drama."

14. They’re Given Lines

Back in Season 14 of the reality series, Jake Pavelka met one of the most recurring contestants on the Bachelor franchise, Tenley Molzahn. With the bright lights and cameras rolling, Tenley confided in Jake about her painful divorce and earned herself the first kiss of the season!

She beamed, “That was my first kiss since my ex-husband.”

But according to Tenley herself in post-interviews, the locking of the lips was not exactly unplanned. The show’s producers had her pegged as someone the audience would fall for, and they were right. But they made sure she stuck around by coaching her with conversation starters.

“A producer asked me if there was something memorable I wanted to tell him, and because my name is so unique, I opted to play off that,” Molzahn explains via the New York Post. “I did a list of ‘10 things to know about Tenley,’ with the final item being that I was a good kisser. I was encouraged to be the first kiss, and I was the first kiss.”

“I surrendered myself to the producers.”

13. The Cry Factor

If you thought waterboarding was torture, it turns out that that’s nothing compared to what the women endure from the production staff while filming The Bachelor. In an interview with The New Yorker, former producer, Sarah Gertrude Shapiro revealed that it was her job to ensure the waterworks! She was to get contestants to open up to her so that she could give them terrible advice and then sit idly by and capture the melodrama as it unfolded. Not only that, but it was also her job to deprive them of sleep! Nothing brews logical thought like sleep deprivation! In hindsight, she says that it was a "complicated manipulation through friendship."

And what a friend! Before a rose ceremony, Shapiro would manipulate the hopes of a woman being sent home. "The night they were going to get dumped, I would go to the hotel room where they were staying and say, 'I'm going to lose my job for telling you this, but he's going to pick you—he's going to propose.'"

Shapiro says that the tears were a requirement to keep her job, "They'd often tell us to drive up and down the 405 until the girls cried—and not to come home if we didn't get tears because we'd be fired."

So future Bachelor contestants, be forewarned! The nice producers are not your friends!

12. They Can’t Eat

Get this! All of those fancy dinners the Bachelor and his date get to enjoy, are not enjoyed at all! When the contestants go for these elegant and romantic dinners for some intimate one-on-one time, the food that’s placed in front of them is just for show! According to bachelor, Sean Lowe, the reason is that “No one looks good eating, and microphones pick up all kinds of chomping."

So to avoid this horrific disaster of looking bad while eating, the producers have the contestants eat beforehand. Lowe said, "Before we went on the date[s], the producers sent food to our hotel rooms. We ate in our rooms and then went out for dinner." What a waste of a good steak!

In recent seasons, some of the contestants have been shown eating, especially at the cocktail parties before the rose ceremonies. And it’s clear that the producers wanted you to find their behavior less than appealing. Notoriously, Chad, the villain from Jo Jo Fletcher’s season of The Bachelorette was shown eating non-stop! This was all a part of the monster-like image the show created for him.

11. The Producers Help Arrange Drama

In one of the most memorable scenes in Bachelor history, bachelor Ben Flajnik and contestant Courtney Robertson indulged in a star-lit swim—completely naked! And, what happens when you’re completely naked? Yep, that’s right! The pair took the show to a new level of explicit! This little occurrence obviously made the women who were all vying for Ben’s attention, go mad with jealousy! And Courtney’s place as the villain was completely solidified. But what viewers didn’t see was the hand the producers had in making this x-rated activity happen. Courtney explained to The Post, “I knew if I suggested [skinny-dipping] on-camera, they would help me organize it.”

In order to separate Courtney from the other remaining women, the producers called pretending that they had an interview with her. This was all a farce though and they hooked her up with the chance to sneak over to bachelor Ben’s hotel room for a “surprise” midnight dip!

10. There Are Contestants Just Looking For Fame

When it comes to broadcasting your love life on television, it should be expected that more than a few contestants are just looking for their fifteen minutes.

In an interview with Man Repeller, an unnamed former male contestant claimed, “95% of the people that go on it are hoping that they win that lottery and that they’re the next Bachelor or Bachelorette and won’t have to work. You get to be a social media celebrity.”

Doesn’t sound like a bad gig!

A few contestants have not made much of a secret of their intentions. A whole list of former competitors were obviously there for their own shameless self-promotion. From the Canadian wrestler, Justin “Rated R” Rego, to Bachelor Jake Pavelka who was ousted as a “fame whore” by his fiancé, and the most recent villain Corinne Olympios, who is reported to have appeared in music videos as far back as 2011 in her pursuit of fame. The contestants on The Bachelor series are clearly just looking for a moment in the limelight. Some have gone as far as quitting their jobs, only to be sent home the first night!

9. Some Producers Are In Relationships With Past Contestants

Previously, we mentioned just how Rozlyn Papa’s was having an illustrious affair with one of the show’s producers. But the drama didn’t stop there! Rozyln joined The Bachelor to compete for the affection of Jake Pavelka, an airline pilot, who dreamed of Hollywood. During the fourteenth season, Papa was asked to leave the show but luckily for her haters, returned to face the music in one of the most memorable After the Final Rose shows ever! Chris Harrison tore her a new one for her behavior while on the show, but she responded in kind! She accused the then-married Harrison of hitting on the fired producer’s wife in the past. Harrison stated, “I won’t dignify that with a response. I hope you will become a better person through this.” Ouch!

And this is not the only contestant-producer relationship that’s come from the show. A very eerily similar situation took place on the set of The Bachelor (UK), and on The Bachelor spin-off, Bachelor in Paradise, a cameraman reportedly broke both legs jumping out a contestant’s two-storey window!

With so many incestuous Bachelor relationships, the show clearly lacks a certain level of integrity!

8. It’s Edited To Hell

I mean it’s pretty obvious that the show is cut and edited to paint certain events in a particular light, but just how far does it go?

In Season 6 of The Bachelorette, Justin “R-Rated” Rego went to seemingly massive efforts to see bachelorette, Ali Fedotowsky. Ali was staying 2 miles away from the Bachelor mansion, and in a heroic effort, Rego made the journey on a broken leg.

According to fellow contestant Craig Robinson, “The producers made it look like Justin Rego walked up to her house, but the producers drove him. They had him get out of the car and filmed it as if he was walking past houses.”

And if that’s not bad enough, contestant Jamie Otis was edited to look even more pathetic by the production crew’s editing. Otis revealed in the New York Post, “During my exit interview, a producer asked, ‘Don’t you miss your family?,’ and I just lost it. So as I’m talking about my family and how I miss them, I’m then asked about how I feel about Ben. I’m crying, and it appears that I’m devastated that Ben didn’t choose me.”

7. The Producers Have Their Paws In the Rose Ceremonies

Obviously, this is a show that survives off drama and the producers are looking to create some at every turn! The infamous rose ceremony is no exception and all part of their masterminded craft of “reality” TV. The producers provide instructions of how the rose ceremony will presented—who gets the roses first has to be the most obvious choices! In his tell-all book, previous Bachelor contestant, Sean Lowe, revealed the level of which the show's producers get their hairy paws in the mix. Via Bustle Sean commented, revealed (via Bustle) that The Bachelor "likes to put the most obvious choices first so that drama builds towards the end of the ceremony with the rest of the women who are unsure of their status."

Producers also get involved when contestants break certain rules…or at least once enough people catch wind of them anyways. The show’s producers stepped in and removed Rozlyn Papa for having a relationship with one of their own. Yikes!

6. The Bachelor May Not Be Looking For Love

There are a lot of hormones flying around when you put 25 contestants together to vie for the affections of just one person. Not only do things get heated in the house, but things can get pretty steamy with the bachelor himself long before the final rose is handed out.

A lot of couples get hot and heavy in the weeks before the Fantasy Suite. Many a bachelor and bachelorette alike have gone all the way before they’re selected as the last one standing. Most notoriously, Katelyn Bristol took down the newest bachelor, Nick Viall, but left him heartbroken at the end.

In a 2010 episode of “20/20”, creator Mike Fleiss revealed that “The average guy will end up having sex with three women during the course of the show.” Fleiss was asked which bachelor had explored the most options. “That’s my man Bob Guiney! I think he was 5½,” he responded.

5. They’re Fed Booze By The Producers

In one of the most awkward moments in Bachelor history, contestant Jamie Otis straddled Ben Flajnik to give him their first kiss. But the whole thing was orchestrated by the producers, going to the extent of even plying her with alcohol.

According to the New York Post, Otis told producers that she wanted to “open up” to Ben, so the crew approached her in the ladies room and told her that the bachelor would pull her aside prior to the rose ceremony.

“I’m not going to be able to kiss him just point-blank like this unless I have something to drink,” she said. Solution? A producer fed her two vodkas with soda in twenty minutes!

“Then we were talking about what I’m going to do and that he’s going to pull me [to the side] first and I would just go and I would kiss him and make out with him,” Otis says. “And I had barely spoken [on the show] . . . and then the rest is history.”

Needless to say, she got sent home that night! Epic fail!

4. Contestants Are Recruited

According to Bachelor spoiler Reality Steve, the show is busy with recruiting all “year-round. They’re always looking for people. They have talent scouts out at bars in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles. Then you have the people [who get cast through] connections to former contestants. One of Nick’s contestants was Jade’s maid of honor at her wedding, so Nick has already met her. The cast is always set before they know who the lead is. They’re not casting the 30 most perfect girls for Nick because then you wouldn’t have a show. They are casting for personalities, not a love story. Let’s find the really drunk girl, the emotional girl, our villain.” Not to mention checking out the women’s social media following!

All of this goes against the tale each contestant clings to that they are there because of who the bachelor or bachelorette is.

FYI: all want-to-be contestants must be tested for STIs prior to being cast on the show!

3. They Isolate You… To Manipulate You

We have seen how dirty some of the producers of the show really play, but somehow it gets even worse! The contestants on the show are completely isolated from the outside world, which only adds to their feelings of anxiety. They’re forced into a world that completely and solely revolves around a person who is dating countless other people, in front of their face!

A former contestant revealed, “When you get there, they take away your phone and your computer and you’re basically locked away and only talking to producers. You have zero connection with the outside world and your support system [is gone]. It’s a complete mind game.”

And once they get you in this vulnerable state, they’re able to get you to do things that you wouldn’t normally do…and make a complete ass of yourself on national television.

Hey—anything for the ratings, right?

2. The Producers Live With the Contestants

In order to ensure their claws are embedded deeply enough in the contestants, the producers stay with them for the entire time!

A former contestant reminisced, “The producers basically live with you for the entire eight-week time period. They’re kind of like your shrink. Which is super weird! They were some of my closest friends on the show.”

But when you have producers who are doing anything for ratings, doubling as your shrink, you know you’re in trouble!

And these same producers will goad you on to their next spin-off! Former contestant, Chad Johnson said, “You start thinking about how many followers you have on Instagram and Twitter. And they [the producers] sell that to you. It’s like, ‘Oh you want to build your Instagram following by another X-thousand people? Come on Bachelor in Paradise!’ People are always looking for that easy lifestyle and money. You have your name online and you’re like, ‘Wow, I’m a really big fucking deal!’ but no, you’re not. At some point you finally realize, ‘Oh fuck, I’m spending all of my time thinking of my next stupid Instagram post that is geared to this following of random people that I have zero connection with.’”

1. The Dates Are Staged

Outraged by her daughter’s portrayal on the most recent season of The Bachelor, Corinne Olympios’s mother, Peri, took to the internet to set the record straight. According to her, not only did Corinne actively decide to play the villain character, but Peri claims the portrayal of the dates were completely “fake.”

One moment Peri claims is fake is when Corinne was shown “topless” on her group date with bachelor Nick Viall. The other women sat by in outrage as Nick cupped Corinne’s naked breasts “Janet Jackson style.” But Peri explained to TMZ that Corinne had cover-ups on the whole time.

She says they also made it look like Corinne went naked under a trench coat to seduce her leading man, but in truth, she was wearing a bathing suit under it. At one point during this scene, Corinne put whip cream on her chest for Nick to lick off. "Do you really think a can of Reddi Whip was sitting there in the corner by the pool in the heat?" Peri asked sardonically.