The Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous Podcast - Ashley’s Assumptions: The New Bachelorette and the Golden Ladies

Episode Date: September 12, 2025

Ashley’s here to share her hot takes on the breaking news in Bachelor Nation! Find out what she REALLY thinks about Taylor Frankie Paul as our next Bachelorette and what it means for “soft swinging” to hit the world of The Bachelor. Plus, we get Ashley’s reaction to the women hoping to capture the heart of Mel Owens in the next season of The Golden Bachelor!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. I just normally do straight stand-up, but this is a bit different. What do you get when a true crime producer walks into a comedy club? Answer, a new podcast called Wisecrack, where a comedian finds himself at the center of a chilling true crime story. Does anyone know what show they've come to see? It's a story. It's about the scariest night of my life. This is Wisecrack, available now.

Listen to Wisecrack on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, my name is Enya Eumanzor. And I'm Drew Phillips. And we run a podcast called Emergency Intercom. If you're a crime junkie and you love crimes, we're not the podcast for you. But if you have unmedicated ADHD... Oh my God, perfect. And want to hear people with mental illness, psychobabble.

Yes, yes. Then Emergency Intercom is the podcast for you. Open your free IHeartRadio app. Search Emergency Intercom and listen now. When your car is making a strange noise, no matter what it is, you can't just pretend it's not happening. That's an interesting sound.

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To hear this and more, listen to the latest with Lauren the Rosa from the Black Effect Podcast Network or the IHeartRadio at Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcast. This is the Ben and Ashley I, Almost Famous Podcast with IHeart Radio. Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Almost Famous Podcast. Today, Ben isn't here, but I am joined by our producers and our sound engineer, Easton, and Heather. And they're going to give some of their opinions on the big news of the day of the week. This week, it was announced that Taylor Frankie Paul is the new Bachelorette for season 22. If you don't know who she is, or you didn't know who she is, you probably know who she is now. She is famous for two things. First, she was

an influencer, kind of famous on her own via Instagram and TikTok, kind of one of, as she likes to say the founders of mom talk. And she is also on the real, the secret lives of Mormon wives. She's a 31-year-old Utah native. And after completing and airing two seasons of Mormon wives, she's now doing a Hulu crossover, basically, an ABC Hulu crossover. And she's going to be the lead of this show. It makes a lot of sense to me. When I first saw this announcement, I was thinking it was a very good idea. I have a little bit more of mixed feelings now. We'll get to that in a second.

I do want to just break down her a little bit more, her announcement particularly, a little bit more. So it was a couple days ago, the day before her announcement, two days before her announcement, that Call Her Daddies, Alex Cooper posted on the Call Her Daddy Instagram, that she was,

that was like there was a cake on it. And it said, season 30. Season 30, yeah, because people were bracing for season 30 of the Bachelor to be announced. And then she slices open the cake as if it's a gender reveal and it's pink, which kind of gave all of us, Luthers, hints of that perhaps a Bachelorette season was going to be announced instead of a Bachelor season. And then we also thought, okay, Alex Cooper's probably going to handle this announcement. seems like it's an all-around ABC Hulu announcement because we know that Alex Cooper

just got her own show with Hulu and they're kind of keeping this in the family. Also, she did a really big interview with Rachel Kirkconnell. It just kind of made sense for her to get the first interview with the new lead seems, based on the Instagram, that it was going to be a bachelorette. And that's when people started speculating

that it would be kind of a stunt casting, that it may not necessarily be somebody from the franchise's past when I saw people speculating my first thought when I saw that name when I was Taylor Frankie Paul I was like that's who it's gonna be

24 hours later it was announced that she is indeed The Bachelorette and like I said my initial thought was this makes so much sense this is so good for the franchise so good for the network and for audience numbers

because The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives So freaking popular People love that show It has the same demographic as The Bachelor We've seen so many times them like Put the show on after Bachelor, Bachelorette Or they promote the crap out of the show On Bachelor, Bachelorette.

There's so much twisted up Because they know the demographic is so similar. There's people who watch The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives that probably have watched Bachelor in the past, but maybe have taken a break from it. And then there's probably people now who have only watched Secret Lives and Morton Wives

and now they're going to end up watching The Bachelorette. The crossover audience is so, so good for numbers, I think. They're going to get back a lot of viewers that have dropped off and they're going to get a lot of new viewers because of this. now I think the more I saw comments about her being named the Bachelorette I started thinking okay so it's actually more controversial than I thought because I have never watched Secret Lives and Mormon Wives now guess what I'm going to be watching it I'm going to watch all those seasons before the series the Bachelorette airs for sure like last

night, I was lying in bed and I was like, I don't feel like watching the summer I turn pretty right now. I'll just watch something in the background. And guess what that was going to be? Seager lives, right? So they're also getting Bachelor viewers who have never watched Mormon wives to watch Mormon wives all over great network decision. I'm going on and on. But what I started seeing about her as a figure, it's a bit more controversial and people who are actually some people are not excited for two reasons one lots of people not excited that somebody from the bachelor franchise isn't getting this position i totally understand that i think right now ABC is trying to they had to get a stunt cast they really need to get somebody who is more

of a celebrity than some of the girls that could be up for consideration as the bachel carconell is a main one to me and i think susie was the other main one i think some people will throw Maria in there, but I think she has been, no offense to Maria, a little more forgotten over the past year. So I think when you think about Susie and you think about Rachel Kirkconnell, you're like, those two are great options. Totally agree with that. Would love to see either of them as Bachelorette. But I don't know how many new viewers are going to get from that. I think they're going to get new viewers with this. So I understand, like I get you guys who are saying like you want to keep it inside the family.

I love to keep things inside the family. I am a bachelor family member. You know what I mean? And I don't really know this girl. But I can get past that. The second thing that is controversial amongst Bachelor fans hearing this announcement is that she has a misdemeanor for domestic assault. I want to read this like off so that I'm precise about it.

In February 2023, Taylor was arrested on misdemeanor charges of assault, criminal mischief, and commission of domestic violence in the presence of a child. She pleaded guilty in August 2023 to aggravated assault and the other charges were dismissed, per the New York Post. She said on Nick Viall's podcast in the same month, she said, I want to be better for my kids. And I feel like right now that's my top priority. all I want is for them to be happy. Sarah Heron posted something yesterday that I screenshot because I thought this was poignant.

This was the details of the domestic violence incident. It says a video obtained by police show Paul putting her boyfriend Dakota in a chokehold and throwing chairs during an argument. A child was struck by one of the metal bar stools that she threw it hit her in the head, a two-year-old, her two-year-old daughter in the head causing a painful bump.

Oh, no, there was a baby. It was a baby. It was younger than a two-year-old. It hit her young daughter in the head causing a painful bump, and a two-year-old was also in the home at the time. When the police arrived, according to the probable cause statement, officers observed Paul hitting Dakota, her boyfriend,

after they arrived home, and she admitted to throwing furniture So that's when I'm going to bring our panel in Heather Easton Do you guys watch Mormon wives? Are you privy to this information? I was like, gosh, because guess what? If a guy had done this,

the double standard would have been we would never have a guy who had done this as the lead of the show. I hear where you're coming from And I think in a normal situation, yes, of a lead for the show, that would be huge. I will say as a longtime viewer of Mormon wives, this all is shown actually, the police body cam footage portions of it are shown actually in the very first episode of season one. It is addressed from the jump. Yeah, it's not hidden.

I totally understand that, yeah. Yeah, she does talk about in the first season of the show. I think that I don't think anybody would condone what she did. But I think that she has taken accountability for it. And I think that in that stance, I'm open as a viewer to seeing her still gain opportunities because I've watched her on the show really feel a lot of remorse and guilt for that evening. Okay. Obviously, like, the argument with the boyfriend is one thing, getting hostile with the boyfriend, bad. Yeah, definitely.

It's the children present, to me, to me, it hits home that the children are present and one got hit. Like, she was so, she's so disregarded them in that moment. That makes me, that's very concerning. I think it's valid what you're saying. I was thinking about this. Like, do we, does the lead of? the bachelor or bachelorette have to be um like perfect yeah like like you know like is this someone that we look to as like a moral standard i mean obviously we don't want to have like a full-blown hardcore criminal like on the show but also like i don't know i um i think it's horrible and and and you know i condemn what she did i think it's this terrible but i also think that it will be

interesting to see someone go through this process that has been through something terrible like this and is hopefully going to find some redemption. I was thinking about what you said earlier about like the going outside the Bachelor family and like this is the first time, is this the first time this has happened where it's been someone like since the early days, right? Thank you for bringing that first Bachelorette that hasn't been part of the family. Bachelors used to be chosen outside the family. Like, I remember,

wow, I can't remember when a couple of years ago, there was, like, rumors that it was going to be Courtney Kardashian or something. Like, there was like, and I know, Chloe, that's right. Like, it never in a million years. I don't think would she do that. But, like, everyone was really excited about that idea. And I think that this is going to get a lot of people that wouldn't normally, like, I mean, you've been saying it, like,

it's going to bring a lot of people who wouldn't normally watch the show. I think it is, it is really exciting to see it. Because sometimes I think it's easy to think of The Bachelor as, like, existing in this, like, isolated universe. And this reminds me, like, oh, no, there's people that can come from all over and do this. You know, it's like when you watch Captain America and Iron Man team up to fight a bad guy. It's like, oh, my God, this can happen. Yeah, exactly. It's kind of like Avengers-like because it's a crossover show.

And I really do like that. I think it was creative. And I think that's something that we've been asking them to do for a while. I'll be like, if you want to spike this thing, you have to get a stunt cast or you find like a diamond in the rough like Joey, who is just the perfect, the perfect lead. I will say, too, just because we've had him on the podcast, but Graham Bun and some others have confirmed to us that even back in the day, the producers were courting, uh, Michelle Strauss, who everybody knows now from selling sunset, but back then she was a soap actress.

So it's not like they haven't dipped their toe in and, tried to make something like this happen throughout the years, this is just the first time we're actually seeing it come to fruition. Yes, definitely. My name is Ed. Everyone say, hello, Ed. I'm from a very rural background myself. My dad is a farmer, and my mom is a cousin, so, like, it's not, like...

What do you get when a true crime producer walks into a comedy club? I know it sounds like the start of a bad. joke, but that really was my reality nine years ago. I'd just normally do straight stand-up, but this is a bit different. On stage stood a comedian with a story that no one expected to hear. The 22nd of July 2015, a 23-year-old man had killed his family. And then he came to my house. So what do you get when a true crime producer walks into a comedy club?

new podcast called Wisecrack, where stand-up comedy and murder takes center stage. Available now. Listen to Wisecrack on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Power struggles, shady money, drugs, violence, and broken promises. It's a freaking war zone. These people are animals. There's no integrity. There's no loyalty.

That's all gone. In the 1980s, modeling wasn't just a dream. It was a battlefield. Book, book, book, make deals. Let's get models in. Let's get them out. And the models themselves? They carried scars that never fully healed. Till this day, honestly, if I see a measuring tape, I freak out.

The Model Wars podcast peels back the glossy cover and reveals a high-stakes game where survival meant more than beauty. Hosted by me, Vanessa Grigoriatis, this is the untold story of an industry built on ruthless ambition. Listen to Model Wars on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, my name is Enya Humanzor. And I'm Drew Phillips. And we run a podcast called Emergency Intercom.

If you're a crime junkie and you love crimes, We're not the podcast for you. But if you have unmedicated ADHD... Oh my God, perfect. And want to hear people with mental illness, psychobabble. Yes, yes. Then Emergency Intercom is the podcast for you. Open your free iHeartRadio app.

Search Emergency Intercom and listen now. What would you do if one bad decision forced you to choose between a maximum security prison or the most brutal boot camp designed to be hell on earth? Unfortunately for Mark Lombardo, this was the choice he faced. He said, you are a number, a New York State number, and we own you. Shock incarceration, also known as boot camps, are short-term, highly regimented correctional

programs that mimic military basic training. These programs aim to provide a shock of prison life, emphasizing strict discipline, physical training, hard labor, and rehabilitation programs. Mark had one chance to complete this program, and... and had no idea of the hell awaiting him the next six months. The first night was so overwhelming, and you don't know who's next to you. And we didn't know what to expect in the morning. Nobody tells you anything.

Listen to shock incarceration on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Betrayal Weekly is back for season two with brand new stories. The detective comes driving up fast and just like screeches right in the parking, I swear I'm not crazy, but I think he poisoned me. I feel trapped. My breathing changes. More money, more money, more money, more money.

And I went white. I realize, wow, like he is not a mentor. He's pretty much a monster. New stories, new voices, and shocking manipulations. This didn't just happen to me. It happened to hundreds of other people. But these aren't just stories of destructural. They're stories of survival, of people picking up the pieces and daring to tell the truth.

I'm going to tell my story, and I'm going to hold my head up. Listen to Betrayal Weekly on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I mean, I feel like they started, they kind of like pretended that like Baldwin, This was one of the Baldwin brothers, right? Oh my God, I don't remember that, but I wouldn't be surprised. Yeah, that was like in the 2000s. I think he was one of the Baldwin brothers. I don't think it was a coincidence that his last name was Baldwin.

But, yeah, so guys, that is your new Bachelorette. I'm sure we're going to have so many more developing opinions on this whole thing. I do think it's great that she had in June posted something about her being the Bachelorette. It's a great TikTok. You should watch it. I remember in June watching it being like, oh, this is that girl from that show, right? And I was like, that's cute.

That's clever. And I'm wondering whether that's when they started thinking about it, whether that was something that like, was that a sign, an early sign? Were they already thinking about it? It looks like Heather has info. So I can tell you on this, what I do know, just from knowing people on the casting side of this season,

it totally was what flipped everything. they were hired to cast the bachelor that was the focus for the entire crew that was working on that show and then when that tic-tok i have heard differing things so i don't know when that around the time that tic-tok came out i've heard both that i think she said on call her daddy that producers reached out to her I've heard that her team reached out to producers. But that is what flipped around that time, what flipped the casting to switch over to a Bachelorette. Because if you remember, too,

we had just gotten fully greenlit for season 30 of The Bachelor. And that's when as that came out, that's when casting went public. And so they wouldn't have done that if the intention was to do a season of The Bachelor. Like, this was definitely a switch up after the fact. Super interesting. But, you know, it makes sense.

We were due for a bachelorette and not a bachelor anyway. Yep. And I think people are happy because they're like, okay, that was unfair to the girls to just skip out on a bachelorette season. Can I just say more thing about this? I feel like we saw a lot of the negativity right in the comments. I just want to bring up something and get your take on this. But say like for Grant and Juliana, right? When that breakup happened, if you guys remember, a lot of the comments I saw,

and I've seen this with past seasons where nobody's going to last. They're in their 20s. Cast older. Get people that really want to get married. All of those things, right? And here we have a woman who's 31 who's 31 who has three children, who's already been married and is divorced. I think personally that this is actually somebody

that is more inclined to find a lasting relationship or an actual marriage versus what we've been seeing in past seasons of 20-somethings who don't really know what they want when they come on the show. I don't know. I agree. I agree on that. No, she's definitely going to look, I believe,

for something more serious. She definitely talks in the Call Her Daddy episode about being like, I cannot call her a serial monogamous, but she's into relationships. She's certainly not a serial monogamous because that brings us into our next topic, which is her soft-swinging scandal. I'm catching up on this as I have not watched Secret Lives. I will be, you guys, I'm catching, I'm going to do it.

This is going to be fun. And I like the fact that I'm going to be able to get to know The Bachelorette so deeply with having two, and I think maybe three seasons airing before her. her season will be airing. But the thing that started the whole show was this soft swinging scandal. Basically, she and her husband had an agreement that they weren't going to go all the way with somebody else. But she did step out of that agreement. Okay.

So she cheated on him. It led to their divorce. And then after all of that, she ended up getting with this guy, Dakota, who's very well known on her show. And she ends up having a child. ever with Dakota in September 2023. Oh, she announced it in 2023 and she had the baby

March 24. So, and Dakota is the one that she has the legal issues with. So, guys, where I'm going with this is they're swinging involved. And I think that people are going to be like, all right, is

swinging going to be involved in a future relationship? Mormons? I mean, I know it's a sort of taboo. It may be a misunderstanding of sorts to some, but some do believe in polygamy and some are polygamous and some aren't and I

can't say I'm an expert on all this so I'm sorry if I'm offensive in any way but I'm wondering what her situation with polygamy is going forward. Has she talked about on the show, Heather and Easton? We should clarify that polygamy is not is like being married. Swiging.

Polyamory is what we're talking about, I think, because that's like having romantic encounters with more than one person. Polygamy is like being married to more than what, which is illegal. Oh, thank you. Okay. Polygamy, married to, well, isn't it just like, isn't like a thruple polygamy? You don't have to be married. No. That's having a third person in the relationship. Polygamy is structured in religion. Like, they do it because of the scripture that they read and believe in that you'd be married to multiple women. Okay. Yeah. So polyamory is like having sex with other people. And being open about it. Yeah, yeah. Amory is about having multiple partners and everybody's aware that that's- Oh, polygamy and polyamory? Yes, different things. Yes.

Oh, no way. Ethical non-monogamy is another one that I'm not sure what the definition of that one is but oh my gosh guys okay so does she talk on the show secret wives secret wives secret wives about her future in having multiple hookup partners or yeah because she's not into mary she's not into having a husband that has multiple wives correct that is correct but swinging is that in her future it seems to be that swinging has become off the table since this She's situation. Her and Dakota have been very on and off since all of this, but she is not expressed about on the show about looking for somebody that's interested in swinging. It's more like she's interested in finding somebody and not having the swinging being held against her is what it's like. Okay. All right. All right. So that is that for Taylor on this podcast. And we will have so many more thoughts and opinions soon. And I, as I watch Secret Lives, I will update you guys on how, how I think she'll be as a lead and how I think she is as a personality.

I'll be judgy. In this moment right now, Ashley, after talking it through, what's your gut say right now? Are you interested in her as the lead? Are you still, are you citing with Bachelor Nation in our negative comments and saying you're not interested? Well, I was actually stunned by the amount of negative comments. Were you? I think that ABC is also taken aback by the negative comments. I think that they thought this was going to be like majority well received.

I'm going to say our group chat at work was lighting up with people saying that they're thrilled about it. I would say negative comments in general tend to speak louder on the internet than anywhere else. But I think it's where you get your source, right? I think if you probably went to her page, people were lighting up the comments excited to see it. but if you went on somewhere else, you might see negative comments. So I think it's a mixed bag, but overall people, personal people in my life are excited about this. Yeah. Yeah.

And like an example I like to bring up is like Ashley, you know my wife, Allison. She's been around Bachelor people for many, many years. With respect, she has had zero interest in the show until now. Like she is a secret lives and Mormon wives fan. And she can't wait, she will be watching Bachelorette this year. She's pumped. Yeah. My name is Ed.

Everyone say, hello, Ed. Hello, Ed. I'm from a very rural background myself. My dad is a farmer and my mom is a cousin. So, like, it's not, like... What do you get when a true crime producer walks into a comedy club? I know it sounds like the start of a bad joke, but that really was my reality nine years ago.

I just normally do straight stand-up, but this is a bit different. On stage stood a comedian with a story that no one expected to hear. On 22nd of July 2015, a 23-year-old man had killed his family. And then he came to my house.

So what do you get when a true crime producer walks into a comedy club? A new podcast called Wisecrack, where stand-up comedy and murder Take Center Stage. Available now. Listen to Wisecrack on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Power struggles, shady money, drugs, violence, and broken promises. It's a freaking war zone. These people are animal. There's no integrity. There's no loyalty. That's all gone. In the 1980s, modeling wasn't just a dream. It was a battlefield.

Fuck, fuck. Look, it's my deals. Let's get models in. Let's get them out. And the models themselves? They carried scars that never fully healed. Until this day, honestly, if I see a measuring tape, I freak out. The Model Wars podcast peels back the glossy cover

and reveals a high-stakes game where survival meant more than beauty. Hosted by me, Vanessa Gregoriatis, this is the untold story of an industry built on ruthless ambition. Listen to Model Wars on the I-Heart. Video app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, my name is Enya Humanzor. And I'm Drew Phillips. And we run a podcast called Emergency Intercom.

If you're a crime junkie and you love crimes, we're not the podcast for you. But if you have unmedicated ADHD... Oh my God, perfect. And want to hear people with mental illness. Illness, Psychobabble. Yes, yes. Then Emergency Intercom is the podcast for you. Open your free IHeartRadio app.

Search Emergency Intercom and listen now. What would you do if one bad decision forced you to choose between a maximum security prison or the most brutal boot camp designed to be hell on earth? Unfortunately for Mark Lombardo, this was the choice he faced. He said, you are a number, a New York State number, and we own you. Shock incarceration, also known as boot camps, are short-term, highly regimented correctional programs that mimic military basic training. These programs aim to provide a shock of prison life, emphasizing strict discipline, physical training, hard labor, and rehabilitation programs. Mark had one chance to complete this program and had no idea of the hell awaiting him the next six months.

The first night was so overwhelming. and you don't know who's next to you. And we didn't know what to expect in the morning. Nobody tells you anything. Listen to shock incarceration on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Dr. Joy Hardin Bradford. And in session 421 of therapy for black girls, I sit down with Dr. Athea and Billy Shaka to explore how our hair connects to our identity, mental health, and the ways we heal.

Because I think hair is a complex language system, right? in terms of it can tell how old you are, your marital status, where you're from, you're a spiritual belief. But I think with social media, there's like a hyperfixation and observation of our hair, right? That this is sometimes the first thing someone sees when we make a post or a reel is how our hair is styled. You talk about the important role hairstyles play in our community, the pressure to always look put together, and how breaking up with perfection can actually free us. Plus, if you're someone who gets anxious about flying, don't miss session 418 with Dr. Angela Neil Barnett, where we dive into managing flight anxiety. Listen to Therapy for Black Girls on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

My gut says that I am happy that this decision was made because I think it's what's best for the franchise and I want the franchise. to thrive. And I think that this will give it a boost. Agree. I'm happy about it. All right. And if you guys want to know more about Taylor's decision and all of her plans as being the Bachelorette, listen to The Call Her Daddy interview.

It's about an hour long. All right. Now, the Golden Bachelor cast was announced this week. The pictures and the bios have all been released online. There's a podcast where Ben and Susan broke it all down. So you guys can go check that out. Now it's time for me to give my quick predictions on this. By just a quick swipe up and down of this cast list,

I have three women that I think are going to be standouts. My Lynn, the casino VIP host from Las Vegas. She knows four languages. I think that just I'm, this is based on looks alone. You guys know that this is what we do. It's a very vain segment of our show. I think that she might be coming across as the sexiest. And knowing what we know about Mel, I do think that attractiveness, there's going to be

like a big component of physicality with this man. He talked about not being attracted to people like above the age of 45. And I think that she presents herself in just this one photo in a very sexy way. and then she's a Vegas girl. Like, I just think that, like, he's going to be pretty wooed by her. Then there is Nicole. She's from Miami. She's very into health.

We know that Mel is also very into health. He really wanted to a woman who, like, was in shape. And, like, again, into aesthetics, but also into physical health. He is a former NFL player. I think that he made athleticism. part of his life through and through. This lady seems into that. And again, also presents younger than her actual age. I'm sorry, I don't have the cast up. Heather, do you see what's her age offhand? It's like 62 or something? Hold on. She is 64. 64. She doesn't not look 64.

She's a hot lady. Think that he's going to be into that. Then my last person on this list and I think this could be a very serious contender is maya m a ia maya would you say that maya maya maya maya maya maya okay yeah this woman is below the the tech i want to call it a technical age set um of 60 on gary season we saw nobody below 60 on jones season we only saw mark under 60 he was 57 and he was obviously on because he was Kelsey's dad and already a fan favorite. We let him slide on that soft rule. This woman, Maya, she is 58 and she looks good. She's also a college sports consultant.

She's had sports as part of her life her entire way through with her boys and everything. There's a reason they let her slip through at this age, and that's because they think that she is so compatible with him. So I'm excited to see where all that goes. Everybody likes me to choose a villain from photos too, which is kind of hard. Not my fave thing. What about maybe instead of villain,

somebody who's going to be a... Sturdster? Or overly aggressive, maybe, in their approach. All right. We might go with Terry. I can see Terry having a little, aggression. Let's go with that. You guys know that I hate basing things off of it. It makes me so uncomfortable. It's all in fun. I know it's in fun. Diane, she's going to be a firecracker. She's

kind of like got a spiky cut. I do love your predictions because it's so funny having you and Ben doing this separately to see how in sync you guys are because I think two out of your three that you chose are also the same that he chose. Oh, I love that. We should have her separately more often. I know. That's what's so funny. He absolutely loves Mylan. He loves her. Oh, good. Okay. Great. And he liked Nicole. So like that's good. We just know Mel. We don't really know Mel. We've been very judgy towards Mel. But like if we're going with a guy who's basically just going to make this about haughty-a-fatis, like those are two hottie-fatty. So there we go. I think Lisa could have a strong, uh, possibility as well. I think she's really pretty state park

employee from Ohio, blonde. Yes, she, yes, I can see him. She has like a Suzanne Summers look. Yeah. I can see that going. I also think Debbie, who's 65 fitness professional from Denver, very fitness oriented, short brunette hair. I think she's another strong contender as well.

Okay. Yes. Okay. She caught my eye as well. I was going to add her to the list, but then I scrolled down further and I saw more top three. All right. Let's get into the.

the show, the other show that we have going on. And that is the home renovation show. Big news, I think. The HGTV show is starting to film this week. And someone that we think has been a shoe-in for the show posted this week that he just landed in L.A. And he will call it home for the next month. It is Tyler Cameron. It is so obvious that he will be part of the show.

He's whole Instagram and business is around home renovation. He's even doing real estate with Ryan Zarin. And yeah, so we think that Tyler is definitely there as the host of this show. And then very interesting, Alicia, Alicia, whatever you call her from this past season, The Bachelor in Paradise. She was very cryptic in why she said that she had business opportunities that are keeping her and Sean from focusing on their relationship. she said it had to do with her interior design background and she wouldn't say more than that so my guess is that she will be one of the contestants on the show if you guys don't remember the the format is that there will be bachelor contestants competing to like renovate the the house in their own ways um i guess is do we know if it's a competition like they will be showing their chops basically and like saying this is how I decorate this room, that's how I decorate that room.

And then like at the end of it all or midway through, one person is crowned as the renovator of the show and then they will go forward with their decor plans. So if they're doing it like the way they did the Brady Bunch home renovation show, it's going to be everybody, if they do it this way. It'll be people assigned to specific rooms. And throughout the course of the season, you'll see all the renovations kind of happening at once.

with the giant reveal of the finished product at the end, and then one winner being announced. One winner being announced as, like, what? Like, what's their prize? They're a cash prize for this show. Oh, it's a cash prize? But then, like, are we going to keep the house decorated the way that they wanted it to decorate?

I think that's, like, still... That's new, because Brady Bunch, they're not, like, going to go film the Brady Bunch in the house. Yeah, I mean, the Brady Bunch House, right? They also were trying to recreate it to look like the same. set. So you have very specific ways that you need to do that. With this, I think that's what part of the, what we don't know about this show is like, will each room have a theme? Will certain rooms be switching spots in the mansion? I don't know how, you know, deep they're going to get with

knocking down walls, or is this just more of like a visual refresh of the house? Okay. Also, something to make note of is that they're filming this show for the next month. so let's just say that takes us to the second week of October. Does that mean that right away will be starting to film Taylor's season? I think yes, but I also think that's getting us really close down to Thanksgiving time. So actually, I'm going to say probably not. I don't know when her season will start filming unless they do a sped-up version, unless they don't do it at the mansion at first. Maybe they end at the mansion and they go travel first because usually Thanksgiving to Christmas is a big heart New Year's. It's a big hard no for production. They like did winter

games for 10 days at the beginning of December. But they're not going to have a season run into Thanksgiving and normally the season would start filming the week of September 20 something. So what's your take on that, Heather? I'm interested too because, Right. The only Bachelorette mom that I can remember is Emily Maynard. And I know that they had to make special, you know,

filming for her. They did. They shot it in North Carolina. And I loved that they did it in North Carolina. And I think for further promotion of Mormon wives, I say, why not just start at her house? And she's got three kids. So that's, I think, a lot

to uproot and take them to Los Angeles, not saying it couldn't be done. Um, but I think, yeah, that maybe, maybe the show starts out in, in Utah and moves filming to Los Angeles. I don't know. Yeah. I think that is the way that they should do it. I think it's too long. And this is not to, this is not shaming Taylor at all. I don't think she's going to go two months without seeing her kids. I think that she would not want to do that for that reason. So I think they're going to accommodate her in some way. I think it makes sense to start it in Utah. Get a big. big, fancy mountain house out there. That'll be a great start. And then, like, maybe have, like, a cool reveal for the proposal or the Final Four fantasy suites.

I don't know how much ABC is going to let the HGTV show integrate into them. You know, that's a good thing to bring up. I know that you just speculated earlier that you think Tyler Cameron is going to be the host. Yeah. I'm guessing he's a contestant. Really? Yeah.

And I'll say because I think HGTV is going to make their HGTV talent the hosts of the shows. Okay. Okay. That makes sense. And we want to see Taylor's work. Tyler's work. Yeah. It's like, sorry, did I say Taylor too?

No. But yeah, I think like, right, we're going to see the property brothers in there. Yeah. We're going to see maybe the Tarek and, you know, flip or flop couple coming in there and doing some stuff. You know what I mean? And I think they're going to be working alongside some of these Bachelor alum that will be there for the duration of filming. What I do like is that it doesn't sound like it's competition elimination. I am concerned after the Paradise Prize, if this prize money is going to be a little lackluster.

But I guess we'll wait and see. I don't think it's going to hit the six digits. It's definitely not going to be 500,000. Listen, that is not going to be an HGTV prize cash. But I'm definitely going to watch. I will say that. I'll definitely watch too. It may not be a week-to-week-s hitch,

but it'll definitely be on in a stream format. Yeah, agree. All righty. Well, Heather, thank you so much for all your opinions and for just your expertise and all this. You are so up to, you just know your shit, okay? And I love that for me. And I love you for it.

and guys, we will talk to you very, very soon and I hope Ben will be back with me. And until then, I've been Ashley. And I've been Heather. See ya. Follow the Ben and Ashley I, almost famous podcast on IHartRadio or subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. I just normally do straight stand-up, but this is a bit different.

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