Bachelor Finale Was Not Fixed, or So Says the Show's Producer

The recent dramatic finale to this season's "The Bachelor," which left many fans outraged, was not "fixed," according to the show's producer, Mike Fleiss. Now, clearly, the results of the show are of the utmost importance, so rather than waste their rage on things like corporate malfeasance, declining home values, rising gas prices and certain members of Congress looking the other way as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac lending practices all but insured the current financial meltdown (I'm looking at you, Barney Frank), "Bachelor" fans have saved their rage for Jason Mesnick's terrible treatment of Melissa Rycroft.

During the final episode, Mesnick, who had earlier proposed to Rycroft, changed his mind and instead picked runner-up Molly Malaney. Said Fleiss, the show's executive producer, "The great thing about unscripted television is that it's unpredictable, and that's what this was. It caught us off guard. It caught the viewers off guard." Note to Fleiss: good writing can produce an air of unpredictability, though the continuous dumbing down of American television (if such a thing is even possible) is certainly appreciated.

Mesnick, for his part, defended himself, saying that things simply were not working out between he and Rycroft. Said Fleiss, "It just wasn't working out for them. She knew it. She didn't know that it was about Molly - I think that was the thing that caught her off guard." Now, after Mesnick broke up with Rycroft on the show, he noted that he had done so due to his contract with the network. Fleiss, however, noted, "There was no contractual obligation. You can check the contract. How would you put that in a contract anyway? Like, everything you do in your life must be shown on ABC. It's impossible."