Reality TVs reach for the stars: Bachelor finds one in Seattle psychologist
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Daniela Ferdico was sitting in a downtown Seattle bar with some friends when a couple of people approached the table. They said they were producers, and they wanted to take her picture.
Get a new line and move on, right? This is Seattle.
“They were women,” says Ferdico, 30.
Like I said: It’s Seattle.
But Ferdico didn’t tell them to shove off, and the brainy, auburn-haired neuropsychologist ended up beating hundreds of applicants in a nationwide search to be one of 25 female contestants on ABC’s new reality show, “The Bachelor.” It premieres at 9 tonight.
If that’s a variation on the getting-discovered-at-a-drugstore legend, then “The Bachelor” appears to be ABC’s answer to Fox’s infamous “Who Wants to Marry a Multimillionaire” — except that is uses some smart, successful women. Here’s how it works: Over the course of six hourlong episodes, one eligible bachelor narrows the field from 25 down to a handful, then proposes to one of them. In tonight’s episode, they all meet for the first time at a cocktail party, and the guy picks 15 to continue. The women move into a mansion together, and in the courting process that ensues, the bachelor goes on hometown visits and exotic trips with them. The process was spread over a month, beginning in January.
Sitting in the Queen Anne office that she also uses for her sideline as an event planner, Ferdico describes a screening process that would make a CIA job seem laid-back: days of tests, interviews, background checks, instruction on appropriate clothing and makeup and isolation. The women weren’t allowed to leave their rooms without permission, because producers wanted them to meet for the first time on-camera.
It seems like an odd thing for a smart, accomplished, head-turning woman to subject herself to. But Ferdico says, “I thought, ‘Why not?’ It’s kind of fun. I’ll see what it’s all about. I always wanted to see what TV works like and all the kind of behind-the-scenes stuff, and I always assumed it’s not as glamorous as it looks — which it’s not.”
An ABC spokesperson said that the women start out in a sorority-like atmosphere; but the element of sisterhood disappears as the pool shrinks.
Ferdico says she’d seen one TV dating show previously and was surprised at the things people said about each other. “But after doing a show like this, I think I saw how that’s possible, because I think they really push you to say more than you might naturally say, just by the way they phrase questions, and by the way they ask you to ‘rephrase that a little bit.’ ” So much for the magic of television under a psychologist’s scrutiny. “Controversy’s interesting,” Ferdico says. “People talking about each other is interesting. People getting along is not that interesting.”
If she doesn’t seem bowled over by the process, she appears less than swept off her feet by the bachelor — a 31-year-old management consultant named Alex whose favorite snack is Balance Bars and who humbly describes himself as “charming, hilarious and intelligent.”
“Definitely some of the girls found him attractive, I can say that.”
Mark Rahner can be reached at 206-464-8259 or mrahner@seattletimes.com.
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