ABC experiences technical difficulties during ‘The Bachelor’ finale, coincidentally so does Bachelor Zach

On Monday night, ABC aired the finale to this season of The Bachelor starring Zach Shallcross, and things didn’t go exactly as planned for either ABC or Zach.

The three-hour finale was partly live in front of a studio audience as the show’s host, former Bachelor Jesse Palmer, interviewed Zach and the remaining two contestants, as well as Ariel who was ousted last week. The interviews are really the in-between segments, however, as the taped finale is what we mostly see and the studio audience also watches on a large screen. So, you would think if the show had any technical difficulties that they would come during the live portion but, like so much of The Bachelor this season, making sense was not this show’s priority.

During the first half of the show, after returning from a commercial, Zach was on his final date with Gabi but the silence was deafening. ABC’s studio completely dropped as no sound was heard for a few seconds, then for a minute, then for a few minutes, lasting until the show finally took their next commercial break. 

Upon its return, the audio was back and ABC seemed to start the next segment by showing about half of the same footage again but this time with the audio. Time constraints likely prevented them from showing all of it again. People took to Twitter to complain about ABC ruining that particular taped portion of the show. When you consider some of the things Zach has said this season, it’s likely that the audio masked some strange comments or some foolish policies expressed by him anyway, so we were all spared.

Then, towards the end of the show, when it was time for Zach to make his final decision, things got understandably emotional. Zach first met one-on-one with Gabi and, after telling her that he did fall in love with her, he then said, “but…” which meant Gabi then knew what was coming.

As Zach prepared to very obviously give her the bad news, Gabi told him, “Don’t say it.” He said he was sorry then proceeded to attempt to give an explanation, but Gabi made it clear she knew what he was saying and asked him not to talk anymore. Zach then began to talk, desperately trying to explain why he is saying goodbye to Gabi to which, for a third time, Gabi told him not to talk. It was at this time that ABC could have actually benefited from having audio issues and quieting Zach for his own good. Unfortunately for Gabi, Zach did not have ABC’s issues and a collective “shut up” could be heard across America from viewers yelling at Zach through their phones, or iPads, or TVs, or whatever people watch the show on.

After Gabi left, Zach then proposed to Kaity without any issues.

During the show, both ABC and Bachelor Zach apologized for their technical difficulties.