Bachelor break-up 'could have saved show'

Fleur Verhoeven was dumped by Jordan Mauger the day after the last episode screened. Picture / Michael Craig

The complete breakdown of the relationship between The Bachelor NZ's Jordan Mauger and his chosen love, Fleur Verhoeven, may have been the saving grace of the show, entertainment commentator Duncan Greive says.

After 10 weeks and 20 episodes, the popularity of TV3's reality TV show The Bachelor NZ had been waning.

But the recent explosion of drama after Monday's finale may have inadvertently bought the show a third season, Greive said.

In his column, "The hot mess that is The Bachelor NZ", Greive wrote on the events of the past two days that had rocketed the show from boring to absorbing.

"Season two of The Bachelor NZ exploded like an over-cooked saveloy this week. It left faintly pork-scented pink goop over the whole New Zealand mediascape, from Social to Serious and everything in between," he wrote. "The final episode played out with a grim, funereal air on Monday, and all of us who'd suffered through it sighed with relief that it was over. In fact, it had barely begun."

In the days following the finale all hell broke loose at the filming of The Women Tell All episode with accusations flying and runner-up Nazanin Khanjani swearing at hecklers. Then Ms Khanjani revealed she had slept with the Bachelor "more than once".

It "was entertaining as all hell" and by far the most interesting thing to come out of the show's second season, Greive wrote.

"[Entertaining] is something the show has been only intermittently over the last couple of months. For that all us long-suffering Bachelor fans will forever be grateful - the conflagration might just have bought the show a third season."