Andy DehnartBrad Womack returns to ABC tonight to try to find love again, and will face the two women he rejected (Jenni Croft and DeAnna Pappas), an event that turned him into a villain but saved The Bachelor by making it relevant and interesting again. The man who producers first approached about fronting the 15th season, The Bachelorette runner-up Chris Lambton, says he rejected the show and a mid-six-figure paycheck because he didn’t like the way he was portrayed–as a nice guy, an interesting twist on a reality TV cast member blaming the editing for making them look worse than they actually were.
The Boston Globe profiles Chris, and reports that Chris “didn’t like how ‘The Bachelorette’ had portrayed him, as an always-sweet, good-guy character known to fans as ‘Chris L.’ He felt that ABC focused too much on the death of his mother, Marjorie, who in 2008 succumbed to multiple system atrophy, a neurological disorder similar to ALS. He says the show didn’t focus on his years of teaching in New York City schools or his sarcastic sense of humor. He was just that nice guy whose mom had died.”
Chris told the paper, “I’m not a one-dimensional person. I know they were like, ‘Go ask him about his mom again.’ They didn’t talk about my teaching. They didn’t talk about anything else. It was good editing.”
He’s currently dating The Bachelor‘s Peyton Wright, but wouldn’t tell the paper her name. He said, “I don’t want to put my love life out there. People from 6 to 96 watch this show. The extent of it blows me away.”