What producers didn’t want you to know: The Bachelor stars spill bombshell secrets

STAGE-MANAGED rose ceremonies, the first-night cocktail party shot over three days and forced sleep deprivation — these are the secrets producers of The Bachelor don’t want you to know.

EXCLUSIVE

STAGE-MANAGED rose ceremonies, the “first-night” cocktail party shot over three days and contestants restricted to a few hours sleep a night — these are the secrets producers of The Bachelor don’t want you to know.

Former Bachelor Sam Wood and a raft of former want-to-be love contenders have come forward ahead of next week’s auditions for Season 6 of the Channel 10 series that first hit our screen in 2013.

Wood revealed to News Corp that production took him aside early to request he keep certain women around — and then advised him on who to eliminate — and who to keep — during rose ceremonies.

MORE: Sophie Monk has announced her shock split from Stu Laundy

The Bachelor’s Sam Wood said producers would encourage him to let certain women stay.

“They (the producers) said, ‘Sam, obviously there’s a few girls that you do like and you’d love to get to know better and then there’s probably another group of girls that perhaps you can’t see any chemistry with ... out of that second group, we would like’ ... I mean they never tell you what to do — (but) they just say, ‘if you’re happy to work with us here, we would love it if Girl A, B and maybe C didn’t go home tonight or tomorrow night’,” he said.

“And you didn’t have to be a rocket scientist to work it out, they were typically the girls that caused a fair bit of commotion.”

Cobie Frost, who vied for Matthew ‘Matty J’ Johnson’s heart last year, is convinced production dictates who is eliminated.

“They tell you Matty decides (who gets a rose) but I don’t think that’s true because if anyone ever stood up to production they wouldn’t get a rose. So you didn’t really say anything,” said Frost.

Johnson denied the allegation.

Matty J denied he was swayed toward certain women. Picture: Darren Leigh Roberts

However, during pivotal scenes, Bachelors are directed through a hidden earpiece.

“He’s definitely wearing it on the night where he picks the roses and he picks us,” said former contestant Sandra Rato of Sam Wood’s season.

Instructions are given through the earpiece to construct the order roses are given out. To create suspense for viewers, controversial contestants are left to last.

“You’ll notice I was almost always the last one to receive a rose,” said Rato, who created considerable drama during her time in the house.

“That’s why they need to direct him, to say which girl, what order.”

However, Johnson and Wood refuted contestants’ claims they had been misrepresented by clever editing.

Sandra Rato, of Sam Wood’s season, said Wood had to wear an earpiece and was fed by producers. Picture: Julie Kiriacoudis

“The stories that unfolded in real life on the Bachelorette and Bachelor were the same stories that made it to air. If you’re a really nice person — editors aren’t going to sit there working overtime to try and turn you into a villain,” said Johnson.

But both agreed the psychological strain resulting from competition between contestants and long days could make people behave out-of-character.

Arriving at the mansion, contestants are stripped of their mobile phones and money, and security checked for artificial stimulants.

Once inside, they are denied contact with the outside world, except one heavily monitored phone call per fortnight.

The glamorous ‘first night’ cocktail party, when contestants step out of limousines to meet the Bachelor is shot over three all-nighters.

According to last season’s Leah Costa, day one of production ran for roughly 24 hours straight.

Leah Costa claims the first night rose ceremony were only allowed two hours sleep after the first night. Picture: Justin Lloyd.

Contestants were then allowed around two hours sleep before being woken and told to put their same dresses back on.

The women must wear the same clothes for days so the footage can be cut together to look like one night.

“I remember one girl saying to me, ‘my dress is stiff with sweat’,” said Eliza St John, 33, who appeared in Richie Strahan’s season.

Forced to share bunk beds with up to 14 girls in each room, and squabble over a single dimly lit mirror — a device contestants’ believe is used to create tension before group dates — tempers soon fray.

And if they don’t, producers step in.

“Sometimes production would (keep you) in a room until you were bawling your eyes out crying and play with your mind and make you think he (Johnson) likes you,” said Frost.

“It’s just really traumatic and they do it to everyone. (Some days) we’d be in there for hours being interviewed. It’s just massive manipulation to get you to cry to get a storyline out of you, so it was hard.”

Women who starred in Richie Stahan’s season claim the first night ceremony was filmed over three nights. Picture: Justin Lloyd

However, like all contestants, she was given regular access to a production psychologist.

One producer, who wished to remain anonymous, admitted manipulating contestants to create storylines was an accepted part of the job.

“We don’t tell them what to say because that would be bad producing. We lead them and use our questions to get them to say certain things, or we tell them what someone else has said about them and get the reaction,” said the producer.

Warner Bros, the production company behind The Bachelor, and Network 10 declined to comment.

*Find out more shocking details of bullying and manipulation in today’s BW Magazine in The Daily Telegraph.