USC and Freshman Council hosted their own version of the Bachelor on Monday night. It was an epic, entertaining attempt to match up some of our school’s most eligible students. Three male students and three female students were selected from a large pool of applicants to be the bachelors/bachelorettes. Each round consisted of one bachelor or bachelorette who asked questions to three contestants, ultimately choosing the one with whom they felt most compatible. The pairs then received a gift card for a restaurant in Columbia to pay for their first date.
ABC’s “The Bachelor” finds some of its most devoted fans on college campuses, and USC is no exception; it was no surprise that the event had such a good turn-out. Slated to start at 8 p.m., Russell House Theater was packed with fans of "The Bachelor" and students who showed up to support their friends. One such fan was Hope Manninen, a first-year business student who started watching the widely popular match-making show this season. “I’m really excited to see all the contestants that they have and just the way that they’re going to put their own USC spin on 'The Bachelor,'" Manninen said before the event began.
The questions that led the bachelors and bachelorettes to choose their potential partners were certainly subject to interpretation. Some contestants answered them sweetly and with class while others were less filtered. Regardless of which approach they took, the audience reacted with cheers and laughs, constantly engaged in the live game show event. Halfway through the show, the Carolina Gentlemen, a student a cappella group, performed smooth renditions of love-themed songs, setting the tone for the final rounds of USC’s Bachelor event.
Alexandra Tamura is a first-year biochemistry student and was chosen by one of the bachelors to enjoy a dinner with him at California Dreaming. Tamura said a friend encouraged her to apply as a joke, but she is excited she got selected. “It turned out to be a really great experience,” Tamura said, “I’m glad I did it.”
True to its parent show, USC’s “the Bachelor” had a twist in store for the audience. The seventh and final round called for volunteers — a randomly selected bachelorette and three male contenders who closed out the night with a lively round of off-the-cuff questions and audience participation. Some leapt at the opportunity, but one contender was initially reluctant to participate. Lewis Wang, a first-year finance, international business and economics student, did not come to the event with the intention of competing. Yet, he walked out a winner. “Everybody just started chanting my name and there’s no way I can’t go up there, so I just kind of had to go,” Wang said. Though the pair did not receive a gift card for dinner, they got to take home a bag of chocolates. The event was exactly what one might expect from a college-version of the Bachelor: amusing, entertaining and even a little heart-warming.