Accept This Rose got the exciting opportunity to chat it up with Steve Carbone, aka Reality Steve, aka the guy who has been giving us Bachelor Nation spoilers ever since this franchise started. He's been the go-to guy when you're itching to find out how a season ends and has been so for 20+ years. And his presence in this world has only strengthened.
What started out as a blog in the early 2000s has transformed into a full-time job for Reality Steve, including a major shift to podcasts. See what the Bachelor Nation spoiler guru had to say about his journey into this world, and how it transitioned into a career that he has only found more and more success in as time passes.
Oh, and he had some tea to spill about Joey Graziadei's season (including the ending that he was misinformed about!). If you're hoping to steer away from spoilers, be wary of the end of this article as it will dive into how Joey's season ends, including all the major spoilers (the right and wrong ones).
And with that, let's dive into our chat with Reality Steve, and just another reminder MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!
**This interview has been edited and shortened for clarity, but you can watch it in its entirety by clicking below (or the link is also available at the end of this article).
Reality Steve's podcast is heading to Bleav
What exactly is Bleav (pronounced Believe)? Well, according to Reality Steve, it is a sports and entertainment studio, which has, up until recently, had more of an emphasis on the sports side of things. However, with the addition of Reality Steve's podcast onto their network, Bleav is looking to throw reality television into the mix.
"A friend put me in contact with one of the heads over there. A friend from college ran into him, and they contacted me. We talked about it, and I think it was just really a good fit because they're more on the sports side. And while I also have a sports daily podcast, they're also wanting to build out their reality TV side, and they want to get more," Steve said. "Because if you look at Bleav, it has a network of programs of over 300 shows, most of them are sports-related, which I was happy to join them because I want to build my sports podcast just as much. Because as much as I know about reality TV, I know way more about sports, but my reality TV audience does not translate over to my sports."
Steve continued, "So I decided that this would be a good fit and I could help maybe build out their reality TV side of their podcasting and, you know, we're just getting started so we're in the early stages, but already it's going great."
If you are an avid listener of Steve's podcast, there is not much change you'll need to worry about. Everything, more or less, stays the same, so you can still get all the spoilers you're looking for but on a platform that provides more than just reality television spoilers. Pretty awesome, huh?
How did Reality Steve start doing spoilers for The Bachelor?
By accident. Yes, that's right, it was an accident that led to a full-time career, if you can believe that!
"Well, it happened by accident," shared Steve. "I did not fall into this. Now, I used to write a recap about this show from 2000 when it started, basically to 2003 to 2009. And I just did it for fun. I was very snarky. I was very sophomoric in my writings, not stuff that I'm proud of. That's why I basically deleted all of it. Anything before 2016 is now gone, but I had a following."
Steve shared that he was aware the show was taped ahead of time, however, the idea behind spoilers never really occurred to him. Moreso, he didn't think much about anyone willingly handing him that information. Let's remember, we're talking about the early 2000s here, a world before social media.
But then one day, that all changed, all thanks to Jason Mesnick's season.
"Somebody that knew that I wrote a column about the show came to me one time during Jason Mesnick's season and said, 'Hey, I know you write about the show. I've got some information about what happened, post filming.'", said Steve. "So they told me, and it was, you know, at that time, Jason's ending was like the biggest shocking ending the show had ever had where he had chosen someone, got engaged, and then came back to the states and started dating and realized he didn't want to be with her and he wanted to be with the other girl that he dumped at the altar, which was Molly. They had this private After the Final Rose taping, it wasn't in front of an audience, and I found out about all of it because this person told me."
And from that day on, Reality Steve's life changed forever. He embraced the world of spoilers without realizing it would change his life forever, and he's never looked back since then.
Reality Steve shares his vetting process for all the spoilers he gets
Reality Steve wasn't always a pro at sorting through spoilers and knowing the accurate ones from the completely wrong ones. But it has been many years since he got into this business, and let's just say he has improved his vetting process significantly since the early days. Of course, there have been some inaccurate spoilers along the way, but hey, the guy is right way more than he is every wrong.
"Yeah, I wasn't as good as I am now just because I had gotten some things wrong for a few years.
"I have a pretty thorough vetting process. It's just, you know, sometimes I can get something from somebody and I automatically know it's right based on who they are and what they told me. Sometimes I just get emails from people that I've never got an email from before, and they say, well, I know this. It's like, ok, how do you know this? Who are you, what is your relation to anything? How do I know you're telling me the truth? Like it's, it's, it's a pretty thorough process and I can usually tell by the way they answer me back how legit they are," Steve shared.
However, like we said, sometimes he does get it wrong.
But what about that incorrect spoiler from Joey's season?
If you have been following along with our spoiler coverage or follow Reality Steve's podcast, then you are very well aware of who we thought was going to win Joey's season. However, the individual that was initially identified as Joey's fiance at the end of the season was not in fact, who he actually is engaged to now.
Reality Steve spoke to us about what happened with that mix-up, and it really comes down to one thing--it wasn't really anyone's fault.
"Now the situation that happened, you know, this particular season, the information that I got, it wasn't from somebody who was trying to fool me. It was what they believed to be true," said Steve. And even when I asked the questions about, ok, but how do you know this one? It all in my mind worked and it all made sense and it all, I was like, ok, this does make sense and you know, people telling me who the winner was. I'm like, OK, it makes sense."
However, that spoiler turned out to be untrue so Reality Steve shared he had to change the spoiler, which he was perfectly fine with. After all, he got every other thing right this season, didn't he?
"It's just the only thing I had wrong was the ending, which obviously is the biggest thing that people wanted," Reality Steve stated.
With all that said, when was the last time Reality Steve reported the wrong spoiler?
Steve told us it had been eight, yes eight seasons since an inaccurate spoiler was reported by him. "This season, I had gone eight, I think it was eight seasons in a row. So four years since I had released a wrong spoiler, it had, it had been a while. I had gone back to back seasons releasing a wrong spoiler and then changing it mid season. But yeah, it had been eight seasons since I had gotten something wrong."
Whose seasons did Reality Steve have wrong spoilers for?
Here's what Reality Steve had to say about that, and trust us when we say, we were really curious about this one.
"I think I can't remember who came, who came first, but I know I had Rachel Lindsay's season wrong. I had Rachel engaged to Peter Kraus and then about five episodes in I said, no, it's Brian and then Hannah Brown I originally had engaged to Tyler Cameron and then about half of the season was able to realize, no, she's with Jed. So those, those two, way back in the day, Ali. I had Kaitlyn wrong until she spoiled her own season. And then Desiree's season is the one I never was able to correct. The only season that I've all the way through and had no idea who had won."
That's a pretty impressive track record, if we do say so ourselves.
And now, we're getting into spoiler territory--who does Reality Steve think will be the next Bachelorette based on how Joey's season ends?
**MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD, including the ending of The Bachelor Season 28**
If you're hoping to stay away from spoilers, this is a good time to stop reading ahead and come back after Joey Graziadei's season of The Bachelor ends.
When asked about his thoughts on the next Bachelorette, Reality Steve shared who he would like to see. And we have to say, we are totally on board with who he said.
As anyone reading this part of the article knows, it was originally reported that Daisy Kent was engaged to Joey, and that they are still together. However, in recent days, we have learned that it is actually Kelsey Anderson who is engaged to Joey, and the two of them have been together since the finale was filmed.
It made total sense to both us and Reality Steve that Daisy could be the winner, however, Kelsey A. makes a lot of us sense as well. This begs the question, could Daisy be our next Bachelorette? Reality Steve weighed in on this very question.
"For the longest time thinking that Daisy was the winner, I was like, this makes sense. And then when I found out it was Kelsey. I wasn't like this doesn't make sense, but to me it turned into, well, this makes complete sense for Daisy to be the next Bachelorette. Like her story, she's got the most followers. She's got an underdog story being deaf and hard of hearing. Like this is exactly what they would do to set up the next Bachelorette. She gets dumped at the end. She's just got a built-in storyline."
Reality Steve dove deeper into the Maria vs. Daisy debate for the next Bachelorette, including an argument for either or. At the end of the day, he's happy with whoever it is because he gets to keep doing his job regardless! Watch our interview below to hear what else he had to say about the next potential Bachelorette (you're going to love his analysis, we promise!).
What does Reality Steve know about the next season of The Bachelorette?
According to Reality Steve, the next season of The Bachelorette is supposedly going to be "an all international season". Furthermore, he shared that "they're not gonna be in the states at all." He revealed that he heard this alleged rumor about a month ago and hasn't heard anything else since then.
Buckle up, Bachelor Nation, it looks like this is going to be a season we'll never forget!
Watch our full interview with Reality Steve below to hear the entire conversation--it's got all sorts of fun tidbits in there so be sure to check it out.
Let us know what you think in the comments below!