CULTURE

Are Bachelorette Contestants the Next Celebrity Dating Trend?

Gigi Hadid and Tyler Cameron have been up to something.

Aug. 5, 2019

MERT ALAS AND MARCUS PIGGOTT

Sometimes it seems that the dating habits of eligible A-List bachelorettes tend to follow trends. First their was the tech bro craze (resulting in the nuptials of Serena Williams to Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, Miranda Kerr to SnapChat’s Evan Spiegel, and whatever was going on with Elon Musk and Grimes), then there was the still buzzing art bro moment (see: Jennifer Lawrence’s upcoming wedding to gallerist Cooke Maroney). Simmering in the background for sometime, however, is the somewhat surprising trend of VIPs dipping into the Bachelor Nation dating pool. It’s certainly come to a head over the past few days as the internet buzzes over the fact that model Gigi Hadid is now not only Instagram mutuals with The Bachelorette season 15 contestant Tyler Cameron, but reportedly hung out with him over the weekend. Though, Hadid certainly wouldn’t be the first celeb to show some flirtation with a someone from ABC’s reality mega-franchise.

It does make a certain amount of sense. One of the charms of watching escapist reality television, especially of the competition variety, is imagining how you might navigate the show as a contestant your show. People who have never touched a needle and thread in their life watch Project Runway and suddenly are convinced that a contestant absolutely needed to add a double pleat to that skirt. Top Chef seemingly causes everyone to have a moment as an aspiring home kitchen gourmet. Seemingly everyone who has watched RuPaul’s Drag Race knows not only exactly what their drag name and opening entrance line would be, but also dreams up their own fantasy runway wardrobe. So it tracks that religious watchers of dating shows can’t help but imagine what would happen if they struck up a bit of a romance with their favorite contestant. In that sense, apparently stars are just like us.

Those stars, however, are not just like us in that not only are they well connected (and concentrated in Los Angeles, where so many ex-reality stars tend to move), but assuredly any DM drop attempts they make aren’t ignored. We sit at home thinking, “I wonder what it would be like to date so-and-so.” They realize that, well, actually, they could probably date so-and-so. So why not try?

January Jones and Nick Viall

A veteran of not one, but two editions of The Bachelorette and a season of Bachelor in Paradise before nabbing the titular role in a season of The Bachelor, Viall is one of the most popular contestants despite never having found actual love on the program. That did, however, leave the door open for Mad Men actress January Jones to move in. Allegedly, at least. A Bachelor superfan, Jones reportedly casually dated Viall for a spell in 2017, according to gossip at the time. Jones, however, later said that Viall was merely a friend who provided her with inside scoop on the franchise.

Sarah Hyland and Wells Adam

It’s a pair made in ABC primetime programming heaven (even if their romance didn’t actually play out on primetime). The Modern Family star famously tweeted about Adam several times when he competed on the 12th season of The Bachelorette, and Adam replied. One thing lead to another and they started hanging out in 2017, making their internet debut with matching Stranger Things-themed Halloween costumes, and now as of this June, they’re engaged to be married.

Jennifer Love Hewitt and Ben Flajnik

This one might have just been concocted in the newsroom of tabloids, but apparently back in 2011 Hewitt and Flajnik, then fresh off competing on the Bachelorette were spotted on a date that seemed to be going well. Hewitt however later clarified that the meeting was totally a coincidence, and not a date.

Kris Jenner and Ben Flajnik

The year was 2013. Flajnik was now The Bachelor in his own right. Jenner was hosting her short-lived talk show Kris Jenner Show (no, the word “The” was for some reason not included in the title). Though it only lasted for 16 episodes, Flajnik was booked as a guest. He hit it off with Jenner, and the pair hung for a while, though like the show they met on, it wasn’t meant to last. Jenner later clarified that things didn’t get physical or much beyond friendship.

Gigi Hadid and Tyler Cameron

Though he just made his debut in the Bachelor Cinematic Universe as the runner-up on the most recent Bachelorette, Cameron is already one of the franchise’s most popular contestants on Instagram. He already has 2 million followers, and it’s not hard to see why. He’s like something out of an American fairytale. Born in Florida, he went on to a college football career as a quarterback, picked up an MBA, and then went on to sign with a modeling agency.

The messy ending of his season only added to his allure, and Gigi Hadid couldn’t help but click the “follow” button on his IG feed. The IG follows lead to quite the bit of speculation online, which was seemingly confirmed when Hadid, single for quite some time after her latest split from Zayn Malik, reportedly hung out with Cameron this weekend. Mind you, this is after reports he was casually hanging out with Bachelorette Hannah Brown despite coming in second place. It’s all rather messy and new, but it does confirm one thing: mainstream celebs certainly aren’t immune from the allures of men form the Bachelor-verse.