Chapter Text
“Everyone, thank you for coming.”
Nick has a feeling he knows what this meeting is about. The Bachelor Nation production team meets the first week of January every year before The Bachelor begins airing to discuss logistics and pat each other on the back for a successful previous year. The summit runs for a week, and they’ll get budgets, date locations, and filming schedules for the entire upcoming year knocked out of the way. Nick isn’t really a part of the production team, but he’s hosted the show since the very beginning, since before most of these people even thought about taking a job with Bachelor Nation—and these days, before some of them were even born—and he’s close friends with Alexander Pierce, who’s headed the production team for just as long, so he always gets an invitation.
“Julia, can we get the petition up here on the screen?” Alex asks, gesturing at the screen.
Just as Nick had suspected, the petition currently making its way around the internet appears in all its eight-point-three million signature glory. He keeps his face impassive and carefully doesn’t look at either Maria or Phil, the production team behind The Bachelorette. They’d been parceled out to other Bachelor Nation shows after ABC took the show off the air five years ago, but he counts both of them as friends, and he knows that they’re eager for the show to return regardless of the past tragedy.
“As you all know, five years ago, we took The Bachelorette off the air, following Betty Ross’s death,” Alex continues. There’s an understatement, Nick thinks to himself. People had been screaming for the show to be cancelled after Betty’s murder at one of her suitor’s hands. “At the time, we all thought it was the right thing to do, and most of America agreed with us. However…”
He gestures at the screen again. Nick glances up at the title. The words are simple but powerful: BRING BACK THE BACHELORETTE! The petition got off the ground only a few days ago, which is why it wasn’t brought up at the summit, but the amount of support it got in such a short amount of time lends it more credence than any of the other petitions that have gone around in the last five years.
He’s not surprised that people want The Bachelorette back. Most of the viewership for all of the Bachelor Nation franchise shows are omegas, and most of them would say that they’re there to see true romance blossoming on the screen—but the viewership numbers don’t lie. The most watched episodes of The Bachelor are the ones where the omegas competing for the alpha bachelor’s affections wind up in a catfight, which, over the years, has resulted in more dramatic seasons to rake in the viewership numbers. The Bachelorette, in contrast, always drew a… softer crowd, in comparison—the people who really were there for the romance, not the drama. Nick isn’t surprised people want that back now that a full five years have passed since Betty’s death.
Of course, there’s frequently a difference between what people say they want and what they really want, but in this case, he’s inclined to not only agree with them, but to say that the time is right to bring the show back. Betty’s death is five years behind them. In the entertainment industry, that’s practically ancient news. Bringing the show back now is unlikely to garner harsh criticism and claims of callousness—from the general public, anyway. If they wait too much longer, it’ll seem pointless to bring it back. They need to strike when the iron’s hot. And, truth be told, while Alex had shuffled around the staff after the show went off the air so they wouldn’t lose their jobs with no warning, there really isn’t a need to have so many people working on their various shows. At this point, without the extra money that The Bachelorette brings in, they need to start making staffing cuts—unless, of course, they bring it back.
Nick gets all of this, but, personally, he doesn’t feel completely ready to bring the show back. He was there when Betty was killed. He held her in her final moments as he yelled for a medic who wouldn’t come until it was too late. He never wants to see another omega put in that situation again, and no matter how much Alex promises him that that won’t happen, there’s always that chance. They’d have to put in a lot of work to make the show safer before he’d feel ready to bring the show back.
But he’s just the host. He doesn’t have a say in the matter.
And he can’t deny that bringing The Bachelorette back would be good for the franchise. Viewership numbers have been dropping over the last couple seasons of The Bachelor and The Bachelorum. Ratings aren’t great for any of the spinoff shows. Bringing back a fan-favorite would be a good way to up both the viewership and the ratings and ensure that everyone on the team has a job for at least another few years.
But…
“If we’re going to do this, you have to promise me that we won’t have another Emil Blonsky on our hands,” Nick says, cutting right through the squabbling that’s broken out over the petition.
Alex pauses and looks at him. There’s a triumphant gleam in his eyes, like he already knows that he’s won. Bastard. Nick might count him as a friend, but he can’t deny that Alexander Pierce, producer extraordinaire, has always seen money first.
“Of course we won’t,” Alex says smoothly. “We can do background checks on the contestants—”
“And Blonsky’s would have read that he had PTSD from his time in the special forces but no latent violent tendencies,” Nick interrupts. “Background checks aren’t good enough.”
“Yeah,” Maria agrees. “I want security on the ground, on the production team, whatever it takes—and none of this letting eliminated contestants return. Once the bachelorette says they’re done, they’re done.”
“Letting eliminated contestants return is how we get half of our drama out of this show,” Alex protests immediately. “God knows we’re not getting catfights out of these alphas.”
He’s not wrong, but Nick is loathe to admit it.
It’s Phil who says, “Fine. But if we’re opening up that possibility—which, I’ll remind you, is how we landed in hot water the last time—then I want a bodyguard planted with the other contestants. With thirty alphas, the odds might be low the bachelorette will go for that one, but if we get someone charismatic, then we can keep them on the show long enough to make sure that the other alphas are safe. They can get a measure of the alphas when we can’t, what they’re like when the cameras are off—”
“But if they say to pull the plug on a contestant,” Nick continues, “then that’s it. They’re done. I don’t care if they bring in the highest ratings, I don’t care if they’re a fan favorite. I’ll agree to a bodyguard, but the moment they say someone isn’t working out, then that person is out.”
Alex looks sour about it but nods sharply. “Agreed. Alright, background checks, a planted bodyguard, anything else?”
“I do,” Phil says. “Who’s going to be the next bachelorette?”
Immediately, debate breaks out again.
Traditionally, the bachelorette has been chosen from the previous season of The Bachelor. Usually, by the time the season was getting ready to air, they would’ve been in talks already with multiple omegas about the possibility and then narrowed in on a choice based on how favorably the audience reacted towards them while the show was airing, with filming for The Bachelorette beginning only days after The Bachelor season finale aired. They don’t have that luxury this time, though. The season premiere was yesterday, and because none of them were expecting to bring The Bachelorette back, none of the omegas from the season have even been approached about the possibility. That doesn’t give them a lot of time to scope out the possibilities, gauge the audience’s reception, negotiate a contract, and find thirty alphas interested in dating them, all before the season finale in eleven weeks.
Unless…
“I have an idea,” Nick says abruptly, again cutting off the arguments. Most of the directors in the room are leaning towards using this year to prepare and start airing the new season next year. Nick understands that perspective, but he also knows, as do the producers, that they’ll lose a lot of the momentum from the petition if they wait an entire year. So if they’re not going to wait an entire year, and they don’t have the time to do their usual vetting process, then they need someone who’ll catch attention, someone fans would be excited to see as the bachelorette.
“Well? Go ahead, Nick,” Alex says impatiently. “Don’t leave us hanging.”
“We bring in Stark’s kid.”
The room goes so silent he could’ve heard a rose petal drop. He waits. His suggestion is unorthodox. Tony Stark isn’t one of the omegas currently competing on The Bachelor. The alphas they interview to be contestants won’t know anything about him, so they’ll be going in blind. But Nick is certain about this: Tony’s the right choice to bring the show back.
“Tony Stark?” one of the assistant directors for Bachelor in Paradise asks. She has a dubious expression on her face. “He can’t keep an alpha for longer than six weeks.”
“Because he’s a romantic,” Nick says. He can’t blame her for falling for the tabloid stories. After all, Tony encourages them. But Nick has known Tony since he was only a few weeks old. He knows the kid behind the façade. “He wants what his parents have. He’s been fed the Bachelor story his entire life—if anyone knows the potential of this show and what it sells, it’s the first bachelor’s kid.”
Howard Stark’s season of The Bachelor, the very first one ever, had been one of the few successes of the show. Nick knows that there’s potential behind the concept of dating thirty people at once and narrowing down the choices, but after so long doing this, he also knows that most people won’t be able to pull it off. But Tony… Tony grew up surrounded by people who’d been on the show and found their soulmates and made it work. He knows how to make the setup work to his advantage.
“He’s a legacy,” Nick presses. “Think about it. The first bachelor’s kid—him finding his alpha on this show would read like fate to our viewers.”
“He’s got a fortune behind him,” Maria says, grudgingly admiring. “It’ll help with finding alphas, much as I hate to admit it. We’ll get as much drama as we could possibly want out of alphas not being there for the right reasons just based on the billions he stands to inherit.”
“And he’s got self-defense training,” Nick finishes. Howard and Maria Stark had made sure that their kid knew how to take care of himself if anyone tried to kidnap him. “He’ll be as safe as he could be.” And it helps that no one wants to kill a legacy.
He sits back as people start arguing again. He knows he’s right. Tony is the best choice to be the next bachelorette. The legacy, the billions, the hopeless romantic, the ability to defend himself—there’s no way they’ll decide on anyone else. It would be foolish. Tony is the best person to usher in a new era for Bachelor Nation.
And sure enough, once the discussion dies down and Alex calls for a vote, Tony is the clear winner by well over two thirds of the votes.
“Alright, Nick,” Alex says, grinning sharklike at him. “Do you want to call him and do the honors?”