The 22nd (!) season of ABC’s The Bachelor officially starts on January 1, and as always, The Bachelor spoilers are already here.
That’s nothing new. What is new is that the reporter most famously responsible for the dissemination of spoilers is in hot water.
Late last month, Reality Steve revealed the mother of all Bachelor spoilers – who wins Arie Luyendyk’s final rose on the coming season.
Again, this is nothing out of the ordinary … except that the production company behind the hit show is now suing Reality Steve.
The longtime blogger/Bachelor spoiler soothsayer himself revealed that he got a cease and desist letter from NZK Productions.
Steve, who goes by Stephen Carbone in real life, said he received the threat one day after teasing upcoming spoilers online.
“Making a list and checking it twice,” he tweeted. “Just making sure I have the ending correct before posting it. It’s coming….”
Remarkably, he went through with it, posting spoilers anyway despite being admittedly somewhat rattled. Why take the risk?
Carbone says the production company is overstepping its legal bounds, and besides, what he does is delightfully insignificant.
“For years,” he explains, all he’s really done is “spoil and make fun of a silly reality show which itself is very easy to make fun of.”
That, as Steve puts it, “isn’t CIA level shit. This isn’t insider trading. What I do is on such a small scale in even just the TV world.”
“It’s not really a blip on the radar. If this were the only show on television, yes, it’d probably be a big deal. But it’s not.”
More significantly, though, he says he has rights as a journalist, and that the company is “being completely unreasonable.”
“[They are] bullying me essentially into giving up my sources, and are trying to prevent me from continuing my livelihood.”
“They are infringing on my First Amendment Rights as a reporter,” he goes on, “because they don’t like that I’m spoiling their show.”
Interestingly, this is not the first time Steve has been under legal fire from The Bachelor’s production company for the content of his site.
Just as he is now, he stood his ground before.
He was sued in 2012 by show producers, eventually settling out of court by agreeing not to obtain his material through certain means.
Reality Steve agreed “that for at least five years,” he would “not solicit any information about the show from cast or crew members.”
The culmination of that five-year period may play a role in the producers’ renewed legal salvo against him, but he remains undeterred.
On an episode of his podcast, Steve said that ABC was not involved here and has never threatened him with any legal action, explaining:
“ABC has never been after me.”
In any event, “I refuse to be intimidated by their tactics in this situation,” he tells fans, “and I will proceed with this season as planned.”
Fight the power.