When it came time for Tayshia Adams to hand out her final rose this week, she shocked pretty much all of Bachelor Nation when she did not eliminate Ed from The Bachelorette. There is no logical reason (to most people who've seen the footage we've seen) that Tayshia should have wanted to save Ed over, well, anyone else. There's Kenny, who she's at least had some positive face time with, fan fave anesthesiologist Joe, and the sweet bespectacled Jordan C. So how the hell is Ed still on this show? Didn't Tayshia just give a speech about how she's not playing games or stoking drama? What is going on?
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It defies all logic that Ed wasn't eliminated right alongside Chasen. They were both the biggest pot stirrers last episode and when Ed and Chasen started arguing and tattling to Tayshia about each other, she told Chasen point blank that she found the whole situation petty. (It was.) For some reason she kept them both in the rose ceremony that followed. This week, she managed to kick Chasen to the curb, and yet Ed survived another week.
Tayshia knows what she wants, and what she wants is no more drama. But the reason Ed is still on the show is almost certainly a producer choice. It's probably the same reason Bennett and Noah keep getting roses — they're helping make for good TV. On this week's episode, Ed had a whole storyline where he tried to find Tayshia's room in the middle of the night but happened upon Chris Harrison's room instead. The host invited him in for some wine and a chat at 2:30 in the morning — probably because Tayshia was busy being wooed in her room by Ben, and the producers wanted to film that more than they wanted to film Ed walking in on their date. So far Ed's cashing in on some serious screen time courtesy of the film crew, and it would stand to reason that producers are fine with this arrangement.
We're also early enough in Tayshia's season still that the producers still need to build up a trove of dramatic content. Tayshia can put her real focus on the guys she's really into, while throwing the producers a bone or two by keeping the attention seekers in tow. In fact, it's reportedly not uncommon for leads to let producers keep a few cast members for the content. Many leads have eluded to the practice after their seasons wrapped, but former Bachelorette Ali Fedotowsky said it outright in a 2013 interview with E! News: "Let me be clear that producers don't always choose, but when it didn't matter either way to me, I was happy to let them decide."
If Tayshia wasn't really feeling it with any of the four guys she sent home plus Ed, he could just be here to give producers some fuel for future drama. That has to be the explanation, because I simply refuse to believe that the woman who just told her cast of crybabies where to stick it sees a future with man-child Ed.