Not Every Bachelorette Man Needs To Tell All

Along with all the other changes to the franchise in 2020, The Bachelorette: Men Tell All had a much smaller cast this time around. It featured just 10 contestants on stage with host Chris Harrison and Bachelorette Tayshia Adams instead of the usual 16-plus. Not even this season’s first of two Bachelorettes Clare Crawley got the chance to confront (or be confronted by) the men she dated. But somehow, producers felt the need to give time and space to Yosef Aborady to rehash one of the most unnecessarily cruel reactions ever seen on the show. 

In case you couldn’t remember what feels like a million years ago (you can tell us the Yosef moment aired a month and a half ago, but we all know that doesn’t feel true) Chris Harrison rolled tape of his exit. Once again, we watched as he interrupted Clare as she was in the middle of explaining that her mother is “dying.” Yosef then ridiculed her for a strip dodgeball date that he wasn't even on (a date that, for the record, was definitely planned by producers), said he was ashamed to be associated with her, slammed her for being "the oldest Bachelorette," and walked out after shouting that she wasn't "fit" to be his daughter's mother. 

Then this man, inexplicably, got his own special segment during the Men Tell All.

While the theme of the segment was Yosef being prodded multiple times by Chris to just apologize already, it was clear that Yosef saw no issue with what had transpired. "I don't regret what I said. Everything I said was factually accurate. I don't think anything merits that response that she wouldn't want me to be the mother of her children," he said. Chris then asked if he would mind if someone spoke to his daughter like that, and Yosef perhaps not so shockingly said, "If my daughter did something like that, I would hope someone would call her out." As viewers, we hardly even had time to dig into that before Chris tried again: "I rarely do this. I want to help you help yourself," the host said, "I've seen a lot of crazy stuff in 20 years, but that was not a good look. The way it escalated, the way you spoke." He asked once more if Yosef regretted his actions. Yosef didn't. "I'm not gonna apologize to Clare. I'm gonna stay true to myself." 

And he did, no matter what any well-meaning Bachelorette host might have said to him. Minutes before this segment aired, Yosef preemptively tripled down on Instagram, posting a photo of himself with the caption "Never waver." Apparently, refusing to back down in the face of clear evidence you were wrong isn't just a political issue anymore.

The whole conceit of the Men Tell All is hashing out old drama, but the slimmed down cast selection in light of the pandemic was hard proof that it would have been just as easy not to include Yosef. Chris and the other contestants, like Jason Foster who said, "You took to a whole other level of disrespect," may have taken sides against Yosef in an attempt to show how wrong he was, but that stage is a platform, however hostile. And his response on and off screen proves what we didn’t need a segment to tell us:  Yosef is happy to take this chance to stand by his choices a first, second, and third time.

The selection of men on screen suggested that this was a night dedicated to Tayshia's portion of the season, not Clare’s. So, Yosef shouldn't have been there at all — he was long gone by the time Tayshia took over as Bachelorette. And if Clare wanted another confrontation, fine, but by bringing him on alone, on a special dedicated to another Bachelorette, producers needlessly gave him the last word. 

The show could have done anything with the time that was allocated to a man whose time on screen was marked by outright aggression towards a woman who was not present to defend herself. The Bachelorette could have invited an actual fan favorite like Joe Park back. Chris could have given Tayshia more time to give closure to her eliminated contestants, like Riley, who struggled heavily with his elimination. Heck, he could have spent that time talking to JoJo Fletcher about what it was like to stand in for him as host. And if nothing else, we know the producers have more bloopers where that episode-ending reel came from. 

Bachelorette producers learned to do more with less this season, but maybe next season they can finally figure out that not everyone needs to tell all.