Abbie Chatfield reveals why Bachelor ratings slumped: ‘It’s not Jimmy’

Reality TV queen Abbie Chatfield has revealed why she thinks Jimmy Nicholson’s season of The Bachelor has underperformed this year.

Season 9 of the franchise has received the show’s worst-ever ratings, with one episode reaching only 360,000 viewers earlier this month.

Abbie, who was the runner-up on Matt Agnew’s season back in 2019, was asked about the low ratings on Hit Hobart’s radio show Jimmy and Nath on Tuesday.

She insisted that Bachelor Jimmy wasn’t to blame, instead commending him after their interview on her podcast It’s A Lot at the start of the season.

"He is wonderful,” she said. “I think he is so interesting, so funny.”

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The 26-year-old went on to say that while she believes it has been “a good season” with plenty of drama, this year’s contestants might be the cause of the rating disaster.

“If I’m being honest - Channel 10 might kill me for this - but maybe the casting process has been ruined by Covid,” she explained.

“Because I think it’s all by Zoom. So maybe it’s the casting of the contestants.”

She also added that this season was “slow to start”, which may have turned people away.

Channel 10 recently made a huge change to The Bachelor’s time slot, airing back to back episodes last Thursday and again this coming Wednesday.

It was speculated that the change was so the network could push out as many episodes of the dating series ASAP due to its dismal performance.

However, Channel 10 have said that both time slots were always planned to be double episodes.

Abbie’s comments about The Bachelor come shortly after she re-watched her season finale and documented it on Instagram.

The I’m A Celebrity winner told her followers, “Honestly, I will not stand for an iota of Matt slander, he is the nicest man I've ever met.”

She also commented on the moment that Matt stood up to his friend Kate, who clearly disliked Abbie.

“See, he still defended me,” she said. “He was so beautiful to me. No matter what anyone says, he was so hot, and smart, and funny. You know, we love Matt.

“Just, you know, too bad it didn't work out," she added with a laugh. ”We can't force people to love us, you know. I wish we could!”

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