"Omicron anxiety" hit The Bachelorette finale in real time

Slate

"If and when future anthropologists study tape of the Season 18 finale, they’ll notice something strange happening in real time: the pandemic creeping into the frame," says Heather Schwedel. The impact of the Omicron variant was seen in guest co-host Tayshia Adams' absence due to COVID exposure. "But things got a little jarring around 38 minutes into the program’s three-hour run time," says Schwedel. The show returned from a commercial break … and everyone’s mouths and noses were suddenly covered. 'Now, we "have seen a lot of chatter online,' (guest co-host Kaitlyn) Bristowe announced, 'so just so we’re clear, everyone around me has tested negative. But just to exercise additional caution, our audience will remain masked through the rest of the show.' Producers were apparently responding in real time to social media, where viewers were taking the show to task for its lack of visible safety protocols. From then on, only the host and the people who came onstage to be interviewed—plus a man dressed up as an elf who did a bit where he pretended to eat spaghetti topped with candy and syrup, for some reason—were unmasked." Schwedel adds: "Overall, the episode achieved its main purpose—providing viewers with a feel-good love story, and plenty of footage of a giant Neil Lane engagement ring. But it was an uncanny experience to see omicron anxiety land in the studio before one’s eyes. While I’m reluctant to compare now to the earliest days of the pandemic, it did feel a little like the night of March 11, 2020, all over again, when the one-two punch of the news of Tom Hanks coming down with COVID and the NBA stopping its season made it feel like the world had been transformed in a matter of hours. (Michelle) Young’s finale was supposed to be a triumphant return to the pre-pandemic live studio audience, made possible by vaccines and testing. The producers had worked their way up to this: Last season’s finale had a studio audience, but it was pre-taped. Last night the Bachelor franchise and its viewers were confronted directly with the fact that we’re not out of the pandemic woods just yet."