Barbara Walters isn’t the only star frustrated with the premise of ABC’s The Bachelor.
On the premiere episode of Lifetime’s The Conversation With Amanda de Cadenet Thursday, comedienne Sarah Silverman, 41, said she doesn’t understand why people think she’s “offensive” in comparison to women who compete for a man’s affection on reality TV.
“I’ll tell you what’s offensive: these shows that are on television, on ABC during primetime. Twenty-five women in JC Penney prom dresses, fully grown, going, ‘He took us to a castle!’ No he didn’t. Producers procured a castle! And there’s 25 of you — that’s how special you aren’t.”
Silverman admitted that she watches programs “like The Bachelor and Real Housewives, but I feel like I can handle it.”
“I think, ‘Wow, some young girl is watching this, and there should be a warning saying, ‘This is not acceptable behavior,'” Silverman said. “The biggest thing that a woman should realize is that there is not just one slot for a woman in any given thing. I think that’s something that society — men and women both — have enforced. It’s in the ether that one woman’s success can only come at another woman’s failure.”
The Bachelor, which premiered in 2002, has aired for 16 seasons on ABC. It has spawned two spinoffs, The Bachelorette and Bachelor Pad.