10 Ways Love Island Is Better Than The Bachelor, According To Reddit

For guilty pleasure reality TV dating enthusiasts, the great debate will always wonder whether The Bachelor is a better series than Love Island or if the opposite is true. Both shows collect a lavish abode full of suitors looking to find true love, yet each one goes about in starkly different ways based on the specific rules of each respective show. The Bachelor aims for marriage proposal while Love Island aims for long-term relationships.

When it comes to the opinions of Redditors, many feel strongly that Love Island is a better and more entertaining reality dating TV show than The Bachelor. The reasons are pretty clear.

Casting Process

On a Reddit thread entitled Love Island > The Bachelor, one of the most common refrains for favoring the former is the casting process on the beloved reality dating show. Redditor jrtasoli says The Bachelor’s biggest problem is recasting carryovers from one season to the next, adding “they only choose finalists (from the top 5) from past seasons to be the new bachelor and bachelorettes. After a while, it gets old.”

With 66 upvotes, the Redditor adds “they keep going to the well over and over and over for talent and wonder why the ratings keep falling, but sadly, they don’t fall precipitously enough to warrant major changes.” Love Island keeps the faces fresh and doesn’t recycle players.

More Pleasant Cast Members

While the casting process is hailed as being better on Love Island, so too are the actual contestants, so says many Redditors. The OP puts it best by saying Love Island’s “cast is so much nicer and more genuine than anything that happens on The Bachelor/ette.”

SomeMaterial seconds the notion, adding “They were all nice on Love Island as well. There’s something about the format that makes everyone nice and kid each other up. On BIP they all tear each other down even there is no need.” Even nothe_crazyone agrees, adding “Absolutely agree. I love the casts of LI compared to the Bachelor.”

Number Of Contestants

Sticking with the theme of contestants, many Redditors feel like there are way too many competing on The Bachelor versus Love Island. With 20 upvotes, jaycait says of The Bachelor “you have 30 contestants but I’m pretty sure they could narrow it down to 3-4 after the first week of dating. Everyone else is just there to provide conflict or audition for BIP lol.

By comparison, jaycait ads “At least on LI they have the chance that another guy/girl will come in date them.” True, The Bachelor always has way too many players given its limited number of episodes each season.

Love Island Improves Over Time, The Bachelor Worsens

In a more general sense, Redditors don’t like the way the long-running reality TV show The Bachelor gets worse over time compared to the way Love Island improves from season to season. Wangho1 claims “the bachelor has been sooooo awful, I’ve stopped watching since Sean and Catherine’s season.”

Likewise, auller1014 adds “Watched LI season 5 after Hannah’s season of The Bachelorette…LI is just too good and puts everything else to shame.” Even notthe_crazyone says “if you watched Peter’s trash a** season, I do think The Bachelor has been around so much longer, they have drifted out of the genuine phase.”

Better Pacing

Time and again, Redditors favor the pacing and tempo on the guilty-pleasure dating show Love Island over The Bachelor. Jrtasoli puts it bluntly, saying “the show (Bachelor) is paced like a snail, the drama is obviously manufactured and dull, and the contestants are all SO. FREAKING. BORING. Just awful. Not even fun to hate-watch.”

KandyKarma does one better, saying “the pacing is horrible! I think that’s why I hate watching it live if I ever see it.” Editing has always been a major issue with The Bachelor, whereas sammyfritz rightly notes how Love Island gets “SO GOOD after the first few episodes.”

Producer Manipulation/Editing

Staying on the editing theme, jaycait says “the thing that makes Love Island a way different watching experience than The Bachelor or even BIP, is the producer manipulation editing. The Bach producers NEED to create drama in the house, whereas LI more or less lets it happen organically.”

PNWfan adds “The Bachelor is stale and overproduced. I used to watch like a fan, then I hate-watched, then I watched to pick out the editing and point out to my sis how we were being manipulated.” Yet another Redditor says the Bachelor “is draggy and too predictable,” claiming “LI is just way more exciting and raw.”

No Mandatory Proposal/Denial

A format complaint, tons of Redditors think Love Island is far superior because it does not put pressure on players to end the show with a marriage proposal or denial. As such, sioigin55 says “I think the Bachelor format is more competitive as they’re all trying to win the same man. LI it’s more reality, less structure, so friendships can develop organically.”

Auller1014 doubles down, adding “islanders are allowed to move at their own pace and there isn’t an expectation at the end like TB has an expectation of engagement. It’s just overall a way better format for a show IMO.”

Far More Content Per Season, Get To Know The Players

One of the things that make fans enjoy LI players more than those on The Bachelor is the number of contestants relative to the number of episodes to get to know them. The Bachelor often features 30 singles for every 12 or 13 episodes. Love Island has much fewer contestants who sometimes get to spend upward of 50 episodes (four months) getting to know each other.

One Redditor says “I love LI and realized after watching this season of the Bachelor, it’s because I get to see who the islanders really are. We are watching them at any time from all different angles.” Part of the superiors content includes the challenges, which PurrPrinThom is also quick to point out.

Treats Men & Women As Equals

The petty high-school catfighting is something at least one Redditor finds makes The Bachelor an awful dating game show, yet finds devoid on Love Island. Simply put, the Redditor claims, “Love Island treats men and women like equals and gives everyone the opportunity to find their person. The bachelor is heaps of people at war for one person.”

Continuing, the poster makes a good point about it being “hard for women/men to lift each other up when they’re competing for the attention of a single person.” Artaxx reinforces the notion, saying “with British reality shows, the contestants are typically much more supportive.”

Not As Fake Or Scripted

The most common refrain on the Reddit thread is that The Bachelor is far phonier and more scripted than Love Island. PurrPrinThom opens up by saying “Love Island feels less produced and a little more honest about what it is. Like every moment of The Bachelor feels scripted, it feels fake and forced and you can tell when production has stepped in. Love Island knows its reality TV”

Several supporters for the sentiment is found, from PNWfan detesting the show’s fakeness to Princess_Amnesie calling the contestants fake robots, to another impugning the time a Bachelor contestant was accused of being fake on camera. Indeed, Love Island fans feel the show is far more genuine than The Bachelor.