In Just 2 Minutes, ABC's Latest Franchise Crossover Shattered Reality TV Rules With a Hardcore Twist

If HGTV feels different lately, you’re not imagining it. The network’s newest reality competition series is flipping the script on the genre’s standard playbook. While most competition shows follow a familiar rhythm — challenge, then elimination — Bachelor Mansion Takeover upended expectations with a twist no one saw coming: an elimination in the middle of a challenge.

In the first challenge, the bachelors and bachelorettes split up into two teams to renovate the contestant quarters. As the teams were hard at work, they received a note, in very The Bachelor fashion, that they would have a random vote out in the middle of the challenge. Why? No one really knows. The ridiculous twist was simply cruel, but proved that Bachelor Mansion Takeover is going to raise the stakes for the 12 contestants vying for the $100,000 cash prize.

'Bachelor Mansion Takeover' Wiped Out Two Contestants For No Reason

The premise of the series is to give the iconic abode a much-needed makeover through the assistance of the individuals who lived there. For HGTV fans unfamiliar with The Bachelor and its spin-offs, it's a fun design series. For Bachelor Nation loyalists, it's drama. And in the first episode, the series really leaned deep into the latter. When the two teams, split up by gender, learned of the mid-challenge vote-out twist, they were thrown for a loop. And as reality show fans know, without clear guidelines, the first vote can set the tone for the entire season.

As each contestant went into the voting confessional, they shared their reasoning. Some were for team vibes, others were personal vendettas. The women, who were mostly filled up with younger bachelorettes, voted out The Golden Bachelor’s Sandra Mason. Their reasoning was that they didn't vibe with her, though she struggled to express her opinion with the louder voices during the design process. Meanwhile, the men voted out The Bachelorette and Bachelor in Paradise star Jeremy Simon. Since the final tally resulted in a tie, Dean Bell, who had the Golden Hammer of immunity, broke the tie, keeping Chris Stallworth of The Golden Bachelorette. Unlike the women, the age discrepancy didn't factor into the hivemind's thinking. Dean, who many would have liked to vote out for his blue ceiling decision in the Santorini room, kept the older contestant because of his experience and for literally building their bunk beds.

At first, you wondered whether the vote-out would lead to the contestants swapping teams, something we’ve seen before on other shows. Not here. Upon judges Tayshia Adams and Tyler Cameron sending off Jeremy and Sandra with little fanfare, everyone proceeded with the challenge as if nothing had happened. They immediately left Bachelor Mansion, along with the losing team’s...psyche! It was a “to be continued” cliffhanger— yet another format-busting moment. With the lack of elimination at the end of the episode, it felt as if the mid-challenge vote-out was meant to satisfy the need for an elimination.

Reality TV Shows' Non-Traditional Eliminations Must Be Warranted

This mid-challenge elimination was cruel and uncalled-for. It didn’t add any dramatic stakes, only opened a world of questions. There was no shakeup, for better or worse, that altered the remainder of the challenge. The twist seemed to just come for the sake of a twist. Rarely do competition series stray from the challenge-then-elimination format, and if they do, it has purpose. Shows like The Challenge and Big Brother have introduced early eliminations that are tied to the end of an actual challenge before the main game begins. This was simply cruel. There was no merit in decision-making. Typically, you have judges' critiques to justify voting someone out. Instead, it was all about a gut instinct. Jeremy's elimination had some logical justification. Sandra, well, she was robbed of her spot simply because of her age. And that is not a good precedent to set.

One of the only prominent instances of a pre-challenge elimination occurred way back in Survivor: Palau in 2004. In one of the most shocking moments in theold-school era of Survivor, Jonathan Libby and Wanda Shirk were not drafted onto a tribe and were sent home immediately. The twist worked because of how and when it played out. They had time on the beach to mesh with the other castaways, justifying the decision not to pick them. Further, Survivor had earned this twist as it had been running long enough to justify it. This is the beginning of Bachelor Mansion Takeover. They needed to keep things simple.

HGTV has a very antiquated-feeling reality show on its hands, which is really exciting for us diehard day-one reality show lovers. But if they continue with random twists that undermine the series' integrity, it might turn fans off quite quickly. Especially Bachelor Nation fans who are not used to this type of treatment.

Bachelor Mansion Takeover airs Mondays at 8:00 pm on HGTV. All episodes are available to stream on HBO Max.