Fall TV Blog

Even though Molly Malaney was Jason Mesnick’s second choice on The Bachelor, the couple’s relationship is still going strong.

The couple stopped by Good Morning America to dish about their future plans. “Things are going great,” Mesnick said. When asked if the couple would walk down the aisle, he answered that they will “absolutely someday” get married.

Although the couple is not currently living together, Malaney plans to move from her home in Milwaukee to be closer to Mesnick’s hometown of Seattle. “We’re very happy,” Malaney told GMA of their five-month courtship. “We’re doing the distance thing right now.”

Malaney also said that she is starting to bond with Mesnick’s 4-year-old son, Ty. “It’s been great,” she says. “We talk on the phone, we play together when I’m in town.”

Everyone has clearly moved on since The Bachelor: After the Final Rose aired in the spring, when Mesnick infamously jettisoned his first choice, Melissa Rycroft. After a stint on Dancing with The Stars, Rycroft announced on Monday that she is engaged to boyfriend, Dallas insurance agent Tye Strickland. –Steve Helling

Kwaku Alston/Stockland Martel

Just call it the plus-sized Bachelor.

Fox has announced plans to cast a new reality show called More to Love in which “average looking” women will vie for the affections of a man producers describe as a “Kevin James-type.” According to the Hollywood Reporter, the Bachelor’s executive producer Mike Fleiss will team with Mike Darnell, Fox’s president of alternative programming, on the project. “For six years it’s been skinny-minis and good-looking bachelors, and that’s not what the dating world looks like,” Darnell tells the Hollywood Reporter. No air date has been set for the show. – Brian Orloff

Tell us: What do you think of the show’s premise? And will you tune in?

ABC, Charles Sykes/AP

As expected, Jason Mesnick proposed to a finalist on the season finale of The Bachelor. Then, he went off-script by unceremoniously breaking up with fiancée Melissa Rycroft and romancing runner-up Molly Malaney.

And that, says a fellow Bachelor Matt Grant, was not smart.

“This guy kind of committed suicide,” Grant told PEOPLE at The 23rd Genesis Awards in Beverly Hills Saturday. “He’s a nice man. I’ve met him quite a few times. But I think he should have gone about it differently.”

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It’s been nearly a month since The Bachelor’s Jason Mesnick and Molly Malaney inspired shock and outrage by rekindling their romance on national TV — at the expense of Jason’s jilted fiancée Melissa Rycroft.

So how is the couple doing now? “Molly and I are happy,” Jason tells PEOPLE.

In fact, the couple spent a few days in the past month getting to know each other off-camera. In one of the few chances they’ve had to see each other since this new post-Bachelor phase of their courtship began, Jason flew to visit Molly at her home near Milwaukee. Together they’ve been busy meeting her friends for drinks (“They all gave him the stamp of approval!” says Molly), taking romantic strolls along Lake Michigan, and “grilling out.”

“I’ve learned new terminology,” Jason says, laughing at the Midwestern word for barbecuing. “It’s normal, right, to say ‘grilling out’?” Molly insists with a laugh as the two snuggle up on a sofa in Molly’s living room.
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What a week it was for Melissa Rycroft! On March 2 viewers saw her get engaged to Jason Mesnick on The Bachelor, then, only minutes later, they saw her get dumped on the After the Final Rose special.

One week later to the day, Rycroft emerged smelling like a rose when she performed the Viennese waltz live on Dancing with the Stars. She had the support of not one, but two men — Dancing partner Tony Dovolani and new boyfriend, Ty, a former flame she started seeing after things went south with Mesnick. Rycroft calls Ty, a Dallas-based insurance agent, her “rock.”

In the latest issue of PEOPLE, Rycroft says all she wanted to do after the Bachelor drama was go back to her life in Dallas. But when she got a call on Friday, March 6, from Dancing producers asking her to fill in last-minute for injured Access Hollywood host Nancy O’Dell, she couldn’t resist.

“This is a reward, in a way, for what just happened,” Rycroft says, knowing that sore muscles and all, the opportunity was a no-brainer.
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After proposing to Melissa Rycroft in the final rose ceremony — and then dumping her for runner-up Molly Malaney on the After the Final Rose wrap-up show, The Bachelor’s Jason Mesnick is reacting to the news that Molly will compete on Dancing with the Stars.

“I am so excited for Melissa,” Jason tells Extra, adding, “I know she has danced her whole life and she must be excited for the opportunity. I hope and think she will win it all.”

Craig Sjodin/ABC (2)

Jason Mesnick is in the hot seat this week. Some 17 million viewers watched him get engaged to 25-year-old Dallas beauty Melissa Rycroft on the Mar. 2 season finale of The Bachelor, only to dump her minutes later on the After the Final Rose special. The 32-year-old insurance agent then confessed he still had feelings for 24-year-old department store buyer Molly Malaney.

In an exclusive sit-down interview with PEOPLE, Mesnick defends his decision to end his engagement to Rycroft in front of the cameras.

“That was part of the deal. I signed up for this. Your relationship is — good and bad — in front of everybody,” Mesnick says.

His change of heart occurred after he and Rycroft returned to their normal lives.

“After we got back into the real world, all of a sudden, we had less to talk about, and I didn’t know why,” Mesnick says, adding that as the days went on, he couldn’t stop thinking about runner-up Malaney.
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Melissa Rycroft’s shocking dismissal by fiancé Jason Mesnick on national television was a surprise to Bachelor fans — but not to Rycroft herself.

“I knew on the night After the Final Rose I wasn’t getting dumped,” she tells Ellen DeGeneres in an interview scheduled to air on her talk show Thursday. “We had already ended the relationship. And that was mutual.”

But there was one major surprise in store for Rycroft: the other woman, runner-up Molly Malaney.
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Jason Mesnick says he followed his heart when he broke up with Bachelor winner Melissa Rycroft, pursuing a relationship with finalist Molly Malaney instead. Now, a majority of People.com readers feel that Melissa is still the winner in the situation.

Seventy-seven percent of readers who took our poll say that Melissa is better off without Jason in her life.

In comments, readers expressed sympathy for Melissa, who was dumped on the After the Final Rose show. “I feel bad for Melissa,” writes Sarah. “I am still so mad at the Jason for what he did to her.”

Meanwhile, Jennie believes they’re both winners. “[Melissa is] better off not being with someone that doesn’t care for her the way she deserves,” she writes. “Molly was also better off in that she got a new opportunity to explore something she thinks she wants. Ultimately, win (sort of) for everyone.” (more…)

People are still buzzing about The Bachelor’s shocking twist—including host Chris Harrison.

On today’s Ellen DeGeneres Show, the reality show host shares his perspective on Bachelor Jason Mesnick’s shocking change of heart, which was revealed on the After the Final Rose special Monday night.

When asked if Mesnick, 32, should have chosen Melissa Rycroft, 25, over Molly Malaney, 24, in the finale, Harrison replies, “Oh, yeah, she was terrific. When we left New Zealand [where the finale was filmed in November] we could not [have] been happier because it was a great ending. He is a great guy. This is best ending. She’s going to be a mom [to his son, Ty, 4].”

In January, Harrison tells DeGeneres, he found out that Mesnick wasn’t happy.
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