Jones RA hosts Bachelor watch parties, fantasy league
Every other Monday this semester, the Jones College movie room will be filled with “Bachelor” and “Bachelorette” aficionados cheering on their favorite contestants and checking their fantasy football-style brackets. Jones Resident Associate Kerri Barber runs the watch parties with food and love-themed decorations she gets from Party City.
“‘The Bachelor’ franchise is pure entertainment,” Barber said. “Lots of great quotes [and] memes come out of it.”
While eating chocolate roses, gourmet popcorn, crackers and cheese galore, Jonesians follow this season’s contestant, Colton, as he chooses a fiancée. Barber also operates a fantasy league open to all Jonesians where students submit their brackets after the second rose ceremony.
“Participants are allowed to watch episode one and use information based on season previews and bios that are on [the] ABC website to help with their decisions of who will move forward,” Barber said.
The winner gets an Amazon gift card. Barber said that the fantasy league helps build a sense of community within Jones. She often has students reach out to her to let her know how their brackets are faring, and she sends a weekly email update to participants with a recap of that week’s episode.
“At the end of the day, the series is about finding love and I think people get invested in the relationships that we see unfold before our eyes,” Barber said.
As far as the current season?
“It does seem students are sick of the virgin references — no one cares Colton is a virgin,” Barber said.
Amy Griffiths, a Jones senior, started watching “The Bachelor” last spring. Although she said that she doesn’t think Colton is “very interesting,” she still enjoys attending the watch parties.
“I love listening to everyone else’s take on the drama,” Griffiths said. “I tried watching ‘The Bachelorette’ over the summer after work, but it just wasn’t the same without friends.”
Ranjini Nagaraj, a Jones senior, is another frequent attendee.
“My favorite thing about this season is all of the drama that has already started,” Nagaraj said. “Sometimes it’s more fun to watch the drama between the girls than it is to watch the actual dates between Colton and whichever girl he picks.”
Nagaraj said Barber’s watch parties have encouraged the whole college to become more invested in the show.
“The watch parties are a lot of fun because everyone there is just enjoying the show and nobody takes it super seriously,” Nagaraj said. “We laugh at all of the drama and cheer for our favorite girls — or guys, when it’s “The Bachelorette” — to do well and receive roses during the week.”
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