Now that The Bachelor NZ roses have wilted, Ghazaleh Golbakhsh rounds up some of the best dating shows to fill the aching void in your heart. The idea of institutionalized marriage first started off in the West as a way to gain property and to procreate. It was seen as something serious and respectful (well … Read more
Alex Casey watches The Bachelor NZ’s ‘Women Tell All’ special, and finds a fittingly tame end to the season. Will we ever forget the moment that Naz stomped onto The Bachelor NZ’s Women Tell All stage last year, brandishing her manicured fingers like knives and effing and jeffing up a storm? It was better than … Read more
Serious production issues – ‘not enough food, no running water’ – have been alleged by season two bachelorette Ceri McVinnie in a blog post we have republished with permission below. MediaWorks have been approached for comment, and we will update as soon as we receive a response. The below is an updated and amended version … Read more
Jane Yee, Duncan Greive and Alex Casey gather with an audience in The Christchurch Art Gallery to talk about the dramatic season finale of The Bachelor NZ – and so much more. ‘Twas a brisk Christchurch evening when The Real Pod team assembled with 70 of their best mates* in the city art gallery to talk about … Read more
Alex Casey delivers her final rankings for The Bachelor NZ season three, including old croissants, a winner and drone shots for days. So many days. Look, I’m tired. I’m more tired than Lily huffing her way up a hilly driveway to meet Zac halfway because the Suzuki Swift probably ran out of gas. I’m more … Read more
Alex Casey, Duncan Greive and Jane Yee are in Christchurch to record a live #realpod at the city Art Gallery. But they stole ten minutes to try and process the most emotional end to a Bachelor NZ season yet. Jane Yee says: Sort it out, art department Viarni had it in the bag from night one. … Read more
Jane Yee, Duncan Greive and Alex Casey gather around the oval table to talk about the latest happenings in New Zealand television and real life in New Zealand. ‘Twas the night before The Champagne Lady’s party and The Real Pod gang are preloading with disgusting flavoured jellybeans and unfounded claims about Avril Lavigne being dead. Before tackling the … Read more
Alex Casey tackles the ninth week of The Bachelor NZ, including paddle boards, rejection and some gnarly dads. Just like Zac, I too have a pain in my heart and a pain in my stomach – and not just because I’ve been eating at least a tube of Colgate Optic White a day to try … Read more
Breaking news: All Star Family Feud just proved that romance is not dead. Nay, it is alive and kicking its way through a warm trans-Tasman current of love while wearing a new pair of Orewa Life Saving Club budgie smugglers. Praise be to Eros or whatever TV god decided to throw The Bachelor NZ and Married at … Read more
Jane Yee, Duncan Greive, Alex Casey and Anne Bloody Batley Burton from The Real Housewives of Auckland gather around the oval table to talk about the latest happenings in New Zealand television and real life in New Zealand. This week we drain some delicious bottles of Champagne Jacquart with New Zealand’s greatest reality television star, Anne … Read more
Alex Casey tackles the eighth week of The Bachelor NZ, including some extra feedback from Real Pod special guest Anne ‘The Champagne Lady’ Batley Burton. Off we went this week to the beautiful islands of Khao Lak where the waters were pristine, the sand was sizzling and Dom was a beach goth dressed entirely in … Read more
Alex Casey tackles the seventh week of The Bachelor NZ, including a freaky massage, puppet kisses and a torturous ice bath challenge. Before we race into the power rankings like a rogue raccoon into an animal cafe, we need to talk about wtf was going on in The Bachelor NZ land this week. The dramatic … Read more
Jane Yee, Duncan Greive and Alex Casey gather around the oval table and talk about the latest happenings in New Zealand television and real life in New Zealand. The Real Pod team are reunited after a tumultuous few weeks to chill out and talk Bachelor and pop culture like a bunch of frozen contestants in an ice … Read more
In a tell-all appearance on The Real Pod this week, ex-Bachelor Jordan Mauger revealed how he chose the winner of season two, among other confessions including when he really wore the earpiece. Jordan Mauger, star of The Bachelor NZ season two, has revealed to The Spinoff that he flipped a coin to decide who was … Read more
In a Very Special Episode of The Real Pod, Jane Yee and Alex Casey have a revelatory two-on-one date with ex-Bachelor Jordan Mauger. Welcome to a landmark episode of The Real Pod, where Jane and Alex are joined LIVE and IN PERSON by Jordan Mauger of The Bachelor NZ 2016. Despite his resistance to watching … Read more
Alex Casey tackles the sixth week of The Bachelor NZ, including tuk tuk tension, elephant dung and a dolphin in the mansion. In a bold comparison drawn by Ally, spending time with Zac in Bangkok this week was like “winning a ticket to Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory.” Swapping out the everlasting gobstoppers for dried scorpions, and … Read more
The Spinoff’s in-house therapist Ms X returns after reading a concerning article about The Bachelor NZ contestant Claudia Hoskins. On Sunday morning, a reality TV article filed under the Entertainment section of the Herald caused me to fire off more “wtf” texts than I usually do. The Herald quoted a Woman’s Day article in which … Read more
Jane Yee, Alex Casey and FAMOUS BACHELORETTE SHARI FLAVALL gather around the oval table and talk about the latest happenings in New Zealand television and real life in New Zealand. With Duncan rocking a flower crown with the best of them at Coachella, Alex and Jane are joined by Shari Flavall of The Bachelor NZ … Read more
Alex Casey tackles the fifth week of The Bachelor NZ, including unauthorised Jenga, bad poetry and an incredible bombshell. Ahh, nothing better after a long Easter weekend than to rest your rotten chocolate-coated dentures in a vat of Colgate Optic White and kick back in front of a relaxing episode of The Bachelor NZ. That … Read more
Two years ago, Alex Casey climbed into the on-set trailer belonging to Dominic Bowden – then Dancing With the Stars US backstage host, now host of The Bachelor NZ – to talk live TV, Kiwis vs Americans, and making it in Los Angeles. Just as all roads lead to Rome and all Suzukis lead to … Read more
Jane Yee, Duncan Greive and Alex Casey gather around the oval table and talk about the latest happenings in New Zealand television and real life in New Zealand. The Bachelor took a giant emotional dump on us this week, via the tearful elimination of Nina, the show’s everywoman heart. Jane, Alex and Duncan picked themselves up off the … Read more
Alex Casey tackles the fourth week of The Bachelor NZ, including The Others, an elephant and a dramatic injury. Honestly, put me inside an egg and soak me in horse pee for 100 days if this wasn’t the best week of The Bachelor NZ so far. In his own words, Zac’s whole world has been turned upside … Read more
Alex Casey tackles the third week of The Bachelor NZ, including blind tasting, onion layers and a scary bedroom clown. This week on The Bachelor NZ we got the first big ol’ proper pash, a huge avalanche of Tim Tam tat-peddling and a very, very, very overdue Shrek reference. Aka, the show is finally starting … Read more
Jane Yee, Duncan Greive and Alex Casey gather around the oval table and talk about the latest happenings in New Zealand television and real life in New Zealand. This week’s episode is notable for Alex emerging from a flu coma to valiantly attempt to record a podcast. Jane and Duncan are operating on about five hours’ sleep … Read more
Jane Yee, Duncan Greive and Alex Casey gather around the oval table and talk about the latest happenings in New Zealand television and real life in New Zealand. This week on The Real Pod, Alex, Jane and Duncan open with a disastrous Tim Tam slam before diving right into the latest in reality television and real life … Read more
Alex Casey tackles the second week of The Bachelor NZ, including Shakespeare, funny tummies and bathroom tears. Time is limited. You could go at any point. Nobody is safe. That is both a beautiful haiku about the fragility of human mortality, and a direct quote from The Bachelor NZ last night. It’s the second week … Read more
Jane Yee, Duncan Greive and Alex Casey gather around the oval table and talk about the latest happenings in New Zealand television and real life in New Zealand. This week on The Real Pod, Alex, Jane and Duncan dive straight into a record off the back of week one of The Bachelor NZ season three. What do we … Read more
Alex Casey delivers her first power rankings for contestants of The Bachelor NZ 2017, including many dazzling teeth, Dombo prayers and Zac Franich laughs. “It’s easy to meet people, but hard to find someone,” said our new Bachelor Zac Franich, eyes narrowing on the distance as he tried to figure out what he had just … Read more
Game of Bros is back, sans the free Bachelor marketing, and browner than ever. Before the season two premiere, Madeleine Chapman sat down with Game of Bros superfan* Aunty Henga to judge the contestants based solely on their calendar photo and quote. By the time we got to the Game of Bros season finale last year, my Aunty Henga was about … Read more