Entertainment

Does Chris Harrison Think Sharleen Could've Won?

by Kristie Rohwedder

Do you need a little Monday pick-me-up? Have I got the thing for you! Grantland’s Juliet Litman talked to Chris Harrison about, uh duh, The Bachelor. Couldn't put the video in my eyes fast enough. The interview is excellent. They candidly discuss Juan Pablo Galavis (UH DUH), Sharleen Joynt, Clare Crawley, traveling with the show, Galavis's love for his family, the Olympics, the key to a show's success, and more.

Here are a few of my favorite parts from the inty:

Bachelor vs. Bachelorette!

When it comes to The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, can Harrison pick a favorite? Sure can. And the winner is... The Bachelor.

“Bachelor gives us better television. Girls get better drama, they get better TV. Guys are just, like, physical, like, ‘I have a problem with you. Great. Let’s pull it out and put it on the table and measure it and move on.’ That’s the way guys are," Harrison says. "So if we have a fight, an hour later we’re drinking beer and bro-ing it up. That’s not good TV. That lasted 30 minutes. Whereas women, like Nikki and Clare, that’ll last weeks, it’ll fester, it’ll go on. It might last a lifetime.”Harrison, you know what you're doing. I don't doubt your reality TV expertise. I'm not trying to challenge you. But like... have you watched Vanderpump Rules? Those guys are not always "move on and grab a beer" types. Get those dudes on The Bachelorette. You'll get excellent TV out of it.

Sharleen!

Obvi, they chat about Joynt, the contestant who might've won had she not quit the show. Harrison tells Litman that there was buzz surrounding Joynt even before he met her, and that the casting department thought she was “probably the winner.”

Does Harrison think Joynt could’ve won the show? “I don’t know," he says. "There were a lot of hurdles left to go, and Nikki’s come on so strong and Clare’s been there, so it’s hard to say she would’ve made it to the finals or been the one, but man, she was definitely on top of the list when she left.”Way to be, Joynt. Secure your status, quit while you're ahead, and live on as a Bachelor legend.

How did the other contestants feel about Joynt? Harrison says they were ambivalent about her because they didn't realize what a frontrunner she was. “I don’t think they understood how much he liked Sharleen,” Harrison explains. “And I think that helped her fly under the radar.” STEALTH STYLE. Again, way to be, Joynt.

Clare!

Harrison says he, like many of us, was not cool with the way Galavis handled the ocean canoodle sitch with Crawley.

“We talked about it in Vietnam, we didn’t air it, but we did discuss it, and he never really quite understood why he made her cry or why that was a bad thing,” Harrison explains. “And I’m like, ‘You agreed. It was consensual. You can’t all of the sudden turn around and un-ring that bell. The toothpaste is out. You can’t put it back in the tube.’" LOL at the toothpaste metaphor. Well played, Harrison.

“I’ve always approached everybody very honestly. I’m for them and I want it to work. But I’m also gonna call you out if I think you’re doing something wrong. If you’re mistreating a girl or you did something, I’ll call you out on it," Harrison continues. "To me, that was a very glaring error. He made this woman cry. He made her feel really cheap and bad. And if you felt that bad or that worried about it, then don’t go. To me, what you did in the pool before whatever you did in the ocean is worse … It just seemed unfair to me. I tried to point that out to him. I don’t think he ever quite got it.”

So what did Harrison think about Galavis’s apology to Crawley? It seems like he feels that it missed the mark. “I was watching it, and I thought, ‘I don’t think they ever really came to a common agreement about what happened,'" he said.

If that's the case, why was Crawley so ready to accept it? "I think she just wanted to kiss him again, and she was like, ‘Okay, I’m just going to let this go.’” Mack Attack Galavis strikes again.

Love 'Em Or Hate 'Em!

“I don’t really care if you love [the Bachelor] or hate him, I just need you to have an opinion. The only thing that kills me is apathy. As soon as you’re apathetic, my show is dead. I need you to care," says Harrison. "I don’t care if you’re mad and want to kill me or kill Juan Pablo, I don’t care. That’s great. You’re watching. You’ll be the first person tweeting, ‘I hate you this this and this’ and tell me everything that happened on the show. I’m like, ‘Good. I have you for life.’”I don't know which quote made me laugh more: "I don't care if you're mad and want to kill me or kill Juan Pablo" or "Good. I have you for life."

Hey, ya know what? You probably should go ahead and check out the entire interview: