‘The Bachelor’: What Do Contestants Really Do When They’re Not on Dates?

We may see two hours of footage of what goes on in The Bachelor mansion per week, but there are a lot of things that we don’t see. The show takes about eight weeks to film which means the women spend almost two months in that house.

If they are lucky, they may get to go on a one-on-one date with the lead to get some fresh air. But even those dates are only for one day. The only other way that the girls can get out of the house is by going on a group date, which also only lasts for a few hours.

So what are they doing with the rest of their time?

According to multiple sources, pretty much nothing.

The women’s cellphones are taken away at the beginning of filming which makes sense as a necessary precaution to avoid spoilers or contestants finding out something from the outside world that would sway what happens on the show.

“They want their full focus 24/7 to be on the guy,” Bachelor insider, Reality Steve revealed. “Hence the reason you get so many meltdowns[.] You actually start believing you’re falling in love [with] someone you barely know. It’s essentially like Stockholm Syndrome.”

The women aren’t even allowed to read books unless its the holy book.

AshLee Frazier who was on Sean Lowe’s season revealed the show’s strict no books policy to The Verge in an email.

“No phone and no books,” she wrote. “They were all taken. Music wasn’t allowed, but some sneak it in and hope to not get caught. The only book[s] allowed are Bibles.”

Tierra LiCausi, another contestant on Lowe’s season, went into further detail about the rules.

“Other contestants were allowed to read,” she wrote in an email. “Bible studies were held during my season, the girls would have weekly gatherings to study the Bible or discuss their beliefs [and their] religion (which was very interesting and unique to see) I definitely supported that and thought it brought a good vibe into the house. No magazines though.”

This rule may vary from season to season as Whitney Fransway from Nick Vial’s season said they were allowed to bring “printed content,” including books and journals, but magazines were still prohibited.

“They really try to keep us in the headspace of being in a bubble on the show,” she said.

If contestants want to listen to music, they must fit it into a short car ride or other approved time.

Daniel Maguire, from JoJo Fletcher’s season said that every now and then the producers would play music for them.

“Once in a while, one of the producers might play a couple of minutes of a song, but they can’t have music playing often because they don’t have the copyrights,” he told TheVerge. “Plus they don’t want background noise and they don’t want people being distracted… On The Bachelorette, three or four guys brought guitars. Once in a while they played guitar. But [the producers] often didn’t want them to do that.”

LiCausi also said that during flights or car rides, the producers would let the contestants borrow iPads to listen to music, but she thinks that that was all done in an effort to keep them focused.

“The producers’ obligation was to keep us from being distracted from life itself and focus on what we were there for, to meet our future husband,” she said.

Read more: The Weird Thing That Happens after Contestants are Sent Home on ‘The Bachelor.’

Check out The Cheat Sheet on Facebook!