The Bachelorette Season 20 Premiere Recap: Week 1

I’ve been watching “The Bachelor” and its many iterations faithfully since Chris Soules’ season. It has pretty much always aired at 8, barring, you know, presidential addresses or whatever. But they’re making us tune in at 9 p.m. for Charity’s season? I’ll do it for her, but I already devote too many hours of my life to this franchise. Also, I am old (see: watching since Chris Soules’ season). Now I have to stay up late for it? — Jill

Jill, you took the words out of my mouth. I like to get in bed at 10 p.m. Since they changed the air timing, I wish it were only an hour; even “Married at First Sight” shortened their episodes to 90 minutes! — Erin

They’re lucky I’m even here in the first place, to keep it a buck. This franchise is a perennial trainwreck, but I’m interested in seeing how Charity navigates this space as a Black lead — and whether the network is adequately equipped to support her, contrary to Matt James’ season. He was my first watch, and his season went even worse than I thought it would. So let’s see how this goes! Also, shoutout to a fellow Georgia peach! — Ruth