Originally posted Monday, January 6, 2020 by RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com on his AJC Radio & TV Talk blog
Delta Air Lines pilot Peter Weber, based out of Westlake Village, Calif., greeted 30 women on Monday's 24th season opener of ABC's "The Bachelor" and two of them were Atlantans.
Only one - Kennesaw nanny Kiarra Norman - survived the first night. Maurissa Gunn, a patient care coordinator from Atlanta, was cut during the first round, leaving 22 women left.
Peter at the top enunciated all the usual cliches about this being a journey, hoping to meet "the girl of my dreams" and recovering from a broken heart after Hannah Brown of "The Bachelorette" rejected him.
Clearly, he wanted nothing to do with flight attendants. There were three in the mix of 30 and he got rid of all of them in the first cut. (Eunice Cho tried to shake things up by wearing wings upon her entry but it didn't work.)
Maurissa, 23, works for two plastic surgeons and was introduced 17 minutes into the three-hour premiere.
“I absolutely love my job,” she said. “I get to make these women feel great about themselves and that’s important to me because of all that I’ve been through. When I was younger, I was crowned Miss Montana Teen USA.”
She hated that social media made her feel fat and she left the pageant world. She ended up gaining 80 pounds. One days, she woke up and got herself back into gear. “Now that I’ve taken control of my life I want to find that person to share it with.”
During Maurissa’s intro to Peter, she made him pinkie swear that “throughout our journey that we’ll remain true to ourselves, to be honest with each other and always dance like nobody’s watching.”
On night one, she held hands with him as they agreed both are hopeless romantics. “You’re so handsome!” she said.
“You’re beautiful too!” he exclaimed. “I’m very very excited for this.”
They then do a secret handshake.
She said she can create “sparks and fireworks and I won’t break his heart” like Hannah Brown.
But as we learn by night’s end, that won’t happen. He didn’t give her a rose.
“Peter’s an amazing guy,” Maurissa said after she got cut. “I definitely could see myself falling in love with Peter. It sucks. I thought there was something there but I guess not. It’s tough, it’s tough to go home.”
During intros, there were no shortage of corny entrances like a paper airplane, a windmill and a red Corvette. And a couple went risque with someone showing him a photo of a hairless pussy, um, cat. While another tried a joke and failed to land the punchline about having a dry sense of humor but that is the only thing that’s dry about her. (cymbal crash! She was cut immediately.)
Kiarra, 23, got points for creativity. She stashed herself in a suitcase at the 37-minute mark and Peter had to extricate her out. (She’s not a big girl obviously.)
Of course, she went for a lame airline-related intro: “I made it to our final destination.”
Host Chris Harrison was impressed, calling it "David Copperfield s***. We should cut her in half later!"
Kiarra managed to say something pithy and colorful during a voiceover after the first elimination: “Peter is definitely going to have his hands full. All these girls. All these personality. It’s like a ticking ticking ticking time bomb!”
Boldest entrance: Savannah Mullins, a realtor from Houston, blindfolded him, then kissed him.
He lands his first real kiss with Hannah Ann Sluss, a model, at 62 minutes in. She ultimately triple dipped and got the first impression rose.
Later, Kelley Flanagan - who met Peter coincidentally a month earlier at a hotel - won the obstacle course to get a date but there was some annoyance by the other ladies because she cheated.
He connects with Madison Prewett, who goes on the first one-on-one date including meeting family members at Peter's parent's marriage renewal. (She looks a lot like Hannah so we kind of know his type.)
It doesn’t appear at this stage he’s all that into Kiarra.
But he may still be into Hannah Brown and vice versa. She shows up and there is a cliffhanger about their status.
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