reality tv

How having Brooke Blurton as Australia's next Bachelorette could change the face of reality TV.

 

Brooke Blurton was not your average Bachelor contestant.

Before she had even stepped into The Bachelor mansion, the 23-year-old Indigenous woman had experienced more challenges than most of us will throughout our entire lives.

Her early life in Carnarvon, WA, was clouded by drug and alcohol-fueled violence. Her mother, who was a drug addict, ended her own life when Brooke was just 11 years old. Just one month later, her grandmother passed away.

Brooke and her brother spent most of their childhood in the foster care system, and her older sister was later diagnosed with drug-induced psychosis.

Despite all this, Brooke became a keen AFL player and she has dedicated her life to working with young people who are experiencing the same kind trauma that she did.

Listen to the latest episode of Bach Chat…

Then she went on The Bachelor.

She was one few Indigenous women who have been on the show, and the series’ only Indigenous finalist.

A few weeks into the series, Brooke came out as pansexual to Nick Cummins and told him about the relationships she’d had with women in the past.

Then last Wednesday night, Brooke walked away from The Bachelor.

She decided to leave the show when the Honey Badger couldn’t give her any indication or any reassurance about what he was feeling towards her.

Instead of waiting to be potentially dumped on national TV, Brooke chose to end her journey right there and then. The youth worker doesn’t regret that decision.

ADVERTISEMENT

“He wasn’t giving me the certainty and reassurance that I needed,” she told Lisa Wilkinson on The Sunday Project.

“So why would I waste my time? I opened my heart, I opened my family’s heart to him.”

This is exactly why Brooke should be the next Bachelorette.

The franchise has taken a hit in the past week, with Nick Cummins choosing to not, erm, choose one of the two finalists at the end of the series.

Some have called it the worst season of the series so far and others have questioned whether this kind of TV show still has a place in our society in 2018.

And we’re already skeptical about Ali Oetjen as The Bachelorette. Ali, along with her suitors, look exactly like a TV show we’ve seen many times before.

But we’ve never had a Bachelorette like Brooke before.

Brooke is an Indigenous pansexual woman who’s not afraid to stand her ground, and she’s exactly what we (and Channel Ten) need to save this franchise.

The contestants could be both men and women. Brooke’s back story is far more compelling than that of a woman who has hit 30 and has started to panic about finding a husband.

She’s smart, and funny, and won’t be afraid to tell Osher to settle down when he starts to get a bit too excited about his made up games.

Most importantly, her story is one we can invest in – and one we’ll keep tuning into week after week until we get our happy ending.