David Mallet, one of the five "Super Fans" selected to compete on Bachelor Pad's third season alongside former bachelor and bachelorettes, decided to publicly announce his plan to vote for Erica Rose due to the fact she had one vote against her thanks to losing the season's first challenge.
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However, David's announcement unintentionally caused a split in the house and made it newbies versus veterans after most of his fellow "Super Fans" had admitted they were on David's side. David had received immunity for the week after winning the challenge, so the uproar in the house resulted in the eliminations of newbies Chris "SWAT" Bain and Paige Vigil.
During a Thursday conference call with reporters, David -- who is currently still competing on the show -- talked to Reality TV World about his experience thus far and explained his highly criticized move to openly call the dramatic Erica Rose out during the third-season premiere.
Below is the first half of David's call. Check back with Reality TV World on Monday for the concluding portion.
Reality TV World: What made you decide to tell your plan to vote Erica Rose out to everyone publicly? Why didn't you go about talking to people privately and/or individually?
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David Mallet: Well the one thing was, when we were sitting around and everyone was talking, at that point, I had already gone up to people individually. But since I didn't know who was with Erica and who wasn't -- because none of them let us know that -- people I had told my plan to when I tried to talk to them to see if they would be on my side, people that were with Erica went right back to her and told her.
And you know, coming into this, we had no idea who's friends with her, who was with hating the new people and wanting them right away. So I talked to everyone individually and whoever was with her went right to her. So when she came over and asked me that question, she had already known what my plan was and I wasn't going to lie to her face.
So the only card I really thought to play was to be honest and I know I'm still guaranteed there a spot for next week, so at least she may respect the fact that I was honest with her instead of trying to go behind her back and her really hating me for it.
And you saw later in the episode that she did say, "Well at least she was honest with me." So there was that sense of her realizing that at least I was straight forward with her and not trying to be a complete snake and get her out. But the big thing was, I didn't tell anybody else to tell the other people in the house that they were going along with it.
I was just throwing myself out there because I was the one that went around and tried to figure out who would go with us, because I knew I was safe. So I didn't ask anyone else to take that risk. I didn't want anyone else throwing our plan out there, because any of them could've been voted off that week.
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But then SWAT took it upon himself to go in the kitchen and tell Erica he was going to go with my plan. He could've easily said, "Oh he's crazy. I know he wants to do that, but I'm not going with him."
And they all could've kept themselves fine and just said, "That's Dave's plan," but they started to tell people that they were going to go along with my plan. You can call me an idiot for being truthful and throwing that out there, but then he went five minutes later and did the same thing.
Reality TV World: It seems a little weird though that SWAT decided to vote for Paige when he basically knew he was going home. So why do you think he voted for her? Was he simply seeking some revenge on you or being vindictive? It seems like an odd move considering you didn't think you were throwing any of the newbies under the bus because the power was in their hands whether or not to reveal they were going along with your plan.
David Mallet: Yeah, I mean Paige certainly did not need to get that vote against her. I mean, he had to realize that you're in this situation with all of us. We're all in this together as fans, and we're facing the same pressure from everybody else in the house. I wish we would've stuck together because I don't think he realized how close he was to staying.
The people that were veterans that I talked to, I believed them that they were voting with us, because they found themselves on the outside of what was trying to be formed of a final eight alliance. They knew by going with us that we'd be able to take that out and they would have a chance in the game.
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When I think back and I think about it, I think that I should've spent more time on the fans. I'm not sure that the fans voted the way that they said they were going to. And the fact that everybody was a little starstruck and huge fans of the show and they're fans of all these people in the house, they were more likely to believe them when they told them something.
Reality TV World: So do you think SWAT definitely ruined your plan going forward then?
David Mallet: Yeah, I think that Paige would've stayed if he would've voted the way we talked about. He was clearly a little upset and I think he was a little mad, and so he just said, "Well David's plans screwed me over, so now I'm not going to follow through with his plan." But I think if you thought about this any other way as a fan, it blows my mind to think that anybody would vote any other way.
But we had so much thrown in our -- not directly, but just overhearing things. And you know the twins? Ugh, I'm not trying to talk about that. It's on the show. (Laughs) Me and the twins had something directly thrown at us like, "We are not happy that you won the challenge and we don't like you."
So there were some people that threw it right in our face, some people were sneaky about it -- there were some people in the house that I never had a direct conversation with. Unless I pulled them aside to have a separate conversation, they just made no attempt to talk to us at all. So it was clear. It was right there in front of us that we were not welcome and it was their house.
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Reality TV World: Why did you originally decide to pair up with the twins? Was there any strategy behind that or did you just end up with them by chance?
David Mallet: We were on the couch at the beginning of the night and Chris Harrison came in and announced that we were going to be teaming up, and there were six people on the couch with me -- the twins next to me and then two on each side -- and the two people on each side of us paired up with each other. So we looked at each other and we're like, "Wow, we're screwed."
So I said, "Listen, let's join up as a team and if we can find a pair of veterans," because I think it's just a smarter play to be a new person and a veteran. Obviously, there were targets on our backs being a team together as new people in the house, because I knew we were going to have a target on our backs going in.
So that was even a double-whammy for us to be a team. So we walked around the house, we tried to find a veteran couple that would split with us, so I would go with the girls and they would go with the guys. And we tried two or three separate groups and no one would go for it.
At one point, some of the guys came over and tried to take the girls, but we needed another girl. We needed another girl in order to split everything, and it just didn't work out. People had paired up just when we were able to find a group of veterans that were willing to split up and team up with us.
Reality TV World: When you announced your plan to vote for Erica, how did you think people were going to react? Did you think they weren't going to do anything about it and did they end up reacting how you had expected or no?
David Mallet: Well I was hoping to look at everyone's reaction and the people that were upset about it, I would kind of be able to figure out where they were with Erica. And the people that weren't that upset about it, I would have a chance to work on it and try to get votes on our side.
Really, the main point of me telling my vote out loud to Erica, was to get her running through the house and then everyone that came up to me to change my mind, I knew was with Erica. And the people that didn't, I could go for them and try to persuade them to go with us.
oing into the house, we have no idea who's friends, who knows each other outside the show, who has already made an alliance even before they walked into the house. So me putting that out there and kind of seeing the reaction was my only way to figure out who I could go for and try to get on our side.
Because at that point, we had three votes and three votes as far as the girls go and two for the guys, and that was it. I didn't care if we won the challenge or not. That still means we're getting kicked out of the house.
Reality TV World: William Holman from Ashley Hebert's season of The Bachelorette recently tweeted, "I'm still shocked at how the fans were treated on Bachelor Pad last night. We are not all like that. We're not real celebrities." What's your reaction to that and do you kind of agree with him on that? Were you surprised at how the "celebrities" had treated you fans in the house?
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David Mallet: Yeah, I agree with it -- half a point. It's funny because some of the people, like [Michael Stagliano], he's probably the biggest celebrity out of the show. If you have to pick somebody, he's been the most, he won the last Bachelor Pad, nicest guy about everything.
And some people have only been on two episodes of The Bachelor or The Bachelorette, so how much more -- how much have they really gone through that we haven't? We're fans of the show. We love the show.
I wish we would've been given more of a chance by more people on the show to be a part of it, but when you go into the Bachelor Pad, all it is, is about finding somebody that you have a reason to vote out before you.
When you have an excuse, that which we're just fans and you base it on the show, that's an easy, easy target to paint on somebody. So, I don't blame them for taking advantage of that. And as far as in their situation, I may have too just to be assured that I would stay on longer.
Reality TV World: Were there any veteran members of Bachelor Pad's cast that particularly treated you fans very well or were very welcoming of you -- more so than others?
David Mallet: I mean, maybe not the first night because they didn't want to separate themselves from those that did have a problem with us. But [Ryan Hoag] was very nice, Michael -- very nice -- the girls, you know, it's tough. Because you try to look back and you try to see who was being fake nice and who was being real nice.
Reality TV World: Yeah, that was actually going to be my follow-up. (Laughs) I was going to ask if you thought these contestants were genuinely nice or just being strategic.
David Mallet: Just based on the first episode, with me not knowing what was going to happen further on and me not knowing if people were genuine or not about it, the people that were the nicest about it the first night were Ryan, Michael, [Nick Peterson] was nice, [Tony Pieper] was nice, [Jamie Otis], [Blakeley Shea].
I'm trying to think who was very welcoming and came right up to us. [Reid Rosenthal] and I'm sure there were other people that when we walked in, they came up and approached us and were very welcoming with big smiles -- like, "Oh it's nice to see fans here, that are fans of us!" Other people, you did get that kind of, "Oh what are you doing here?"
Also during the call, David told reporters whether he felt he had dug himself into a hole for the rest of the season by not keeping his motives a secret and which veterans he said stood out for being truly nice to the "Super Fans."
In his blog, Michael Stagliano said that all the guys really liked you and no one had an issue with you from the beginning. So why did you feel like you needed to go after the veteran players?
David Mallet: Well when we first got there, it did seem that the guys were more willing to accept us. The guys were very upfront, came up to us, shook everyone's hand. Right off the bat, you could kind of see that the girls would say something to the new girls, and then the first thing they would do is turn and they would turn and go face the other girls on the show.
I was trying to pick up not just on how they were talking to us, but then how they were kind of acting. We definitely got the impression right off the bat that we were the outsiders, and I think I might've been the only one that wasn't so star struck to not be able to notice it.
Do you feel like you dug yourself into a hole now that you had announced to Erica Rose that it was going to be the newbies versus the veterans?
David Mallet: It was absolutely putting myself in a risky position, but we had two guys that were newbies on the show and three girls. And even though we had won the challenge and me and the twins were safe and we had one vote against Erica, that means nothing, because we still need some veterans to come over and vote with us for any chance to be able to get a veteran out of the house.
For me to look around and try to figure out who would be willing to do that, especially with the overhearing of conversations about voting the new people out first and everyone kind of giving us that sense of what was going on in the show, I looked to the challenge and I noticed that SWAT and [Rachel Truehart], Reid, Paige, [Kalon McMahon], and [Donna Zitelli] had paired up.
So I went to Rachel, Reid and Kalon first thinking that, because they paired up with new people, that might've made me think that they were a little more receptive to have new people in the house or want us to be a part of this game.
I put that plan out there because I had to get feelers from anyone that was not a fan of Erica, which I knew from watching previous seasons and being a fan of hers, that Erica puts a bad taste in people's mouths.
So if someone had something against Erica, by me putting it out there and saying, "Listen. I'm not a fan of Erica and I'm willing to vote with you guys," it was our only chance to figure out who in the house was willing to accept us and who just wanted us out from the start.
After your choice to directly confront Erica about your plan, you obviously must have a big target on your back now. And Erica Rose is pretty good at playing the game, so at that point, were you worried about what the outcome might be?
David Mallet: Before we even went into the first challenge, we had already spent the first night together and in my head, me and SWAT were going home first and second, and then the girls were going home in the first three eliminations. We only had three votes because the three girls there, and the girls only had two votes from us.
So unless I could figure out some way to -- when we had the vote against Erica and Nick and me and [Brittany Taltos] had won the challenge, walking in, I knew we didn't have the numbers, but at least with those votes against them, we had at least one up to try to take a lead in the house.
I thought if we didn't get it that night, the first night, that it was over anyway. So that's why we still [targeted] Erica, and she came up to me and asked me a question she already knew the answer to. I think it was really just to see what I was going to say to her -- if I was just going to lie to her.
[Strategy aside], I know Erica from being a fan and watching her on other seasons, and I knew she was the last person in the house that you wanted to upset, and if you upset her, you're going to hear it and she's going to come after you. But I was just hoping that the fact that it -- and I knew she had already heard that I was voting for her and that I was talking to people about it.
Like I said, I tried to talk to the veterans, but the people that were hooked up with her and in an alliance with her went right to her about it. So I knew she knew coming over to me, and my only hope was being honest with her and straight with her.
And you know, you saw, even when she yelled at me, I was calm about it and I just tried to explain myself because hopefully, she's a person under all that drama and she can see that at least I didn't sneak behind her back and do it.
Above is the first half of David's call. Check back with Reality TV World soon for the concluding portion.
About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski