Gabby Windey and Rachel Recchia's The Bachelorette season is "messy" and it was "unfair" and "icky" to make them date the same guys, according to Nick Viall and Ben Higgins.
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Many The Bachelorette fans slammed producers for making Gabby and Rachel compete against each other for the attention and affection of the same men.
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And even now, when Rachel and Gabby split up the guys and determined their own lineup of bachelors, there is some overlap, and Logan Palmer, for example, chose to switch "teams" and dump Rachel for Gabby halfway through the season.
"I don't think a lot of people are fans of it," Nick, who starred on The Bachelor's 21st season, told E! News of The Bachelorette's nineteenth season.
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"I think only because we've seen the women in previous seasons be pitted against each other. We all watched Gabby and Rachel kind of go through that experience that they went through on [Clayton Echard]'s season."
Nick said he understands why Gabby and Rachel were both picked to be the Bachelorettes -- because it was nearly impossible for producers to choose one over the other after what they had been through on The Bachelor -- but it still doesn't feel right.
"I get the spirit of the choice so to speak, but this show is unfortunately set up where it's just impossible to not have them compete against themselves just by default," Nick explained.
"I think it certainly makes for drama but I think for a lot of people watching it just feels a little icky and unfair to both Gabby and Rachel. I think they're kind of taking away from some of the enjoyment."
Nick admitted the beginning of Rachel and Gabby's season, when the men had the ability to pick the woman they'd like to pursue, was "not so great" but he's "optimistic that things will change for the better."
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Nick acknowledged how he'd like to see Gabby and Rachel "focus on their individual love stories" more as fans get deeper into The Bachelorette season.
And Ben, who starred on The Bachelor's 20th season, agreed with Nick and told E! News, "The reason it's working at all is because of the two leads. I think they're doing a really good job navigating this."
Ben continued, "I think it's messy. Up until maybe this week I was just confused a lot."
Three men, for instance, dumped Gabby during a group date for Rachel, and three different guys rejected roses from Rachel during the third Rose Ceremony of the season in order to pursue Gabby.
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"She probably felt more [overwhelmed] than most have ever felt on the show and that would break you," Ben recalled of Rachel's hurtful and humiliating Rose Ceremony earlier in the season.
"It would be really hard, then to try to navigate it and feel confident in your dating relationships. As Nick said, I'm optimistic that she will find her confidence and that she will walk forward and have a couple relationships that really push her forward."
Ben said he believes Gabby "will do the same."
"But right now, I still just watch it and I'm like, 'I don't know. It's not hitting me like some seasons were hitting in the past,'" Ben noted.
Ben recently admitted to Us Weekly that it's been "weird" watching The Bachelorette's nineteenth season and he's certain he would never want to share a The Bachelor season with another man.
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"Maybe I'm very jealous, maybe I'm envious. You could say all the things [associated] and they would probably all be true, but it would just be uncomfortable all the time," Ben confessed.
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When thinking about dating the same women as another man on TV, Ben reasoned, "I feel like at some point, my confidence that is necessary when you're trying to figure this whole thing out would break."
"And then, I think if it wasn't Gabby and Rachel, I think [ABC] would have a really hard problem on their hands... [The two leads] are doing it really well, the best they can."
And Nick recently told the magazine that the current The Bachelorette format naturally "lends" itself to two women being pitted against each other, although that wasn't supposed to happen by design.
"I hope for Rachel and Gabby that we see them both not let this rejection get in their head and focus on what seems to be some really nice connections that seem to be starting to develop," Nick said.
"I hope that they no longer let it get to them, but rejection can be tough. But unfortunately, I think it's not going the way a lot of fans hoped [it would go] when it relates to the women being pitted against each other."
Nick explained how drama has been "forced upon" Gabby and Rachel even though they've been trying to help each other and put each other first.
While Gabby and Rachel's season of The Bachelorette has sparked backlash, the women have insisted they wouldn't have changed a thing or done it any other way.
"It was so nice to have somebody else, a true friend, go through it with you. Watching the criticism back and seeing it online, it's not that surprising, but it's almost like, 'Oh, you guys are kind of missing the point,'" Gabby told The Hollywood Reporter in a joint interview with Rachel earlier this month.
"We are giving the men a lot of attention and allowing them to make it about a competition. But if you pay attention to Rachel and I's story, we're really not. So it's just the nuance of watching it back."
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Rachel pointed out how she and Gabby are never fighting or at odds on the show.
"We never [made] a decision without one or the other, early in the season," Rachel said.
"And to hear all the criticism of them pitting us against each other is just not how it was at all. Like Gabby said, they really are missing the point of female friendship and us navigating this together and showing our real emotions."
Rachel and Gabby have said they had two separate experiences and journeys on the show and are both happy.
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