Peter Weber's Bachelor Season: What You Didn't See On TV

The Bachelor franchise managed to soar to new, dramatic heights by putting pilot Peter Weber in the cockpit for his very own Bachelor season. 

A fan favorite on Hannah Brown's season of The Bachelorette, Weber's experience as the Bachelor proved to be much more turbulent than his time as a contestant. Throughout the course of his season, Weber found himself torn between multiple women, riddled with confusion over what — and who — his heart really wanted. From Brown's emotional return, to Weber's constant back and forth with controversial contestant Victoria Fuller, to frontrunner Madison Prewett's late-season revelation, Season 24 of The Bachelor will definitely go down in the Bachelor Nation history books as one of the most dramatic seasons of all time. 

However, while Weber's season certainly wasn't lacking in the drama department, there simply wasn't enough time to showcase everything that went down during the pilot's buzzed-about season. From behind-the-scenes secrets to moments left on the cutting room floor, here's everything you didn't see on TV during Peter Weber's Bachelor season. 

Peter Weber's Bachelor season certainly had its fair share of memorable women; however, Kelsey Weier proved herself to be a standout contestant from the very beginning. An Iowa native, Weier found herself entangled in early season drama with contestant Hannah Ann Sluss, which quite literally exploded in her face as she tried having a champagne toast with Weber, only to end up covered in bubbly. 

While fans might have felt some secondhand embarrassment for Weier's messy champagne malfunction, Weber apparently went out of his way to make her feel better about the situation. During an interview with BuzzFeed, Weber revealed, "They didn't show this, but I remember trying to make Kelsey feel better when we went eventually to go have our conversation and the champagne exploded in her face." The Bachelor continued, saying, "I took the rest of the champagne and I poured it all over my face, and I remember just trying to make the moment a little bit better."

Weber added, "Thank God Champagne-Gate's in the past."

One of the major storylines throughout Peter Weber's Bachelor season involved the pilot's hot-and-cold relationship with contestant Victoria Fuller. While Weber and Fuller's physical chemistry was palpable to viewers, their multiple arguments and misunderstandings left viewers wondering why Fuller continued to stick around week after week. 

However, during the Women Tell All special, Fuller shed some much-needed light on her relationship with Weber, dishing details about her time with Weber that were never shown onscreen. Speaking with host Chris Harrison, Fuller revealed that Weber fought to make their relationship work by going out of his way to reassure her of his feelings. "He kept telling me [how he felt]," Fuller said. She continued, revealing, "He would reassure me with little things here and there... like, he would write me a little letter or something, you know, just to show me that he cared." Added Fuller, "I had no idea to what extent." 

Considering these little moments were never shown onscreen, it's safe to say viewers also had no idea just how much Weber wanted to make it work with the controversial contestant. 

Ahead of Peter Weber's Bachelor season premiere, host Chris Harrison teased a cleverly-coined contestant feud. While officially introducing Weber's contestants to Bachelor Nation in a December 2019 video, Harrison told viewers they could expect to hear about "cats and rats" during the season, saying contestant Natasha Parker coined the term. He told viewers, "It's something that has to do with what's going on in the house." 

Parker did mention cats and rats during the season premiere, telling the Bachelor cameras in a one-on-one interview, "There are some cats, and there are some rats." Unfortunately, the cats and rats were never addressed again, leaving viewers wondering who exactly Parker was talking about. However, according to spoiler king Steve Carbone, Instagram holds at least part of the answer. 

"The cats were definitely [Victoria F. and Victoria P.], Natasha, Sydney, and Lexi," Carbone wrote in a February 2020 Reality Steve blog post. He continued, writing, "All you need to do is see how many pictures they've posted together on [Instagram], just the [five] of them, including references to cats, to know it's them."

Madison Prewett became a top contender for Peter Weber's heart after hitting it off with the Bachelor's family during a one-on-one date to his parents' vow renewal ceremony. However, while Weber's family seemed to immediately love and welcome Prewett with open arms, the contestant's parents were noticeably more reserved when meeting Weber for the first time during Prewett's hometown date. 

Viewers watched as Prewett's father pressed a nervous Weber for assurance that the Bachelor's love for his daughter was genuine; however, the episode failed to show Weber's one-on-one conversation with Prewett's mother. Fortunately, ABC uploaded the deleted scene to YouTube, and fans were surprised to find that Tonya Prewett wasted no time jumping into the hard questions, immediately asking Weber, "Can you tell me why Madison is still in this [competition], very specifically?" When Weber said he saw "a life with her," she skeptically responded, "What does that life look like?" 

While Weber tried his best to assure her of his feelings, the conversation ended with Prewett's mom seeming even more unsure about her potential future son-in-law. 

Before the contestants for Peter Weber's Bachelor season were officially announced, longtime Bachelor blogger and professional spoiler Steve Carbone took to Twitter to tell fans about the contestant he expected would ultimately win Weber's heart, writing, "This is a bit of a tease, but in doing profiles for Peters women, I think I've found the one who I think he'll pick."  

Carbone later revealed the identity of the woman who had caught his attention: Sarah Coffin. Fans were excited to see if Carbone would be proven right in his pre-season prediction about Coffin, and it didn't take long for host Chris Harrison to jump on the hype train, too. "This girl's a favorite from the start," Harrison said while introducing the contestants in a December 2019 video. He continued, saying, "A house favorite, but also a favorite of Peter's, so watch out."

However, the early fan favorite was hardly showcased, eventually getting eliminated during the season's third rose ceremony.

Hannah Ann Sluss and Kelsey Weier obviously made quite the impression on Peter Weber, as both contestants made it to Weber's final four, with Sluss advancing to become one of the two remaining women vying for the Bachelor's heart. However, the women certainly didn't make the best first impressions on each other. 

Early episodes of Weber's Bachelor season were seemingly dedicated to the drama, tears, and name-calling between the two contestants, which started when Weier accused Sluss of stealing a bottle of champagne Weier had planned to share with Weber. So, when later episodes showed the two women joking around and chatting it up like BFFs would do, fans were understandably confused. One viewer tweeted, "Wait, since when are Kelsey and Hannah Ann friends??" Another fan celebrated the surprising friendship, tweeting, "Kelsey and Hannah Ann being friends after #champagnegate is the real love story this season."

While we'll likely never know how, when, or why Weier and Sluss decided to forgive and forget, it's nice to see these two fan favorites managed to rise above the drama. 

Peter Weber sent a shockwave through Bachelor Nation when he eliminated frontrunner Victoria Paul in the sixth episode of his season, confessing that his feelings for her simply weren't as strong as her feelings were for him. Much like fans watching at home, Paul seemed completely blindsided by Weber's revelation. However, according to pre-season spoilers released by Steve Carbone, Paul's elimination might have been arranged off-screen so the former Miss Louisiana could be present to crown her successor.

"They mutually agreed to part ways, but again, I don't know how the show will choose to show it," Carbone wrote in a January 2020 blog post. He continued, writing, "Victoria did have to crown her Miss Louisiana successor the day after she left, so I'm sure that played some role in her wanting to leave. That timing is too convenient."

Of course, if such a conversation took place, Bachelor fans weren't privy to the discussion between Paul and producers. However, considering Paul was eliminated just in time to crown Miss Louisiana 2020, it seems Carbone might just be correct in his theory.

Peter Weber's Bachelor season was widely criticized by fans of the franchise for the way it placed the overwhelming majority of its focus on needless, producer-driven drama between the contestants, seemingly pitting the women against each other more than ever before in the name of making must-watch reality TV. While Bachelor fans do appreciate some drama, Weber's season was seriously lacking lightheartedness. 

So, when a mysterious bottle of maple syrup was spotted sitting alongside a can of whipped cream during one of Weber's cocktail parties, fans latched on to the hope that the undoubtedly silly moment which required the sugary sweet treats would be shown (via People). "Tonight should have been about SyrupGate," tweeted one fan. 

Unfortunately, SyrupGate was never addressed — even when a later shot in the episode showed contestant Mykenna Dorn returning from one-on-one time with Weber while holding the syrup and whipped cream. "The fact that Mykenna came back from her talk with Peter and was holding a bottle of maple syrup and a can [of] whipped cream but no one acknowledged it is absurd," one fan lamented. 

Virginia Beach native Victoria Fuller was criticized throughout Peter Weber's Bachelor season for questionable past modeling gigs, allegedly exaggerating her relationship with Chase Rice, and reportedly breaking up marriages in her hometown. Steve Carbone was the first to report on the accusations and allegations against Fuller, writing that he'd "never had so many negative stories" about a single contestant. And, according to Carbone, previous Bachelor contestant Lauren Luyendyk (née Burnham) also had a story to tell about Fuller. 

In a series of tweets from Oct. 28, 2019, Carbone alleged that Luyendyk was a friend of a friend whose marriage was reportedly damaged by Fuller's relationship with her husband, and revealed that Luyendyk's mother was in attendance at Fuller's hometown date — perhaps to warn Weber about the contestant's reputation. "We've truly reached a meta moment today," Carbone tweeted.

While Luyendyk's mother was nowhere to be found when the episode aired in February 2020, the former contestant did confirm that her mom attended the daytime portion of Fuller's date with Weber. Bachelor Nation is a small world, after all. 

When former Bachelorette Hannah Brown appeared as a guest host for the first group date of Peter Weber's Bachelor season, the pilot was clearly conflicted about his lingering feelings for his ex. Viewers watched as the two had an emotional conversation, during which Weber even asked Brown if she'd consider returning to the Bachelor mansion as a contestant. Ultimately, the conversation between the two former flames ended with Weber seemingly rejecting Brown, telling her, "I can't do this." However, according to Weber, viewers didn't see the part where he nearly threw in the towel on his entire Bachelor season. 

"I considered doing whatever I had to do to try and give it another shot with her, and that was just me being in the moment," Weber told 6 ABC Action News. He continued, saying, "Call it smart or not, but that's the truth."

In a January 2020 Entertainment Tonight interview, host Lauren Zima asked Weber if he was still in love with Brown when she appeared on his Bachelor season. "Yeah," Weber responded. He admitted, "I don't know if you completely ever lose that for someone one hundred percent."

Much like Hannah Brown's season of The Bachelorette, Peter Weber's Bachelor season placed an emphasis on sex. Particularly, the majority of the late-season drama involved contestant Madison Prewett's decision not to have sex before marriage — and Weber's decision to have sex during fantasy suite dates despite Prewett's wishes. 

However, early promos seemed to hint that sex would play a role in Weber's Bachelor season long before the fantasy suite dates took place. In a promo posted to the official Bachelor Instagram account, a woman's voice can be heard insinuating that Weber and contestant Sydney Hightower had sex, with another voiceover alleging, "They literally were in the hot spring and they had sex." 

Despite teasing a hot spring rendezvous, such a storyline was never actually explored on Weber's season. According to Steve Carbone, this is because the hot spring sex never happened in the first place. "Peter didn't have sex with Sydney," Carbone alleged on his Reality Steve blog, responding to a reader's email. He continued, writing, "That got totally blown out of proportion due to editing."

During the first night of the two-part season finale for Peter Weber's Bachelor season, viewers watched as his family — Barbara Weber, Peter Weber Sr., and brother Jack Weber — met finalist Hannah Ann Sluss for the first time. However, Weber's family was noticeably less enthused during their second meeting with the Bachelor's frontrunner, Madison Prewett. And Barbara Prewett suggested Prewett might not be fundamentally compatible with her son.

According to the Weber matriarch during the After the Final Rose special, viewers weren't given the full picture of Prewett's time with the Webers in Australia. Revealing Prewett made the family wait three hours before ever coming inside to see them, Weber said, "When she did come in ... we didn't get an apology from her, and when I proceeded to ask her if she was madly in love with my son, she said no and she would not accept a proposal in four days." 

The visibly concerned mother continued, "When I said I wanted Hannah Ann so badly, it was because that ... we just clicked right away." She added, "We did not have, unfortunately, we did not have that connection with Madison."

Hannah Ann Sluss managed to keep her cool when addressing the man who broke her heart during the After the Final Rose special; however, when provided a chance by host Chris Harrison to give the final word in her discussion with Peter Weber, Sluss dropped a major bombshell about her former fiancé. "Peter, we've been through a lot together," Sluss told Weber. She continued, saying, "I should have really picked up on the first red flag that you gave to me, [which] was when you wanted to reach out to Hannah Brown to find closure with her."

Added Sluss, "So, really, looking back on it, our engagement involved three women: me, you still being in love with Madison [when] proposing to me, and you needing closure with Hannah Brown. That's three women involved in our engagement that I was completely [blind] to."

Of course, viewers remember Weber's emotional conversation with Brown at the beginning of his Bachelor season, but many assumed he had gotten closure from the former Bachelorette then — not after he'd gotten engaged, which is what Sluss implied. Fortunately, Sluss was willing to give viewers the scoop.

As seen during the second night of Peter Weber's two-part Bachelor season finale, his family was elated when he revealed he'd proposed to Hannah Ann Sluss. Unfortunately, however, a short FaceTime interaction was the extent to which Sluss and Weber's engagement was showcased, as the Bachelor and Sluss were shown breaking off their engagement only moments later (via Entertainment Tonight). 

That said, some clues about their relationship were dropped during the emotional break-up. Seemingly hinting at a bumpy engagement, Sluss told Weber (via The Washington Post), "I think we both know this has been hard." Revealing his heart was still torn between "two people," as noted by People, Weber told Sluss, "I've told you everything. And even when I don't deserve it, you never left me." Replied Sluss, "Because that's always what I wanted in return."

Judging by the words exchanged during their split, Sluss and Weber's short-lived engagement wasn't smooth sailing. However, it would have been nice to see the couple in happier times before the pilot decided to take flight without his fiancée.