ABC’s Bachelor franchise, which consists of The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, and Bachelor Pad, has become a popular topic in gossip magazines, news & entertainment shows and on various websites. Web traffic data from Hitwise shows that in the 12 rolling weeks ending August 20th, three of the top ten search terms driving traffic to ABC.go.com included variations of “the bachelorette” which coincided with the most recent season. Traffic to ABC.go.com from the search term “bachelorette” peaked the week ending July 30th leading up to the season finale which aired on August 1st.

The second season of Bachelor Pad premiered on Monday August 8th and weekly search data shows that “bachelor pad” was already the number five search term driving traffic to ABC.go.com the week ending August 13, 2011, while searches around The Bachelorette driving traffic to ABC.go.com taper off during the same time period. ABC.go.com saw its first spike in traffic from the search term “bachelor pad” the week ending June 25th which can likely be attributed to season 2 cast members being announced.
Other websites receiving traffic from the search term “bachelor pad” during the 4 weeks ending August 27th include abc.go.com/watch and Hulu (both sites allow fans to watch full episodes online) along with entertainment websites like Access Hollywood and E! Online, as well as People, which features Bachelor-related content in its TV Watch section of the website.

Spoilers for the franchise have become increasingly popular online, as evidenced by the fact that there are websites such as Realitysteve.com, devoted to revealing the details and outcomes of each season and regularly is among the top websites to receive traffic from spoiler searches. Five of the top 20 search terms containing “bachelorette” in the 4 rolling weeks ending August 6th included terms related to spoilers such as “bachelorette spoilers”, “who wins the bachelorette 2011″ and “reality steve bachelorette”. Web searches for “bachelorette spoilers” peaked the week ending May 28th, the week of the season premiere.
Fans are already seeking out Bachelor Pad spoilers. Three of the top ten search terms containing “bachelor pad” in the 4 rolling weeks ending August 27th include variations of “spoilers” and the data shows a spike in spoiler-related searches the 4 rolling weeks ending July 16th, corresponding with leaked season 2 details on realitysteve.com.

Thanks to Lauren Rice, Analyst with Custom Data & Insights Team, one of our resident “reality tv” experts for today’s analysis.