Fresh off his season of The Bachelor, today's spotlight is on four-time star of the aforementioned franchise, Nick Viall!
Before appearing on Season 10 of The Bachelorette in 2014, Nick grew up as one of 11 siblings and worked as a Software Sales Executive after graduating from the University of Wisconsin. As a contestant vying for assistant district attorney Andi Dorfman, Nick participated in various group and one-on-one dates and ended up being the season's runner-up. During the live reunion special, Nick infamously questioned Andi on why she slept with him if she didn't truly love him, an inquiry that led to many accusations against Nick of double-standards and "slut shaming".
The next year, Nick caused controversy yet again when he asked Season 11 lead Kaitlyn Bristowe to join her season midway through. She accepted, and even more trouble started when the two had sex on a date before the allotted time to do so in the penultimate round of dates known as the "Fantasy Suites". At the end of the season, Kaitlyn rejected Nick's marriage proposal to her, making him the first (and currently only) back-to-back Bachelorette runner-up.
The next summer, Nick joined the cast of Bachelor in Paradise, a show for former Bachelor and Bachelorette contestants to meet and potentially date each other. He had a fling on the show with Jen Saviano, but when it came time to propose at the end of the season, he told her his heart just wasn't in it. Coincidentally (or not) he signed on the be the next Bachelor lead soon after.
Nick resolved to be open and honest in this new role, eliminating women as soon as he knew they were not for him rather than waiting for the next Rose Ceremony. His biggest controversies this time around were keeping Corinne Olympios, the season's "villain" around until the Final Four Rose Ceremony, and proposing to Vanessa Grimaldi despite clearly having some unresolved differences with her before doing so.
Nick's dance partner is Peta Murgatroyd, who is going into her tenth season as a Dancing With the Stars pro after spending some time in the show's original troupe. Peta grew up in Australia studying ballet but switched to ballroom after an injury prevented her from continuing in her original style. Since joining DWTS Peta has become a two-time Mirrorball Champion, winning Season 14 with Donald Driver and Season 22 with Nyle DiMarco. Apart from DWTS, Peta has participated in several other notable dance projects, including the live show SWAY: A Dance Trilogy. In 2015, Peta got engaged to fellow DWTS pro Maksim Chmerkovskiy and gave birth to son Shai in Janurary 2017.
Some highlights of Peta's time on DWTS include:
@TheBentleyNinja: Just like with Nancy Kerrigan, I have seen some articles about Nick Viall apparently being difficult on the set of Dancing With the Stars, but once again, I don’t usually believe it unless there’s some kind of evidence to back it up. Although I do know that a lot of people are not pleased with him apparently because of things that happened on The Bachelor. But I don’t know anything about that, so as far as I’m concerned, Nick starts off the season with a clean slate in my eyes. (Note to Bentley from Julia: Read the above article!)
The last time we had a member of The Bachelor on the show, which was Chris Soules in season 20, it was almost widely agreed that he became one of the weakest dancers on the show that season, yet he still made it to the quarter finals because of his voting base, even without as many memorable video packages before his dances than some other contestants. Is this something that we’re going to see with this Bachelor? Maybe. The Bachelor is a popular show among those who watch DWTS (probably because it’s on ABC and scheduled around each other), so that in itself can be considered an advantage for Nick.
This season, it was a pleasant surprise finding out that Peta coming back this season, even though she just had her baby in early January. And it was even more of a shock because her son’s father Maks is doing the show as well this season. I couldn’t imagine two parents both spending so much time away from their own kid, so I guess that shows how much they love performing on Dancing With the Stars! Peta definitely has a large following, and being that people miss her from last season, she is sure to get a high surge in votes.
I don’t see Nick and Peta being eliminated too early in the season, but if they are not able to keep up with this season’s incredible cast, then they might be out sooner than I expect!
@dwtsdreams: Excited. Nervous. Happy. Annoyed. These are all the emotions I had when Peta and Nick were announced. I am very conflicted on how to feel about this partnership. On one hand I am so happy Peta is back and this is just what she needs. I know how she was talking about how much she missed DWTS and I am so happy she gets to come back. But on the other hand I am not a fan of Nick and this is not the kind of partner I wanted Peta to come back to. I hope Nick is supportive of Peta and is helping her ease her way back into dancing.
Nick seems fame hungry. I mean what person goes on the Bachelor 4 times and then is like “ Hay I have a new fiancé that I have only know for three months but we're engaged and instead of focusing on her I am going to do a dance show but all I want his fame.” Nick could prove me wrong and I hope he does.
He does seems hard working and ready to commit but I am not sure how this partnership I going to go I do know that they both have big fan bases so that will help. Like Bentley said, as a result of Peta coming back after a season off I definitely think she will get lots of votes because everyone is happy to see her back! Also Nick does have a somewhat semi big following from going on the Bachelor.
I can't wait to see how this partnership pans out!
@juliadelbel: Nick has been begging to do Dancing With the Stars for awhile now and he's finally got his wish, and Peta has her second Bachelor partner! I expected Nick to end up dancing with either Emma or Lindsay because they seem to be semi-friends, but this is fine by me. I think they'll get along fine and he'll dance pretty well but I'm wondering where there votes will be coming from. Previous Bachelors have made it pretty far due to the franchise's fanbase but the thing about Nick is most of "Bachelor Nation" can't stand him. The majority of people disliked him before he even got his own season, and now that he has and it didn't turn out as exciting for even a lot of his supporters he's possibly even less liked now than he was when his season started.
Now, the hatred towards Nick isn't anywhere near Ryan Lochte level, mind you. I highly doubt we're gonna see anyone crash the show wearing anti-Nick t-shirts. But I think he may not be able to rely on Bachelor fans as much as previous contestants from that franchise did. Nick's best hope is probably a mix of Peta's fanbase (which, while not as large as some other pro fanbases, might help them a bit) and the general audience, particularly the latter. This means he's going to have to dance very well and/or charm the pants off everyone. I think he's in a similar boat to Bonner, who is even less well-known and is presumably supposed to be the "eye candy" of this season, but but Bonner has a few things going for him that Nick doesn't (namely, the cowboy vibe, the amazing comeback story, and the fact that a lot of casual viewers are already rooting for Sharna to finally win regardless of who her partner is).
Now, the hatred towards Nick isn't anywhere near Ryan Lochte level, mind you. I highly doubt we're gonna see anyone crash the show wearing anti-Nick t-shirts. But I think he may not be able to rely on Bachelor fans as much as previous contestants from that franchise did. Nick's best hope is probably a mix of Peta's fanbase (which, while not as large as some other pro fanbases, might help them a bit) and the general audience, particularly the latter. This means he's going to have to dance very well and/or charm the pants off everyone. I think he's in a similar boat to Bonner, who is even less well-known and is presumably supposed to be the "eye candy" of this season, but but Bonner has a few things going for him that Nick doesn't (namely, the cowboy vibe, the amazing comeback story, and the fact that a lot of casual viewers are already rooting for Sharna to finally win regardless of who her partner is).
I fear Nick may get kind of lost in the shuffle with this particular cast of ringers and big/entertaining personalities, but if he turns out to be talented and charming he could last awhile. Will he make it all the way to the end to be a runner-up for a third time? I'm really doubting that right now, unless ABC decides he needs to go far as cross-promotion or the DWTS producers are hell-bent on a "Fam" Finale consisting of Peta, Maks, and Val with their partners. If neither of these scenarios are the case, I see him lasting to team dance week (if the new Executive Producer keeps that tradition going) or maybe a bit longer.
TOMORROW: We discuss the woman who loudly and proudly gives "zero f-cks".
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