For years now, I've been asking myself this question: "why would anyone go on 'The Bachelor' or 'The Bachelorette'"?

Now, I know I'm not the first person to ask that question. And I also know that when I ask that question, it's hard not to ask it in a pejorative way. I mean, like, seriously: competing with 24 other people to get to one person who's been chosen because they test well with a focus group?

Who does that?

The obvious answer is: a lot of people. 

Given the number of seasons of the show, there must have been thousands, or maybe even hundreds of thousands, of people who've auditioned and been contestants. Some even come back for a second round. And clearly, the whole concept is appealing to another large segment of the population, the audience. Though some of us watch it - admittedly - for the pure humor/Twitter fodder that it provides, there are surely some true believers out there, right?