Let’s start by saying that Joey Graziadei is a really nice guy.
He’s incredibly popular with The Bachelor viewers because he’s one of the kindest, most thoughtful, and respectful Bachelor Nation stars in a very long time.
But is he really the gold standard for men like some The Bachelor viewers are acting?
This isn’t a Joey diss by any means, but we barely know the guy and don’t know him beyond Charity Lawson’s season of The Bachelorette and now two episodes of The Bachelor.
Remember when we thought The Golden Bachelor star Gerry Turner was the most special guy on the planet?
It didn’t take long before we found out that The Golden Bachelor wasn’t so golden after all, and for what it’s worth, Joey is human, and he’s young.
The Bachelor beats The Golden Bachelor in viewership
The numbers prove just how gaga Bachelor Nation is for Joey Graziadei.
After two weeks of Season 28, the viewership numbers have come in, and The Bachelor premiere beat The Golden Bachelor premiere by two million viewers.
That’s a huge deal because The Golden Bachelor was considered a smash success due to how many people tuned in after a couple of lackluster seasons of The Bachelor that saw ratings declining and viewership dropping off.
The success of Joey’s Bachelor season is partially credited to the success of The Golden Bachelor, but let’s face it, a huge part of this surge in viewership is due to Joey being the lead and legions of Bachelor Nation fans tuning in because they adore him.
Joey is attentive and interested in every conversation and The Bachelor viewers can’t get enough
The reason The Bachelor viewers are going nuts for Joey is due to his advanced ability to pay attention to each woman he spends time with.
It’s a huge difference compared to former Bachelor stars who definitely lacked this skill.
One viewer took to X (formerly Twitter) and pointed out, “Joey being a man who has active listening skills, seems to respect and understand women and is in his late 20s.”
Another took a dig at Matt James and his iconic line, writing, “Me watching Joey listen and ask follow up questions instead of saying like ‘thank you for sharing that.'”
Another even made the jump and suggested that Joey is the standard by which we should hold all men, and it was only because he wiped one girl’s tears away when she was crying.
She wrote, “joey wiping a woman’s tears away as they fall TWICE!!!!!! tonight. oh other men need to take notes oh my god like he is the standard.”
And this right here is the entire point I’m trying to make. Another X user called out The Bachelor viewers and men when they wrote, “The fact that we’re all blown away by Joey just listening and caring shows how low the bar is! Men, it’s not that hard, and yet…”
Because, let’s face it, the bar is in hell, folks. We’re at a point where the standards we hold men to are so low that when one man simply listens and makes eye contact, we swoon.
If he wipes a tear away and looks concerned, he is a God among men. Women will lose their minds for something this simple that it proves we’ve been settling for much, much less, and that is unsettling.
As the season progresses, we’ll get a better idea of who Joey is and just how great he can be. But until then, let this serve as a reminder to demand more of our men than simply that they make eye contact and wipe tears.
The Bachelor airs on Mondays at 8/7c on ABC.
Joey is fantastic and happens to be from the same town where I live but that’s not why I think he’s so great. He’s caring and kind and a good listener and adorable. He has set a pretty high bar for the following batchelors that may come.