By Nancy Kriz
MONROE — He’s back … looking for both public redemption and the love of his life.
Model, real estate agent and online fitness coach Kamil Nicalek of Monroe, who was booted off the first night of Season 14 of the ABC-TV show “The Bachelorette,” will appear in Season 5 of “Bachelor in Paradise,” a spin-off of the popular Bachelor and Bachelorette franchise.
This elimination-style reality competition series features previous contestants featured on “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette.” The show is also hosted by Chris Harrison, with its season premiere on Tuesday, Aug. 7, at 8 p.m. on ABC.
At the first “Bachelor in Paradise” rose ceremony, six men will be given a rose to hand out to a woman they’d like to spend more time getting to know “in paradise.”
In this case, “paradise” is a super luxurious resort in an undisclosed part of the Mexican coast.
With an uneven number of men and women in the group, the two women left without roses will be sent home, with viewers left to assume they are heartbroken, while second guessing why certain women were selected.
Still, it wouldn’t be reality TV unless producers come up with twists and turns to create and reinforce drama, conflict and intrigue.
In this instance, just as potential couples start to pair up, everything changes in the next episode when two new men ... or two women … or a man and woman … arrive in the Mexican paradise looking for love.
Each subsequent episode has new people joining the cast as others leave. New relationships may form and current ones may end.
Who will stay with whom? Can surprise arrivals re-spark old romances, create new ones or break-up existing love affairs?
The couples remaining toward the end will decide whether to leave separately, leave as friends or as a couple, or stay overnight in a fantasy suite.
And why was Nicalek picked to participate? His “Bachelorette” appearance didn’t win Becca Kufrin’s affection and he seemingly didn’t ingratiate himself with viewers.
Nicalek and six others were eliminated from contention during the show’s premiere, with Nicalek’s awkward conversation with Kufrin making viewers wonder what he was thinking when he uttered his now egregious opening greeting: “I truly feel in a relationship that it’s important for us to meet halfway.”
Kufrin initially smiled. But when she told Nicalek that relationships should be “50-50,” he responded they should be “about 60-40.”
Huh?
Kufrin offered a wagging finger of displeasure in a cutaway moment. And she reinforced that by not offering Nicalek a rose.
Still, Nicalek said, the show’s producers told him that viewers wanted to see more of him.
“The producers kept calling me and I said, “No, I can’t go, I can’t go,’” said Nicalek. “‘The Bachelorette’ was so horrific for me, I didn’t want to get embarrassed even more. But my friends said, ‘You should do it.’ I called them back. I was supposed to be part of the original cast, but because I put them off, I’ll first appear in the third or fourth episode.”
Nicalek appeared with other kicked-out “Bachelorette” contestants on last week’s “Tell All” episode. There, contentious conversations took place and the “Bachelor in Paradise” trailer premiered.
Do tell allOnce Nicalek saw himself in the show’s clip, he knew he could talk about his participation.
To set the record straight, Nicalek said he really didn’t plan on saying what he did to Kufrin.
“It (the greeting) was ‘given to me’ and it wasn’t what I intended to say,” is how Nicalek explained what played out. “It was put out there and I took it. The delivery wasn’t as planned. It’s kind of nerve wracking to get out of the limousine and see all those cameras. You just kind of blank out. I came back because I wanted to redeem myself.”
Nicalek understands he’s not a fan favorite, though he must have made some kind of impact.
“I guess people wanted to see me again,” he said. “That’s how the producers get ratings up. They bring back people who they want to see back. I definitely wouldn’t have said that in real life It was meant to come off as a joke, but it didn’t come off as a joke. It came out really bad.”
RedemptionIn order to be on the show, participants needed to be available for an extended period of time. Cast members like Nicalek who join in later episodes (viewers will not see his name or face as part of the initial cast) were housed in a separate Mexican resort, isolated from everyone and without cell phones, until they were sent to the show’s shooting location.
And while he’s limited as to what he can say, Nicalek wanted viewers to know he didn’t make the same mistake twice.
“I just want to say, this time is a far better experience for me and there will be a lot more ways to see me as a person and get to know me for who I am,” he said.
But viewers will have to tune in to see how his adventures in love turn out.
“It’s very hard to answer that because you’re there with no distractions or outside factors, you’re thinking about waking up and going to the beach to hang out with your friends,” he said. “I had amazing dates with amazing people. You just focus on the people and who you want to meet.”
Nicalek did offer one tease: He’s appears much longer on “Bachelor in Paradise” than “The Bachelorette.”
“It was a great experience,” he said. “It got me out of my comfort zone. I had to open up to a lot of people. It was more of a laid back vibe. The pressure wasn’t there. You’re on a beach and someone is paying you to be there (yes, he gets compensation this time), that’s just amazing.”