Andy Baldwin starred on 2007's The Bachelor: Officer and a Gentleman.
(Photo courtesy AndyBaldwin.com)
Lieutenant Commander Andy Baldwin, M.D., has gained a lot of fame from starring in The Bachelor: Officer and a Gentleman (ABC). He admits the recognition has its ups and downs.
“Sometimes I want to write a book—So You Want to be a Reality TV Star,” Dr. Baldwin says. “I’d tell people what it’s really like on the other side. You have to have thick skin.”
Baldwin describes the experience he went through during the 2007 filming as “virtuous and real” with genuine interactions and bonding. “I made sure to do it only my way, and not have interference from anyone else,” he says of the process. “And that took a lot of standing up, because I’d never been through anything like this before.”
Overall, Dr. Baldwin says the edited product that aired on ABC only showed about “two percent” of what really happened during filming.
“You come out the other side and watch what you’ve done afterwards on television, and it’s nothing like you remember it,” Dr. Baldwin says. “You have this wonderful experience, and you want all of America to see everything that happened. But it’s impossible. And really what they’re showing is something where they’re exploiting what you’ve done to drive ratings on television so they can have advertisement sales.”
Dr. Baldwin clarifies that he didn’t go The Bachelor to make a TV show. “I went on to meet somebody special and for that life experience,” he says. “I always will cherish that.” He proposed to Tessa Horst on the season finale, which aired in May 2007. The couple reportedly broke off their engagement that August.
Did Dr. Baldwin have any regrets about going on the show?
“No—not at all,” he says. “You only live once, so if something comes your way that you think makes sense, go for it. But that’s really why I want to write that book, so that people who go on know what they’re getting into and have their guard up—to be able to stand up for themselves against storylines that the producers have.
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