Not impressed. Nick Viall isn’t afraid to be critical of Bachelor Zach Shallcross, slamming the season 27 star for how he’s navigated his contestants’ feelings.
“Every time Zach hears any of the woman express an insecurity, instead of showing an ounce of empathy, his face just drowns in disappointment #TheBachelor,” the season 21 Bachelor, 42, tweeted during the Monday, March 6, episode of the ABC show.
After a viewer called Zach, 26, a “narcissist,” the “Viall Files” podcast clarified what he meant. “Omg. No he isn’t,” Nick wrote. “He’s well intentioned, just lack’s experience and probably has had an extremely emotionally comfortable life to date.”
In a third tweet, Nick concluded: “Zach is now fully in ‘I’m the Bachelor, and it’s your job to prove to me you’re worthy.’ Mode #TheBachelor.”
The group date featured on Monday’s episode of The Bachelor documented Kat Izzo, Charity Lawson, Ariel Frenkel and Gabi Elnicki going to a mentalist with Zach. The women were visibly upset when the magician called out their insecurities and were worried Zach would misinterpret any of their concerns.
At the rose ceremony, the sales associate sent home Kat after previously saying goodbye to Greer Blitzer and Brooklyn Willie during the episode.
“I did [feel blindsided]. I definitely could reflect on where my feelings were at in that moment, and they were feeling off. But I wasn’t thinking that that was gonna be something that overtook our relationship,” Kat, 26, exclusively told Us Weekly about her split from Zach. “We had one hard week, but we also had five good weeks. So I thought that was going to be something to show my family that like, ‘Yeah, sometimes we’re not perfect. Sometimes we struggle. But he’s wanting to love them through that.’ I was hoping that was going to be him. Unfortunately, it wasn’t. But it’s OK.”
Zach, for his part, told Us that he struggled with all the splits – especially ending things with Kat.
“It never, like, fell off by any means. Nothing ever happened that was wrong, but the other relationships that were growing were just being stronger and stronger and I couldn’t deny those,” he said. “I had to make a very tough decision. … [But] you can kind of see I don’t take the goodbyes well ‘cause the feelings just don’t evaporate once you make that decision.”
This isn’t the first time Nick has taken to Twitter to express disappointment in Zach. After he sent Jess Girod home during the February 28 episode when she revealed she was upset that she hadn’t gotten a one-on-one date, he said Zach was acting like a “total d—k.”
“That’s 2 weeks in [a] row now Zach was a total d—k to one of the [women]. It’s literally all about the one on one. Zach knows that,” Nick tweeted. “He made Jess feel like she messed up for expressing a valid concern. #thebachelor.”
Nick, for his part, was the Bachelor in 2017. He got engaged to Vanessa Grimaldi, but they called it quits months after the finale aired. He proposed to girlfriend Natalie Joy in January.
The Bachelor airs on ABC Mondays at 8 p.m. ET.
