Joan Vassos Surpasses Katie Thurston In Bachelor Nation

Joan Vassos and Katie Thurston/Credit: ABC YouTube

Joan Vassos as the first Golden Bachelorette was a surprise to many fans in the franchise. She has now surpassed Katie Thurston in Bachelor Nation. But what does that mean?

Joan Vassos Surpasses Katie Thurston In Bachelor Nation

Bachelor Nation fans love to give titles and create competition among the contestants. For example, there’s an entire Instagram account dedicated to tracking how many social media followers Bachelor Nation alums have.

One thing fans like to keep track of is specific details of the jump from contestant to lead. In particular, how long they were on the show before getting eliminated and later named Bachelorette or in Joan’s case, Golden Bachelorette.

For example, the early Bachelorette leads typically came in 2nd, 3rd, or 4th place on their particular Bachelor season. That tradition differed slightly when Hannah Brown was named Bachelorette despite coming in 7th place on Colton Underwood’s season of The Bachelor.

hannah Brown via insta 13
Hannah Brown via Instagram

Katie Thurston was the title holder at 11th place on Season 25 of Bachelor and then becoming Bachelorette for Season 17. But now her record has been broken by Joan Vassos.

She was a contestant on Gerry Turner’s season of The Bachelor. Joan came in 12th place after leaving in Week 3 after a family emergency. One Bachelor Nation fan took to Reddit to celebrate Joan knocking Katie out and becoming the title holder.

Fans React

One fan hilariously pointed out that one Bachelor Nation alum was eliminated in the first episode but somehow became the poster boy for the franchise.

They wrote, “I know he’s not a lead, but Grocery store Joe became a big figure in the franchise despite being a Night 1 elimination(!). I’m not a fan of him, but that was def unexpected.”

Another added, “Nobody has truly mastered failing upward like Joe has.”

Joe Amabile, YouTube
Joe Amabile, YouTube

But jokes aside, another Bachelor Nation fan came to Joan’s defense for her 12th-place position. “To be fair Joan would have gone far (top 4-5?) but choose to leave. I forget, did Katie choose to leave? Producers had her picked out night one anyway lol.”

Fan Speculates Why She Was Chosen

Some Bachelor Nation fans disapprove of Joan Vassos as the Golden Bachelorette. One fan on the Reddit thread thinks she was chosen for damage control after Gerry Turner and Theresa Nist’s divorce fiasco.

“I think they intentionally chose someone for Golden Bachelorette who didn’t make it far in Gerry’s season because it makes it easier to just ignore Gerry ever happened,” the fan speculated.

Do you think there could be some truth in that? Was Joan picked because of her distance from Gerry Turner? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Jennifer Havener
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