Love Is Blind’s Joey Leveille walked away from the show without a wife (although he may have found apotential girlfriend in Sara Carton), but his participation in the reality social experiment is raising some red flags becauseit wasn’t the first time Joey flirted with finding love on TV.Love Is Blind’s Joey Laveillefor his flowing locks, heavy Minnesota accent, and self-proclaimed"golden retriever"energy. Joey burst onto the scene, claiming he was looking for a partner.
For me,Joey’s past antics paint a picture of someone who might be more interested in fame than forever love, and I think producers should take this kind of thing more seriously to uphold the integrity of the show and for the safety of all participants. It’s always somewhat surprising to find out that a relative unknown who finds fame on a reality show, specifically a dating reality show, auditioned for other shows previously. It calls into question the person’s motives, and whether they’re actually interested in finding love or whether they’re looking for their 15 minutes of fame.
But if a candidate has made the rounds on other reality shows, it blurs the line between looking for a genuine connection (albeit, one that’s being filmed and produced, then broadcast to the entire world) and looking for clout.
Look no further thanMarried At First Sight’s Ikechi Ojoré, who stated that he alsoauditioned forMarried At First Sightmultiple timesbefore being chosen for season 18. Serial reality show dater, Harry Jowsey, who’s appeared onPerfect Match,Too Hot To Handle, reportedlytried to get a spot onLove Island. The premise for shows likeThe Bachelor,Married At First Sight, andLove Is Blindis that candidates are genuinely looking for romantic matches, and they’re willing to go to unconventional lengths to find them.
Joey Leveille Auditioned For The Bachelor
Fans Unearthed Alleged Audition Tape
Red flags started to be raised on Joeybefore fans unearthed his potential audition video forThe Bachelorfrom 2015. Joey failed to go through witha wedding to Monica Danus, whom he matched with in the pods onLove is Blind. Despite bonding over their love ofThe Sound of Music, the two never managed to make it out of the friend zone.
Their split seemed amicable until the reunion, whenMonica dropped the bombthat she’d discovered Joey had messaged otherLove is Blindcontestants likeLove Is Blind’s Madison Errichiello, whom he’d also connected with in the pods. This admissionmade me look at Joey completely differently. While he hid under his playful persona,he seemed to be an undercover player.
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The red flags got even brighter when fans discovered a video on an account said to be Joey’s sister,Adriana Leveille, as per YouTube. The video is from 2015 and is 10 minutes long, entitledBachelor Video. In the video, a young Joey, sans long hair, sits on a chair before a white sheet while someone off-screen asks him questions about himself.Joey hams it up in the video, jokingly saying he’s so nervous, but he seems pretty relaxed on camera as the interview progresses.
Joey talks about his job, his dream home, his pets, and his relationship history as the video progresses. However, Joey’s game to play along, describing his extreme dream date, before doing some silly stunts that illustrate Joey’s interests, like working out and cooking.
It’s clear Joey loves being on camera.
While there’s no explicit mention ofThe Bachelor, and we can’t be sure this was ever submitted to the show’s producers,Joey’s participation speaks volumes.
Comments on the video are mostly from a few years back, but since Joey’s become more high-profile afterLove is Blind, there are more recent remarks that call his motives into question. A YouTube user wrote,“Joey.. did you only want to be on tv when the filming opportunity for love is blind came avail? Eeek,“while another said,“Sad to think that this is who Monica fell for during LIB8. She deserved much more. And he had us all fooled with the nice guy act. That’s sad.”
Joey Was Approached For Love Is Blind More Than Once
Joey Said He Turned Them Down
The Reddit accountLoveIsBlindOnNetflixshared a clip of Joey on a recent appearance on a local entertainment show in Minneapolis,The Jason Show. In the clip, Joey claims thatLove is Blindproducers approached him twice about appearing on the show before he agreed.He said he denied them twice, but at the urging of his sisters, he reached back out and landed a spot.
“Third time’s a charm.”
It sounds innocent, but commenters poked holes in this theory immediately, noting that producers were casting in Minneapolis forLove is Blindseason 8, which is where Joey lives, so they wouldn’t have approached him about other seasons. They had to have approached him twice for season 8, which doesn’t make much sense.
Should Love Is Blind take a break before its next season?
While Love Is Blind season 9 will likely be airing later this year, I think the series needs to take some time before it airs its next season. With the show’s success rate being lower than ever, Love Is Blind needs to recalibrate before it can move forward with the experiment. Despite there being a bit of success, the series needs to make some changes to its casting methods before it goes back into production and airs new episodes.
A Reddit user commented,“I don’t know if he’s being truthful. He’s aggressively Minnesotan and already tried out to be on the Bachelor (lol). Why would he reject a TV offer? He was also never serious about getting married. Too many f******s this season.“Another Reddit user wrote,“This just smells like he’s gunning for another show. Damage control central.”
Producers Should Be Cautious Of Multiple Auditions
It Should Be An Automatic Red Flag
An appearance on a reality show can benefit participants in many ways. It can be quite lucrative, and lead to other reality show appearances or gigs. It’s no wonder why the idea of going on a dating reality show can seem very enticing, soproducers need to be extra diligentin the casting process to weed out those with impure intentions.
If I were a producer on a romance-based reality show, and I found out that an applicant had previously applied for the same show or other shows in a similar vein,I’d think twice about casting them. It’s hard to take someone seriously when they bounce from show to show. Other applicants are putting their faith in production to fully vet those who apply, and verify that they are going on the show for the right reasons.
A history of trying to get on TV should immediately disqualify an applicant if the show’s premise is finding love.
It speaks to other intentions, and that shouldn’t be taken lightly when the stakes are this high. If I were casting my ideal show, I’d be looking for candidates who didn’t even have a Netflix account or a social media presence. I’d want someone genuine, unproblematic, and, as always, onLove Is Blindfor the right reasons.
