The season that opened with a fork in the road. The premiere arrives with two potential leads — Britt Nilsson and Kaitlyn Bristowe — and hands the choice to the men in a first-night vote, a structural gamble the franchise had never tried. The premise reshapes the opening hour into something tense and unusually live. Eleven episodes, a sharp and quick-witted lead at the center, and a casting bench loud enough to carry the experiment. A modern franchise peak.
Slot #03 of 21 in the The Bachelorette Editor's Canon. The seasons on either side show what I ranked it against.