Reality Steve, whose real name is Steve Carbone, has been spoiling The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, and even Bachelor in Paradise for several years now. What started off a blog and a hobby turned into a full-time job for Carbone, who makes a pretty decent living spoiling the ending of these reality television shows.
Carbone lives in a Dallas, Texas, suburb. When he isn’t spoiling the reality television dating show for Bachelor Nation, he’s either Podcasting or catching a sporting event.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. He Works Full-Time Spoiling the Endings for the ‘Bachelor’ Franchise & He’s Not Actually a Fan of the Show
Although he didn’t have a degree in journalism (his degree is in communications), Carbone wanted to write — so he started a blog.
“I was hoping somebody would read my realitysteve.com column and ask me to do freelance work. I never sold myself, never sent articles out. I was just doing it for fun. I didn’t know what I was doing,” he told Texas Monthly back in 2016.
It was in 2009 that Carbone caught his biggest break in the spoiling world. He had gotten word that Jason Mesnick was going to have a doozy of a finale, choosing one girl and then dumping her for the other, and he wrote about it. Although no one believed him at first, once his intel actually proved to be true, he was officially on the map.
Since that time, Carbone has been constantly posting episode spoilers as well as finale spoilers on his website. And you may be fascinated to learn that he’s not even a fan of the shows.
“People ask, ‘Do you like the show?’ And it’s like, no, if it wasn’t my job, I wouldn’t watch it,” Carbone told Jezebel a couple of years ago. For the record, his favorite reality television show is Survivor.
2. He Has Been Sued by ‘Bachelor’ Producers Twice & He’s Never Revealed His Sources
Carbone has been sued twice by Bachelor producers. In 2012, he settled the first lawsuit.
“For at least five years, he agreed not to solicit any information about the show from cast or crew members,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.
According to the report, the second lawsuit also ended in a settlement, but the details are confidential.
As for how he gets his information, Carbone admits that people just enjoy telling him things, so a lot of the spoilers that he is able to present (especially the photos and videos from dates and whatnot) are sent to him by people all over the country. And while he certainly can deduce a lot from the information that he is given, Carbone presents very detailed spoilers each and every week. How he gets that specific information, however, he won’t share.
He admitted to The Hollywood Reporter that current contestants — all of whom are under contract with the show — do not give him information because they are afraid of being sued.
“They’ve had 32 seasons of the show, that’s over 800 contestants now, and not one of them has ever been sued for leaking information. I think [producers] know they can’t control certain things,” Carbone told The Hollywood Reporter.
3. He Has Been Wrong Before
Carbone gets pretty solid information every season and stands behind his spoilers 100 percent. However, there have been a couple of times — literally two — that he has been wrong. Perhaps the biggest spoiler mess up was on Desiree’s season of The Bachelorette back in 2013.
It’s a season that Carbone won’t ever forget.
“Des’ season was the worst mistake. Desiree — right up until the last minute when it aired, I was telling people she was engaged to somebody else. When it aired that night, I was convinced five minutes before the engagement — when my predicted winner wasn’t even in the picture! I was, like, ‘No, he’s going to show up.’ And he didn’t. I was flat-out wrong,” Carbone told Texas Monthly.
“I get asked all the time, ‘How were you so wrong about that one?’ ‘How were you so wrong about Desiree?’ I don’t know. The easiest answer was, I was a little lazy, and the info I was given was so detailed, enough that I didn’t feel I needed to follow up thoroughly,” he added.
He has learned from his mistakes, however, and takes a more careful approach these days. In fact, as previously reported by Heavy, Carbone didn’t spoil Hannah B.’s season of The Bachelorette because he didn’t find out who won until week 2.
4. He Lives in Texas & Works Out of His Home Office
Carbone is from Orange County, California, but moved to Frisco, Texas, in 2006. According to D Magazine, Carbone worked as a sports radio guy for The Ticket 1310 at the time.
In 2008, he started working with his dad in the bedding industry. It’s a job that wasn’t super fulfilling to Carbone, who admitted that he didn’t want to sell pillows and duvets for the rest of his life.
Despite making a pretty decent living (he gets paid on ad revenue), Carbone still works out of his home office. No sense in spending money to have an office outside of his home when half of his job involves browsing the internet and watching television.
5. He Isn’t Married
Carbone lives a relatively quiet life and doesn’t socialize much. He isn’t married and doesn’t seem to be super interested in finding a life mate.
“He practices a mostly solitary routine: From eight until noon, he checks the #bachelorette or #bachelor hashtag on Twitter, browses email, and posts the previous day’s ‘daily links,’ a collection of TV gossip bits he’s gathered. After lunch, he works out at the gym, returning by three o’clock, and then hangs out by himself the rest of the day,” reports Texas Monthly.
Carbone spends a great deal of time with his new pup, Luka. He adopted the dog in August, 2.5 years after losing his dog, Maddie.
He also enjoys watching sports and going to games, as evidenced by his Instagram account.
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