Bachelorette Contestants Are the Hot New Celebrity Date

Here's a meta thought for you: what if the world’s most eligible bachelors are, in fact, from The Bachelor franchise? Lately, it seems, evidence supporting this is everywhere.

Exhibit: Gigi Hadid, international supermodel. She’s been spotted out and about with Tyler Cameron, runner-up from Hannah Brown’s season of The Bachelorette They’ve hung out at a bar, grabbed dinner with Serena Williams, attended VMA after parties, road-tripped to upstate New York. And lest you think this was a summer fling, may we present this E! News story—”Why Gigi Hadid and Tyler Cameron Might Be More Than Just a Summer Fling.” (Sample quote: “They are getting pretty serious and it's not slowing down. They text all day every day and see each other multiple times a week.")

The next couple to indicate this trend was Demi Lovato and Mike Johnson. It all started on social media: after Johnson was eliminated from The Bachelorette, he tweeted asking where his future wife was at. Lovato replied: "I'M RIGHT HERE MIKE.”

Johnson proceeded to “like” one of Lovato’s bikini pics, and multiple reports say the two enjoyed a date in Los Angeles. And although this may still be casual thing, we just gotta say, Johnson’s abs are not.

For the third and final act, we bring you some breaking news: The internet is sensing some vibes between Rachel Bilson and Nick Viall, the titular bachelor of The Bachelor’s 21st season. It all started after Bilson appeared on Viall’s podcast. Then, they started leaving comments on each other’s Instagram posts. The one that really sent fans into a tizzy? “Nice mountains.” (To be fair, Bilson was indeed posing in front of some rock formations.) When asked about their relationship, Viall was evasive: “I’m not really defining any relationships these days,” he told People. “But I do think she has a great Instagram and it is very easy to comment on her content.”

Not so long ago—say, Survivor 2003 era—a reality TV star wasn’t considered, well, on par with a normal celebrity. They were, in many eyes, the epitome of those seeking “fifteen minutes of fame.” (When Kim Kardashian was featured on the cover of Vogue in 2014, amany Twitter users threatened to burn their issues or cancel their subscription.) But the years wore us down, and skepticism about their programming turned into unabashed love, the antics and drama providing a mindless escapes into frivolity. In uncertain times, these people, and their televised lives, made us happy, and brought us together through tweets and texts and gifs. Slowly, and then all at once, a reality TV show could be just as big a ticket to stardom as a blockbuster, a meme-able line just as important as a movie quote.

And their limelight no longer dimmed after the cameras stopped rolling. With spinoffs, podcasts, and social media, rapt fans could follow a star’s exploits forever, prolonging a compelling person’s time in the pop culture lexicon.

Which brings us back to the dating. Every year, ABC picks a set of highly photogenic gents who are a-ok with fame. Who, just judging by commonalities, are probably a good fit for highly photogenic women who are also, you know, famous. And now that reality TV stars can achieve just as much clout as those on the big screen or runways around the world—why not let ABC narrow the dating pool for you?

Originally Appeared on Vogue