Long before Jenny McCarthy met husband Donnie Wahlberg, she had her eye on becoming the first celebrity Bachelorette.
“They just started The Bachelorette. I don’t know how many years they were into it and I was newly divorced,” McCarthy, 53, recalled on the Wednesday, July 15, episode of the iHeartRadio “Bachelor Happy Hour” podcast. “I called my agent and I said, ‘I want you to call them and I want you to pitch me as the Bachelorette. I want you to tell them that Jenny McCarthy from MTV’s Singled Out, the No. 1 dating show of all time, is single and now wants to be on the show.”
McCarthy, who famously hosted Singled Out from 1995 to 1997, was married to director John Asher for six years until their 2005 divorce. Already a fervent Bachelor Nation viewer, the TV personality hoped to meet The One onscreen once she settled her divorce.
“I had no fear, but I was also genuinely looking for love. I was like, ‘I would make the greatest Bachelorette of all time.’ And the show said, ‘We don’t want famous people on the show,’” McCarthy, who shares 24-year-old son Evan with her ex-husband, claimed. “It would have been the most ultimate Bachelor Nation season of all time.”
She added, “I would’ve had so much fun with those boys. I would have made out with all of them. I would have just been, like, so awesome on that show.”
McCarthy has since found love with Wahlberg, 56, and put her dreams of handing out roses to bed. Despite her apparent casting snub, the Masked Singer panelist remains a faithful franchise viewer.
“I’m an OG Bachelor Nation girl, so the reason why I love it … is there’s a hopefulness, there’s an awkwardness even though it’s on TV and things are polished, you can’t escape the awkwardness of the first meetings [and] the first dates,” McCarthy stated. “It’s really cool to watch, of course, egos come alive, competitions, insecurity, but also [there are] the ones who are confident. You actually can learn a lot by watching the show.”
While McCarthy continues tuning into Bachelor seasons, she can’t help but feel that the franchise is missing a potentially lucrative spinoff idea.
“I feel, like, they’re kind of missing out on the celebrity version. They can literally call it the celebrity version of Bachelorette ‘cause I think they would really really do [well],” she stated. “They’ve got other celebrity versions of everything else. Why would you [not] do the celebrity version of Bachelorette? But their loss now because now I’m happily married.”
