Kilroy’s Sports Bar is usually home to bright lights and packed dance floors, but Monday nights present a new game at Sports — the game of love.
Around 50 viewers on Monday visited Sports to relax on sofas with glasses of wine and watch ABC’s “The Bachelor”, where this season’s bachelor, Grant Ellis, seeks to find the love of his life among 25 women through weeks of extravagant dates and trips worldwide. The show premiered the second episode of its 29th season Monday
The sense of drama seen on “The Bachelor” and other dating shows is best felt among a crowd. Mundane moments quickly crescendo into gasps when the show’s “villain” reappears. When hearts are poured out or arguments erupt, one of Bloomington’s loudest bars falls silent.
For one night a week, ESPN is turned off, and “The Bachelor” is turned on. Bars that usually serve vodka sodas and Long Island Iced Teas instead serve wine, champagne and charcuterie boards. It’s a welcome change of pace for visitors and bartenders alike.
Lauren Miranda, an IU junior from Naperville, Illinois, is cautiously optimistic about Ellis’s performance as The Bachelor but is much more enthusiastic about Sports as the home for Monday night parties.
“The finale will be so much fun here,” Miranda said.
Miranda, with fellow IU students Grace Sifferlen and Kate Johannes, said they planned to return to Sports the following Monday and would invite their friends.
“Who is here for the right reasons?” is the common refrain any Bachelor fan knows all too well. The audience works, just like Ellis, to separate the good from the bad of the contestants — with some help from the producers.
The crowd at Sports quickly determined Zoe McGrady, a 27 year old tech engineer and model as a front-runner for this season’s villain. However, Johannes is not entirely convinced that Ellis himself is not a villain.
“Everyone thinks they are so special because they kissed him, but they all kissed him,” Johannes said.
Ellis did, in fact, kiss more than a handful of women during the second episode, including McGrady, much to the crowd’s displeasure. A single “boo” came from the crowd, with one viewer less than politely encouraging Ellis to stand up to McGrady’s consistent interruptions.
McGrady violated one of the show’s unspoken rules by stealing away Ellis multiple times during the group date. The move is a surefire way to receive the ire of fellow contestants and longtime viewers.
Ellis ultimately chose someone else rather than McGrady to be the “winner” of the date and safe from elimination, which received cheers from the Bloomington crowd.
Joel Flores, a Sports staff member and IU junior, had never watched “The Bachelor” until Monday night but may have just been converted to a fan. He is a fan of Sports hosting the watch party too.
“It’s something different,” Flores said.
Kilroy’s Sports will continue to host watch parties for “The Bachelor” on Monday nights throughout the semester. Doors open at 7 p.m., and episodes premiere at 8 p.m. The event is free to enter for guests over the age of 21 with no tickets required.
