After several seasons in decline, “The Bachelor” has had a resurgence rare among network reality shows. The glossy dating show, which pairs one hunky (often shirtless) man with dozens of spray-tanned (often bikini-clad) women until he proposes to the ultimate survivor, has also become the unlikely exception in a television season when almost every other show on ABC and its competing networks has declined.

The audience for “The Bachelor” has increased by 3 percent this season to 8.8 million in total viewers and by 7 percent to 3.3 million viewers 18 to 49 years old, the group that attracts the most advertisers. The average audience for that group among ABC’s regularly scheduled shows is only 2.4 million viewers.

“It just takes the right gal or guy to all of a sudden regalvanize the audience,” said Mike Fleiss, the creator and an executive producer of the show.

But the show’s recent success has also been a result of a push by the producers to attract younger viewers, to use social media to promote “live” viewing and, by tinkering with the casting and format, to encourage viewers to return for subsequent seasons after the bloom is off the previous season’s rose.

So after 11 years on television and 17 separate rose-covered editions, “The Bachelor” is on the upswing. The show posts the best results in network television on Monday nights with younger women — those 18 to 34. The viewers’ median age is 51.1, young in broadcast television terms. ABC’s other hit reality series, “Dancing With the Stars,” which has featured former bachelors and bachelorettes, has an average viewer age of 61.6.

ABC emphasizes that the show, far from having the economically downscale profile of some reality shows, is especially strong with women of financial means. In homes with more than $100,000 in income, it scores 34 percent above the television average.

“It really plays right into that sweet spot of upscale women,” said John Saade, the executive vice president for alternative programs at ABC.

“The Bachelor” did not always look so promising. The series took an inevitable dive in ratings around its 12th season. Its abysmal record in relationships did not help. None of the final “rose ceremonies,” in which the bachelor gives his future fiancée a rose and a Neil Lane diamond engagement ring, had ended in marital bliss. (“The Bachelorette,” a spinoff, has resulted in two marriages.)

“The show was fading,” said Mr. Saade, who has worked in ABC’s reality department since before the premiere of “The Bachelor” in 2002.

The turning point, the producers say, came in the form of Jason Mesnick, the earnest divorced father who starred in season 13. He proposed in the finale only to change his mind and dump the ostensible female “winner” (on air) and end up married to Molly Malaney, the runner-up. Mr. Mesnick and Ms. Malaney are expecting their first child together any day now.

“I remember the moment when I let Molly go, and I was uncontrollably crying,” Mr. Mesnick said from his home in Seattle. “A producer said, ‘Are you sure you made the right call?’ ” (In “Bachelor” lingo crying over a balcony became known as “a Mesnick.”)

Mr. Mesnick, who had competed on “The Bachelorette,” represented a turning point for the franchise. Mr. Fleiss decided that rather than tapping a mystery man as the bachelor each season, the show should feature the fan favorites whose hearts had been broken on “The Bachelorette.” The continuing characters make the series — and the drama among the heavily made-up women who share a 7,590-square foot house in Agoura Hills, Calif., as they compete for Mr. Lowe’s attention — more like the traditional soap operas once on ABC’s daytime schedule.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/11/business/media/after-rough-patch-the-bachelor-wins-back-viewers.html?partner=rss&emc=rss