I met Byron Velvick in New York city at the ESPN Zone restaurant two days before finale night. Great guy, very cordial and taller than you think. He chatted with us for a few minutes, took a photo and thanked us for watching the show. I congratulated him on his choice because of course I knew it was Mary who he said he couldn't wait to be with.

I was disappointed to hear her say "I won!" during the after show, but optimistic that going to tournaments with him will give them a much better chance to succeed than the previous 5 busted relationships. Still, I would not be surprised to hear an announcement in two months that they have split.

Now for how we got here...

The tired Bachelor series got a little lift in the form of a ripoff from For Love or Money 4. You would think a network that is whining bloody murder about Fox "stealing" their Wife Swap idea and promoting it as the "original" might have a little shame about something like this. I guess not.

Byron Velvick is a pro fisherman, which I think a lot of guys would like to be in the heartland of our country. Jaye Overby is a stuffy rich dude from the east coast who is extremely full of himself. In what I believe was an 18-7 final vote the girls took the better looking Byron (both are 40 years old) even as one gal moaned that "how much can a fisherman make?" and tried to get others to vote for Jaye.

It wasn't revealed to Byron, the girls or the viewing audience which way any of the 15 girls chosen in the first rose ceremony voted, but Byron already came out and told them he wouldn't hold it against them in the future. ABC is probably bummed about that given that they will surely pull that card out later in the show.

Cheresse, Wende, Tanya, Leina, Kelly, Jayne, Natalie, Elizabeth, Krysta, Amanda, Kristie, Susie, Cynthia, Ashley, and Andrea were the girls given roses.

I will take Cheresse, Tanya, Amanda as the final 3 with Natalie, Krysta, Cynthia making it was far as the final 6. Out of Kelly, Jayne, Kristie, Ashley, and Andrea four will get to the final 10.