Highlights
- Travis Kelce reluctantly participated in the reality dating show “Catching Kelce” due to financial reasons and had reservations about it from the start.
- Kelce’s experience on the show involved drama, gossip, and staged introductions from the contestants, which made him uncomfortable and dissatisfied with how he was portrayed.
- Despite the negative aspects, “Catching Kelce” did provide Kelce with an opportunity to boost his public image and learn about branding, ultimately helping him expand his career outside of football.
Travis Kelce might have earned even more notoriety thanks to dating Taylor Swift, but he was already a celebrity in his own right long before chasing down the singer. Not everyone is thrilled with how much attention football is getting now that Taylor shows up at games—Kaley Cuoco dissed Taylor for distracting NFL audiences—but the truth is, Kelce’s publicity for his dating life began long before Swift.
Travis Kelce famously appeared in a reality dating series focused solely on his love life and finding the right partner. In the end, Kelce did choose a “winner” and dated her for a few months (Maya Benberry later called her ex a “narcissist”), but it’s clear nothing super serious came from Catching Kelce. There might be a simple explanation for that: Travis Kelce didn’t really want to do the dating show, and only agreed because of finances.
Travis Kelce Appeared On Catching Kelce (And Dated 50 Different Women)
In the trailer for Catching Kelce, Travis met a string of women who tried to impress him in different ways. Kelce was kind to the women up-front, but it did appear awkward right out of the gate.
One woman told him she had caught the bouquet at her sister’s wedding the weekend before, so it was ‘fate’ that she was meeting Kelce… Travis’ response was very neutral; he remarked, “That will tell you a lot right there,” as the clip trailed off.
Multiple women tried to charm Kelce with various body parts, and his responses were remarkably composed, though his facial expressions did hint at the ridiculous nature of some of the introductions.
Though Kelce did tackle promotion for the show, and went through with the entire thing (it lasted one season, which premiered in 2016), he had reservations about it very early on.
During an interview on Hot Ones, around the time that the show was about to premiere, Kelce shared some Catching Kelce details with Sean Evans. Sean asked Travis about his experiences with the women backstabbing each other to get a shot with him, and Kelce agreed that there was a lot of gossiping and throwing each other under the bus.
He elaborated that the girls often came to him to allege that other ladies in the house were lying, being fake, or only wanted to be on the show to improve their image. Kelce did acknowledge that strategy was part of the deal on reality dating shows, and didn’t necessarily call out anyone in particular (though Sean name-dropped Kelly for being dramatic).
Travis also said that his advice for dating show contestants was to calm down, talk slower, and do something funny or memorable during the first meeting. Many women did that on the show, but of course, the trailer only really showed the worst of it.
Travis Kelce Never Wanted To Do A Reality Dating Show
The introductions were definitely not the worst of Catching Kelce, according to Travis in other interviews. First off, in a chat during an appearance on The Pivot Podcast, Kelce explained that he turned down Catching Kelce initially.
He said it felt like he turned it down “about a hundred times” before finally agreeing, and questioning whether the show would be more Bachelor or more Flavor of Love. In the end, when his manager explained the show would feature 50 women—one from each state—Travis said that was “kind of intriguing.”
Yet he still turned down the offer from E!, for at least three months, until he finally said yes—but only for financial reasons. Kelce related, “They came to me with an offer—financially—that I was just like ‘all right man, I gotta do this’.”
Travis explained he had blown through his first few checks after going pro, to the point where he was even late on paying rent. The opportunity with Catching Kelce would guarantee him six figures in ‘like two weeks,’ something he couldn’t say no to.
Kelce did have some concerns immediately afterward, pointing out that after the show aired, he wasn’t happy with how he came across.
“I don’t think I got portrayed as myself and there were a lot of things that just made me uncomfortable about the show that I don’t really necessarily want to talk about because I don’t want to say anything about the ladies and you know, any of them, but I was asked to do more than what I wanted to.”
On the same note, Kelce said the show did have some benefits. For one thing, it helped him get “out from under the face mask,” plus padded his pockets a bit (potentially not enough though; even with a net worth of $30 million, Travis Kelce has liens in multiple states).
It also helped him realize what he wanted his “brand” to be like, and how he wanted to change his appearance in the media. Calling it an “ultimate learning experience,” Travis pointed out that opportunities outside football helped him get by between seasons and really expand his brand.
Kelce said he doesn’t necessarily regret the dating show, but that he would definitely not return to reality TV.
Source: NewsFinale
