Excuse us, but The Bachelorette New Zealand has TWO bachelorettes and no way will this end well.

Our friends across the ditch in New Zealand like to do a lot of things differently.

Their prime ministers, chilly bins, and now their version of a reality TV show with questionable success: The Bachelorette, to name a few.

The Kiwis have had three versions of the international franchise The Bachelor, but 2020 marks the first time a woman has been in charge of dishing out the roses so… they’ve instantly tried to up the numbers by ushering in a second bachelorette.

The Bachelorette NZ has announced a second bachelorette. Post continues below video.

Yes, a second bachelorette in the same season.

The show has been underway in Kiwiland for a couple of weeks now, with bachelorette and 32-year-old doctor Lesina Nakhid-Schuster looking for love.

Then on Sunday night’s episode there was a ~big reveal~ in the form on 23-year-old Lily McManus, who entered with a “Mind if I join the party?”

McManus is a recognisable face in the country, having been a fan favourite in the country’s third season of The Bachelor, where she was dumped in the final episode. She went on to star in the US spinoff The Bachelor Winter Games, meeting Australian Courtney Dober (from Georgia Love’s season of our Bachelorette), whom she dated for a while. More recently, she appeared on NZ show Celebrity Treasure Island and now… she’s bachelorette #2.

It’s not quite known how the structure of the series is going to work with two bachelorettes, but bachelors were reportedly cast with one of the two women in mind: Music to the ears of younger contestants like 20-year-old Flynn, who had been concerned about a 12 year age gap with Lesina.

 

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Bachelorette(s) NZ ???????????? Yay!! It’s going to be a fun ride with my sister girl!! ????‍♂️

A post shared by Lesina Nakhid-Schuster (@dr_lesina) on Feb 1, 2020 at 11:31pm PST

The addition of Lily was met with a whole bunch of confusion and excitement from the bachies, plus a bit of grossness from some dude called Glenn who said he’d never had two women at the same time. Ah, bugger. Now he’ll never have any woman at all.

Audiences too had mixed reactions, as some were disappointed that Lesina – who is of Samoan, German, Trinidadian and Lebanese descent – was having her moment ‘stolen’ by a white woman.

On Instagram, Lily said she had only agreed to join the show after producers assured her it would be about empowerment and not about pitting the two women against each other.

 

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A post shared by LILY MCMANUS (@lilymcmanus) on Feb 1, 2020 at 11:12pm PST

“The show had to be about two women raising each other up and supporting one another through such a wild experience,” Lily wrote.

“Lesina is a GREAT mate of mine and the amount of support we have been able to offer each other throughout this makes my brain melt in the best possible way. We are two very different women, who are looking for two very different things.

“There are so many different ways of being a woman in this day and age and to me that is the most exciting thing. It’s amazing to see this franchise represent a woman like myself who isn’t ready for marriage and kids and show that a relationship without these things is still worthy and valid.”

She told the NZ Herald the backlash claiming the show’s double bachie format had taken the spotlight off a woman of colour was a shame.

“It’s quite a shame, because myself and Lesina are great friends and all I want to do is lift her up – that’s all the show is about. It’s not about upstaging anyone as we’re not in competition with each other, it’s as simple as that. We just want to empower each other, so it’s a shame people aren’t seeing it that way.”

As for how the show will work… well, we can rule out the men voting on which of the women they would like to make the sole bachelorette, which was an actual thing that happened in the US show’s 11th season.

Both women will continue along the entire journey, have their own roses to give out and (hopefully) choose someone in the end.

Besides that, the ground rules are pretty much non-existent, but supposedly mean that if Lesina is really into a guy, he’s hers and if Lily is really into a guy, he’s hers.

Many of the men have already declared themselves ‘Team Lily’ or ‘Team Lesina’ but there was still some who aren’t sure how they’re feeling. Ah yes, there is absolutely no way this could end badly.

At this stage, the Kiwi season isn’t able to be watched in Australia so uh, we’ll catch you at the airport.