The only thing tighter than the bandage dresses at The Bachelor's Women Tell All taping on Feb. 24 was Chris Harrison's smile.
While this was far from his first Tell All taping, wrangling a massive group of reality TV contestants who've never met an open bar they said no to, never seems to get easier for the long-running host.
"This is going to work a lot better if there aren't 17 conversations going on," Chris said (or maybe sighed?) once Nick Viall's eliminated contestants started arguing over Corinne Olympios' infamous naps early on during the hours-long taping. More than once he had to call for "silence" or someone to break. ("Take a 20!")
But the arguments, much like the supply of alcohol, never really stopped after that...however, they were edited down for the two-hour special. E! News was on-the-scene at the Women Tell All taping, and we were there for the right reasons: to tirelessly watch and dish the dirt on everything that didn't make it on the air...
Those bedazzled "Make Corinne Great Again" and "Vagine" t-shirts worn by audience members? They were handed out by production.
Oddly enough, one of Nick's contestants, Brittany, who was the Eve to his Adam during the wedding photo shoot group date, was sitting in the audience, not on stage.
At the beginning, the women were very energetic, with Chris saying, "You guys are fired up!" He then asked, "what are they serving?" Jasmine quickly responded, "What are they not serving?!" (Fireball seemed to be the drink of choice, BTW.)
Danielle M.'s icy new look (platinum hair and a showstopping white jumpsuit garnered rave reviews from the other ladies, as well as Nick, who later told her it was working for her. "Someone stole the front of your dress, first of all," Chris joked early on. "I hope you got that half off!"
Partaking in some shots in between takes? Sarah, Jasmine and Astrid, with red solo cups also being passed around by the ladies. "Anyone have champagne?" Corinne asked (before later walking off to get it herself while Taylor was on stage). At one point, Liz said, ""I thought we got a pee break! I'm glad we got a shot!"
Overheard: "We are auditioning for Bachelor in Paradise!"
When the conversation turned to napping, Jasmine said to Corinne, "You blacked out. It's cool, we all blacked out."
After the discussion got heated over napping, Corinne was not pleased during a break, telling one of the women, "I thought you were my friend." Jasmine was trying to talk to Corinne, who just said, "It's fine," even though it clearly wasn't. "That was loose!" Chris said.
Liz, the contestant Nick slept with at Jade Roper and Tanner Tolbert's wedding, actually had a different strategy in mind when she came on the show. Her initial plan was to bring the invite from the wedding on the first night, with her phone number written on it, a nod to her past with Nick. Chris said that would've been "clever." Liz said she was "convinced" to go about things in another way (aka anonymously) with her limo entrance.
While she said she had nothing left to discuss with Nick, she wasn't happy to see him tell the women he tried to reach out to her after the wedding when he told them about the situation after her exit. "That never happened," she said.
Chris was surprised by the emotion Liz showed at the Tell All, telling her, "You put on a face usually, you typically just smile and act like nothing affects you. That's something Nick and I spoke about…I'm pleasantly surprised to see you take this in."
He also had some tough love for Liz though, after she said she thought it was possible to have a "clean slate." He said, "You guys already had a pretty good history. I assume it was pretty good, you came back…I didn't mean to go there but I accidentally did."
Not only did a make-up artist take a particularly bad tumble off the stage ("Are you OK?!" Alexis asked while laughing), Liz almost tripped leaving the stage after her time on the couch.
Chris is definitely a member of Team Corn, telling Corinne during the taping, "You're the best. I always got your back." Corinne replied, "I appreciate that, thank you." He also told her, "You might be more emotionally intelligent than anybody!" Corinne's response? "I love that because you are so on point."
The Corinne vs. Taylor drama went on for a LONG time. Curiously enough, many of the women had issues with Taylor, so much so that Kristina wondered why no one addressed the issue in the house. Jasmine said she did. Taylor later defended herself to Jasmine and said, "I sometimes get in my head and I might look sad or irritated." She also admitted to only really making two friends in the house.
Sticking up for Taylor? Danielle M., who said her friend was being cyber-bullied, and Astrid, who was so strident in her defense (she said Taylor was a sober person constantly dealing with drunk people) that Chris called her Taylor's "PR agent," and then later asked who was producing her during a commercial break.
When Astrid said people online shouldn't attack Taylor's profession because she wasn't there as a counselor, but Chris called that point "invalid" because you don't check who you are at the door. (Later, when Chris tried to get Taylor to answer a question using her expertise, she wouldn't engage.)
Something that also didn't make it to air during the season were rumors about Danielle L. not being there for the right seasons, Christine said. Jaime claimed some people were mad at Danielle L. for being "super bubbly and happy," with Danielle L. herself saying Taylor was judgmental and mistook her being kind as being fake and maybe didn't leave her profession as a mental health counselor at home.
After their arguments, Taylor was comforted by Haley during the commercial break, while Josephine told Corinne some of what Taylor said was "bulls--t."
Chris did get Corinne and Taylor to eventually physically "hug it out." Afterwards, Chris told Jasmine, "I can move mountains," since she had earlier doubted their issues would ever be resolved. He also offered this up to Taylor, before making it more general: "If you don't leave this experience changed, then that's a shame. That's for you, for Corinne, for Jasmine…"
Taylor boasted that "emotional intelligence" had "been Googled the most it ever has been in five years since it was on the show" after she said it.
Before she went out on stage, Rachel ran into Nick, and the two had a friendly chat, likely their first real meet-up since she left Finland. "How are you? I'm so happy for you. I'm proud of you. Talk to you later," Nick said. "Kill it, alright?"
After their time on the couch, Nick asked Rachel, "Was it awkward?" She assured him she wasn't "upset" about her elimination, saying she watched the episode last night in her hotel room. "I was keeping it real…I was like, oh my god! It brought me back."
Before his time on the couch, Nick caught up with Chris, where they talked about Elijah Wood's appearance on Jimmy Fallon, during which he revealed his friendship with the Bach. Chris asked Nick, "How good was the Fallon bit?"
After he came out, Chris told Nick, "I feel your pain, I've been trying to hold my own on this group date. I've not been doing well!"
Fans of napping? Chris and Nick. "Let's take it easy on the naps, I'm a huge fan of naps," Chris said during the earlier segment on napping, while Nick said, "it's very healthy, I like a good nap."
The Bachelor airs Mondays at 8 p.m. on ABC.