The Bachelor Television Program

Have you ever seen a dead woman walking? Such was the sensation watching the Monday night finale of the 13th installment of "The Bachelor," in which Jason Mesnick's decision to propose to Melissa Rycroft rather than Molly Malaney was drawn out for the usual two hours. This season, though, the normal suspense was replaced by something very different: preemptive sympathy. For at least two weeks, spoilers about what developed after Jason's proposal had spread from Internet fan sites to the tabloid weeklies.

It's going to be a rough week for "The Bachelor's" Jason Mesnick. On Monday night, rampant online rumors concerning the show's twist ending -- one that would potentially brand Mesnick a cad -- were confirmed when he retracted his proposal to Melissa Rycroft, delivered in the last moments of the finale, in favor of the runner-up, Molly Malaney. What's worse for Mesnick -- but good for ABC -- is that more than 17.6 million tuned in to watch Melissa get the shaft on the "After the Final Rose" special, making it the most-watched in the franchise's seven-year history.

If ABC cancels "The Bachelor" -- and God knows it should -- the franchise will have gone out on a high note: In this season, the seventh edition (10th if you include the three "Bachelorettes"), the show is as preposterous as ever, but it's finally found a way to have fun. For one thing, its producers stopped trying to affect any air of "class" -- gone are the suits and formal dresses of the rose ceremonies. They've also let go of the insistence that they are creating a marriageable relationship.