Courtney and Ben Don't Get People Mag Cover! Low Ratings, "Cheap" Ring — Can They Catch a Break?

And the hits just keep on coming for The Bachelor 16’s Ben Flajnik and Courtney Robertson — who never even got a cool team name like Ashley Hebert and JP Rosenbaum’s Team Cupcake. We’ve already shared Ben and Courtney’s love story but since the tide just can’t seem to turn in the engaged couple’s favor, here’s an update on their no-love story.

Heck, even Jake Pavelka and Vienna Girardi got the main spot on the cover of People, even if Jake's not-so-romantic headline screamed "I DIDN'T MAKE A MISTAKE!" But instead of giving Ben and Courtney a big positive showcase for the next phase of their love story, People relegated B + C to the top right corner photo with the blurb "Can They Trust Each Other?" Wow. Thanks. It’s especially sad since the tabloids are still getting serious mileage out of negative Ben and Courtney covers, including Us Weekly giving them the main spot with the headline "LIAR LIAR! INSIDE THEIR WEB OF DECEIT." 

Even though she didn’t. There’s always wild speculation about how much the rings are worth, until Neil Lane gives his usual interview with People and puts a price on it. At one point, Brad Womack’s ring for Emily Maynard was estimated to be worth $90,000 but Neil priced it at $50,000 — same as what Courtney got. Ali Fedotowsky’s ring was also valued at $50K. Ashley Hebert’s ring was put at $60,000 but Neil explained how Ashley came in with specific printouts of what she wanted. She just had more expensive taste. 

According to Entertainment Weekly’s early ratings results, Monday’s Bachelor posted its lowest-rated finale ever with a 2.9 rating/8 share in adults 18-49. “That’s also a 36% drop from last season’s finale on the same night last year.” So that’s a shame. But on the upside, as ABC decided to spin it in the press release, “The Bachelor finale produced ABC's top adult 18-49 number in the slot since mid-November and marked its best adult 18-34 (2.3/7) number since season-premiere Monday - since 11/14/11 and 9/19/11, respectively.” They also focused on how the “After the Final Rose” ratings grew over the lead-in finale and “Among young adults (AD18-34/AD18-49), the special generated the Net's highest numbers in time period in 1 year - since 3/14/11.” Translation: Everyone already knew Ben was going to pick Courtney so it was OK to skip the finale and just watch the ATFR to see if they’d squirm/explain/break-up/whatever. We tuned in to rubber-neck.

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