Ben H. for Bachelor - Week 1 POWER 5 Preview

It's time. Ben H. officially takes The Bachelor crown tonight. And this is good news for all of us fans. Not only is he far more personable than Farmer Chris, he's not Nick V. (the other rumored choice that would have been "DEFCON 5" level bad news).

Now that's one good looking dude.

Chase and I are back all season to give you our Power Rankings of the remaining women (i.e. who we think has the best chance, week to week, to win Ben's heart). But since there are 28 women to start and most of them are indistinguishable from one another (blonde, looking for love, here for the right reasons, etc.), we are previewing the season with our POWER 5. These are the five ladies we think will go the furthest with Ben (not in that way - get your minds out of the gutter).

We'll be back next week with our first set of Power Rankings and an explanation of the competition rules for all of you newbies.

But for now, the POWER 5. For those of you not familiar from previous seasons, the POWER 5 are the five women each of us thinks has the best shot at making the actual final 5. If you think this is nearly impossible with 28 women to start, you'd be sort of right. But for some context, Chase and I are actually pretty good at this. On the most recent season of The Bachelorette, I picked the winner in my POWER 5 (Shawn "Ryan Gosling Lookalike" B.) and Chase picked a top four finisher in his POWER 5 (Ben "Bodybuilder" Z.).

These are blind guesses based on brief bios and a short teaser clip from ABC to guide us. Neither of us read spoilers. Remember - spoilers suck.

Scoring of the POWER 5 for the competition is straightforward. When we get to the final 5 women, Chase and I will revisit each of our POWER 5 choices. For each woman in our POWER 5 who makes the actual final 5, we will be awarded 1 bonus point (for a maximum of 5 bonus points).

Will either of us strike gold this season? Without further ado, here are our picks:

Becca, 26, Chiropractic Assistant, San Diego, CA

She’s a seasoned veteran (she finished second on Farmer Chris' season). She knows the game. And by game, I mean the pursuit of love. She’s my early favorite. She won’t fall victim to the normal rookie mistakes. She’s in it for love. Or a book deal.

Lauren H, 25, Kindergarten Teacher, Ann Arbor, MI 

Logic and statistics tell me that someone named Lauren has a very high probability of making a deep run in the show. Of the four Laurens, Lauren H. is my odds on favorite to make a run. The "H," by the way, stands for “HereForTheRightReasons.”
 
Breanne, 30, Nutritional Therapist, Seattle, WA 

Of all the fruits and vegetables in the entire world to pick as her favorite, she goes with a carrot. She describes the carrot as sweet, sassy and bright. Next time you’re in the produce section, be sure to remember these words of wisdom and grab some for your next stir fry.
 
Caila, 24, Software Sales Rep, Hudson, OH 

She apparently hates when her date says things like: “Here is a leaf on a bush we passed on our first date because I’m a romantic guy.” WE ALL HATE THAT GUY, CAILA. This girl speaks the truth.
 
Laura, 24, Account Executive, Louisville, KY 

This is a bit of a risky pick: How many redheads advance far into the season? That said, her answers to the canned questions are spot on. Her guilty desert pleasure is a White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake. An ENTIRE CAKE. She owns her paleness - I can identify with her “can’t live without sunscreen” answer - and she just seems like a real person.

Caila, 24, Software Sales Rep, Hudson, OH 

Sure she has what could be a fake job. Sure she is short (Ben H. is a whole foot taller). And sure she has the world’s smallest tattoo of the Hawaiian Islands (1/2 of an inch) despite seemingly having no connection with Hawaii (she says her nationality is half Filipino and half German/Irish/Swiss). But look at the positives. She likes classic movies (do we think half of the other girls have even seen My Fair Lady?), she is a Game of Thrones fan and she has pretty good taste in music. She could be a keeper if she plays her cards right.

Jackie, 23, Gerontologist, San Francisco, CA 

This was my toughest POWER 5 pick. There’s as good a chance that she goes the distance as there is that she is a total cuckoo, gets hammered and promptly gets sent home on Night 1 (great for television, bad for me).

But I heard somewhere that Ben H. is kind of a religious person (or maybe I made that up but screw research - this is The Bachelor and I don't have time to find the truth) and Jackie lists the Bible as one of the five things she can’t live without. Could this be a match made in heaven?

Jennifer, 25, Small Business Owner, Fort Lauderdale, FL 

Jennifer seems to have a lot of things going for her – good height (5’7”), a business owner (impressive for a 25 year old if it’s legit) and a sense of humor (she face-planted in front of an ex – comedy gold).

But she worries me in other areas – she lists Divergent as one of her favorite movies (a decent book but an objectively bad film), she is super driven to be married and she seems particularly obsessed with Ben H. If she can keep these three things under wraps (especially her love of Divergent the movie), she could go far.

Jessica, 23, Accountant, Boca Raton, FL 

She’s young but accomplished. I don’t know anything about accounting but it seems like passing four exams in 6 months to become a CPA is a pretty impressive accomplishment. I barely passed four exams in four years of college so props to this girl.
 
She also likes Dodgeball (good choice) and low-key bars, which I dig.

My concern is that she doesn’t have a mature enough idea of what it means to be engaged or married. Though now that I think of it, that has hardly stopped anyone in the past so Jessica might not have any problems!

Shushanna, 27, Mathematician, Salt Lake City, Utah 

It seems to be a tradition that I pick someone with a totally wacky name for my POWER 5 and here we are with the wackiest of names. I’ve never heard of anyone named Shushanna. Is it real? Did someone make a mistake at the hospital and the computer didn't have spellcheck? Regardless, if we can get past that (maybe they will just call her "Anna"), we’ve actually got a pretty good candidate for Ben H.
 
Pros: She likes Leonardo DiCaprio (Inception is a great film), she’s intelligent (she’s a mathematician which puts her well above other contestants this season who definitely have made up professions like “Twin,” “Unemployed” and “Chicken Enthusiast”), she cooks and she is just older than Ben (hopefully that translates into maturity).

Cons: She likes strange dance music (what is she hiding?), she’s short (Ben H. at 6’4” will tower over her at 5’2”) and she doesn’t believe in love (ummm, is she for real? This is The Bachelor. That ain't gonna fly.).