One To Watch(10)
So far, Schumacher’s scathing post has been shared more than a million times on social media, resulting in a flood of new traffic to her blog and Instagram, where she now has more than 600,000 followers. For our part, we’re THRILLED that more people will see Bea’s body-positive message, and we can only hope her post will lead to some actual change on Main Squeeze—and on television.
SELECTED DIGITAL HEADLINES RUN DURING MAIN SQUEEZE SEASON 13
MEET THE WOMAN TAKING DOWN ROMANCE “REALITY”
Bea Schumacher is plus-size and proud!
ONLINE PETITION PUSHES ADVERTISERS TO BOYCOTT MAIN SQUEEZE
The petition, launched on the website change.biz, has more than 40,000 signatures.
“I LOVE MY THICK BLOGGER”–WOULD YOU BANG A BIG GIRL?
According to our new survey, 60 percent of men say they’d sleep with Bea Schumacher.
ANGRY INCELS SEND CASES OF SLIMFAST TO PLUS-SIZE BLOGGER
Twitter war explodes after Men’s Rights Activists publish Bea Schumacher’s home address.
PLUS-SIZE BLOGGER DONATES HUNDREDS OF CASES OF SLIMFAST TO L.A. FOOD BANK
“They’re the exact same thing as Soylent, you misogynist turds,” says Bea Schumacher.
SCANDAL: FORMER MAIN SQUEEZE CONTESTANT REVEALS DIETING PRESSURE ON-SET
Gina DiLuca claims women on-set encouraged diet pills and laxative abuse: “It was a literal shit show.”
IN TEPID FINALE, MAIN SQUEEZE RATINGS HIT 5-YEAR LOW
Notorious producer Micah Faust is reportedly in hot water at ABS.
CAN MAIN SQUEEZE SURVIVE WITHOUT WOMEN VIEWERS?
Amidst controversy and dangerously low ratings, rumors fly that ABS may cancel the reality juggernaut.
LAUREN MATHERS NEW EP IN MAJOR MAIN SQUEEZE SHAKE-UP
by Tia Sussman, deadline.com
Following waves of negative publicity and a five-year low in ratings, Deadline can confirm exclusively that executive producer and showrunner Micah Faust is OUT at Main Squeeze. Producer Lauren Mathers—long seen as Faust’s right hand and effectively running the day-to-day on-set—has been promoted to the top spot and will take over immediately, according to Deadline’s ears at ABS.
“The brass at ABS have been looking for an excuse to ditch Faust for a long time,” said our ABS source, speaking under condition of anonymity. “Alyssa [Messersmith, senior VP of unscripted at ABS] hated Faust’s shit—the drugs, the women, the risky behavior on-set, the production shutdowns.”
Faust’s bad-boy antics have been infamous for decades, but few believed he would ever actually be ousted from his own signature franchise. As for his successor, Mathers has kept relatively under the radar in the industry, working her way up the ladder at Main Squeeze for the last five years. I hear she’s respected on-set and well liked by the crew. At just 28 years old, she’s now one of the youngest showrunners in town—but my source says not to underestimate her.
“Lauren is strategic,” the source explained. “She knew this was the moment to make a play for Faust’s job, and that she had the ally she needed in Alyssa.” But Mathers shouldn’t get too comfortable in Faust’s chair. The source went on: “If Lauren can’t bring the ratings up for the spring season of Main Squeeze, there’s no doubt in my mind that Alyssa will fire her ass too. There are plenty of people in town who would love to run a show as big as Main Squeeze.”
INSTAGRAM DIRECT MESSAGE EXCHANGE,
JANUARY 6: @OMBEA AND @LMATHERS1116
LMathers1116 Hey Bea, this is Lauren Mathers, the new executive producer at Main Squeeze. I’d love to meet and talk more about your piece. Can we have coffee? Where in town are you?
OMBea Hi, Lauren. Well, this is unexpected! I’m in Echo Park.
LMathers1116 Of COURSE you are! I’m in Venice.
OMBea Ha, a world away. Would a phone call be easier?
LMathers1116 No, I’d really love to see you in person. Let’s meet in the middle—drinks by the pool at the Standard in WeHo? How’s tomorrow at 3?
OMBea Sure, that works. See you then.
Ever since the Fourth of July, Bea felt like opening her eyes each morning was some kind of emotional slot machine: 5 A.M., awake. Flip. A pressing, horrific dread: Ray’s arms, his smell, already present. No. Can’t start the day like this—pull the lever again. Another twenty minutes of sleep, maybe forty. Flip. Okay, this is better, just another day, just Tuesday. I can live with this. Let’s go.
She went through this exercise every morning for months, the wish and foreboding of it mingling each night before bed. Maybe tomorrow will be better. Maybe it will be the same.
What drove Bea truly insane was her total lack of control in the whole scenario. No matter how good a day she had, how productive she was or how many friends she saw or how much she cried in therapy, there was no apparent correlation to how she would feel when she woke up the next morning. Or twenty minutes after that.
There were a few weeks during the height of her Main Squeeze post going viral when she was so inundated with texts and DMs and emails and press requests that her frazzled, cluttered existence almost didn’t leave room for him. During those weeks, she wouldn’t wake up thinking about him; instead, he’d snake into her consciousness later, always buzzing at the periphery, waiting for a few minutes between calls or an unmoving lane of traffic to strike.