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Welcome to Here to Make Friends, a half-post podcast about the Bachelor franchise,

where we lovingly snark on the Bachelor and Bachelor adjacent shows.

Whether you love the Bachelor or love to hate it, we're here to break down every single delicious moment with you.

I'm Emma Gray and I'm Claire Fallon.

The quest for true love on TV, it's a gripping spectacle on the Bachelor and might be even more gripping on Unreal,

the dark scripted drama about a dating show called Everlasting.

And today, the fourth season of Unreal is surprise premiering and we couldn't be more excited to see what happens

to producer Rachel Goldberg and the casting crew of Everlasting.

So today, we're talking to one of the most recognizable faces of Unreal.

Every Bachelor fans favorite scripted drama, Star Shiri Applebee, who plays Everlasting

producer Rachel Goldberg. Thanks so much for joining us, Shiri.

Thanks so much, excited to talk to you guys.

Yeah, we wanted to start by asking about kind of the big elephant in the room.

Why a big surprise premiere? What was the thinking behind that, especially so soon after the last season?

I think that Hulu just wanted to give the fans what they wanted, which was the next season of the show

and give the show a proper send-off.

What's it been like working with Hulu so far?

I mean, the show has been on Hulu since the beginning.

It's been our digital streaming service and it feels like we've had a really nice audience there.

And I think it's pretty exciting.

It definitely feels elevated and we're just happy that they came in and sort of saved the day for us.

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