Before he was a thrice-crowned Super Bowl champion or the muse of a Tortured Poet, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce was the star of his own reality dating show. The short-lived 2016 E! series Catching Kelce saw the NFL star follow in the footsteps of fellow celebrities turned dating show suitors.
Here’s how Kelce faired in the field of reality dating.
What Was Catching Kelce About?
Catching Kelce took The Bachelor, drenched it in a football aesthetic, and added a few gimmicks of its own. The series’ Chief hook borrowed a page from the Miss America pageant, with Kelce offered the opportunity to awkwardly flirt with a woman from each state in the show’s pilot episode. Out of the 50 women he met on the Los Angeles Memorial Colosseum football field, Kelce narrowed the playing field down to 20 competitors.
Since Catching Kelce only ran for seven episodes, many of the show’s Bachelorisms were truncated and, in turn, removed some crucial elements audiences typically enjoy from the dating competition formula. The stakes of the E! series were muted compared to other dating shows, with no marriage or cash prize on the line for contestants.
On Catching Kelce, the women were simply competing for the status of being Kelce’s “first girlfriend in the NFL”. Each episode saw a group date and one subsequent VIP date, with the added twist that the woman Kelce chose for the group date was able to draft her ideal team from the remaining competitors. This format left little room to get to know contestants individually and never offered audiences the opportunity to meet the finalist’s families.
Though Kelce himself would be the first to admit that his dating show is an uncomfortable watch, there were still some shining moments of cringe left on the romantic gridiron of Catching Kelce. The show’s kitschy commitment to Kelce’s career carried the air of a football-themed prom night, with events such as a two-hand touch football competition staged among competitors. Guest appearances ranged from the apropos, such as Kelce’s brother and former NFL colleague Jason Kelce, to the arbitrary, such as the musicians LMFAO.
Travis Kelce Still Gets a Laugh Out of Catching Kelce
Fans of Kelce may have heard him joke about Catching Kelce on his podcast New Heights or during his Saturday Night Live monologue, but a Chiefs press conference right off the heels of filming the 2016 series reveals that this distaste for the dating show isn’t just a result of foresight. Much like Dakota Johnson on her Madame Web press tour, Kelce never appeared too thrilled about Catching Kelce when questioned about the series. Vanity Fair offers a fitting explanation, divulging that Kelce only took E!’s offer after some financial hardships at the start of his NFL career.
Apparently, the Chiefs continue to poke affectionate fun at Kelce for the series, with quarterback Patrick Mahomes taking particular pride in naming a play after Catching Kelce.
Though uncomfortable, Kelce’s onscreen experience as an eligible bachelor hasn’t turned him entirely off from the guilty pleasures of reality dating. On his podcast, New Heights, Kelce has pitched Netflix’s Love is Blind to his brother, calling it “worse than Catching Kelce” and offering an impression of Season 6 star Chelsea Blackwell.
In his personal romantic life, Kelce has managed to attract a larger spotlight than E! could have ever dreamed up, thanks to his relationship with global superstar Taylor Swift. An unlikely voice from the reality television archives resurfaced to weigh in on Kelce and Swift’s relationship in the form of Catching Kelce winner Maya Benberry. Speaking to the Daily Mail, the reality show winner packaged accusations of infidelity against Kelce as a “girls’ girl” warning to Swift, claims which Kelce and those close to him categorically deny.
Though Catching Kelce proved an awkward within the reality TV landscape, it still fulfilled many classic tropes tropes, perhaps the most quintessential of which being the short-lived relationship between Kelce and Benberry. The Chiefs’ tight end and the Catching Kelce winner only dated a few months before parting ways, which has further discredited her cheating claims in the eyes of many fans.
Despite the Saturday Night Live joke that elicited a hearty laugh from his brother, Catching Kelce has since become available to stream on Peacock for those who want to experience the awkward affair for themselves.
