Given the rather farcical ending to the first season of The Bachelor SA, the pressure was on M-Net to find a man with actual emotional depth.

According to Kaye Ann Williams, M-Net’s head of local content and independent films, finding season two’s bachelor was “probably one of the hardest processes that [they] have been through as a team”, but in the end, they settled on Marc Buckner.

That’s Marc, the “easy-on-the-eye, mature, witty, energetic, smart, adventurous, and compassionate, globe-trotting action man and multiple property owner and currency trader and investor”, according to M-Net’s press release announcing their decision.

Before we get to the how and why behind that call, here’s a little more on Marc:

Favourite movie – Blade? Dude, come on. Should have played it safe and gone with Shawshank Redemption.

You can find more details of Marc’s life in this recent Cosmo piece.

Filming of the second season began this month, with the show set to air anywhere from February onwards next year. For more on why Marc was chosen, here’s Kay Ann speaking to Channel24:

“There were so many people that we had to go through, so many “dates” we had to go on – we actually met Marc at the Cape Town International Airport, we met up with him at the airport and had a discussion with him, but there are a plethora of boxes that need to be ticked in order for us to satisfy a lot of different things.”

“The most important thing is that the guy must actually really want to be in a relationship – really want to settle down and find someone and is ready for a relationship,” says Kaye Ann.

Great – they’ve learnt from Lee, then.

“Then, on another level, they need to work on television. They need to be able to communicate their feelings. They need to have some kind of self-actualisation, in a sense that they know what they want, they know who they are, they know what they’re looking for.”

Those in charge of the decision clearly felt that Marc ticked all the boxes:

“Marc was actually a lead that came through from two different directions. One was Instagram, and one was something else – I’m not going to say who it was, but it was someone really amazing. But it was a great process.”

Jan du Plessis, director of M-Net channels, says “Kaye Ann and I went together when the lead came our way, and Marc happened to be in Cape Town. And we immediately investigated it, and he’s the result as the next bachelor.”

The decision to cast Marc was met with some resistance by those who felt that the show should have branched out from picking another white guy, but then another rumour began to do the rounds.

Towards the end of last month, it was claimed that Marc was actually in a relationship. This via TimesLIVE:

TshisaLIVE received an anonymous e-mail alleging that Marc Buckner is a paid actor who was in a relationship with Cape Town-based fitness model Tanya Nadine Gill.

It was also alleged that the pair, who have been dating for nine months, made a public appearance at the Men’s Health Fashion Show before “breaking up” just days ahead of the public announcement that Buckner would appear on the show as the next eligible bachelor “looking for true love”.

I’m not sure the dates check out, because the announcement that Marc had been selected (September 7) came before the Men’s Health Fashion Show was held in Cape Town (September 21).

Either way, M-Net caught wind of those rumours, and Lani Lombard, head of publicity at the broadcaster, shot them down:

“People are just spreading rumours. M-Net took great care to select a season two bachelor who is single and looking for true love.

“Marc remained friends with some of the ladies whom he had dated before and being seen mingling with any of them at an event or in public does not mean that they’re in a relationship,” she said.

Again, you have to assume M-Net has done the required due diligence here, because they can ill afford another spectacular crash and burn in season two’s finale.

Because you’re probably headed there anyway, here’s Marc’s Instagram account, as well as that of his dog, which will feature on the show.

On with the day.

[sources:channel24&timeslive]