The Bachelorette starring Emily Maynard got underway with the first dates of the season tonight, May 21, 2012. Last week, Emily met the 25 men who were vying for her love. Emily who wants to start a family soon, quickly narrowed the field down to 19 men.

SHOW RECAP: 

ONE ON ONE DATE WITH RYAN
Emily is nervous because Ryan is so good looking. She says the last guy she dated was Brad Womack who she calls “crazy good looking” and then laments, “And we all know how that turned out!”

Emily and Ryan go to her house because she’s not that glamorous and wants someone to fit in with her every-day life. The two bake cookies and head to Ricki’s soccer practice. Since she does not yet want any of the men to meet Ricki one on one, he stays in the car while Emily drops off the cookies and heads back to the SUV.

The two then head out to dinner in Charlotte at Osso restaurant. Ryan says he would treat Ricki the same as any kids the two would have together. Ryan gets a rose and a quick peck. Emily and Ryan end their date with dance to one of her favorite bands, Gloriana, playing a live performance of “(Kissed You) Good Night.” 

GROUP DATE
Emily is taking 13 (Charlie, Chris, Aaron, Stevie, Kalon, Alessandro, Nate, Alejandro, Tony, Michael, John, Jef, Kyle) guys to a Muppets play and the men are excited to meet Miss Piggy and Kermit the Frog. Fozzie tells the men that they will be doing stand-up comedy to benefit The Ricky Hendrick Centers for Intensive Care  and Charlie looks like he is going to faint. The reason? He confides in Emily that he doesn’t think he can do the sketch because he has a speech impediment due to an accident. She understands and suggests he just dance on stage.