ABC/Rick Rowell

And while UnREAL definitely features many of the reality dating competition series stereotypes (there's the contestant everyone hates, candles everywhere, etc.), Noxon and Shapiro said they weren't interested in creating a Bachelor "satire."

"We were hyper-aware of the fact that spoofs have already been done. We put a fatwa on spoofing," Shapiro said. "The genre's already so meta at this point that it's self-referential on its own. That really wasn't our interest or aim."

As for how much the show within a show's set looks like The Bachelor's signature look, Noxon said the ABC hit wasn't the only influence, citing shows like Beauty and the Geek, Joe Millionaire and The Swan. "It's just the sort of generic, over-the-top roses and candles."

UnREAL will premiere on Lifetime in 2015.