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Photo Credit: ABC
Haute Living sat down with Chris Harrison, longtime Bachelor Nation host today for a live Zoom chat on what to expect from the imminent finale of The Bachelor Presents: Listen to Your Heart, as well as some insider news on the upcoming installment in the Bachelor franchise, The Bachelor: The Greatest Seasons – Ever! (which is definitely going to include the storyline of Trista Sutter, nee Rehn) as well as when we can expect to see Claire Crawley appear as The Bachelorette. Watch and read what Chris, the Emmy nominated host of Who Wants to be a Millionaire and the creator of Seagram’s Tropical Rosé, has to say below!
Photo Credit: ABC
It sounds like you get invested in these couples. Are there any that you’re pulling for?
I do get invested. Maybe I’m a hopeless romantic, or maybe I just love what I do… These people are really going through this. I love being there for them. I’m old enough now that I could be their dad—or I like to think of myself as the ‘cool uncle’—but I like to take care of them as my own. I love several of these couples… Going through this with Jamie was fascinating because emotionally she had to overcome a lot. When you have a Rudi and Matt, she’s more [into] musical theatre. She’s not your typical person who’s been grinding it out on the streets of Vegas or the bars of Nashville. It was fun to get these people from all walks of life and watch their dreams come true. Yeah, I’m personally invested in this.
How did you curate the talent that appears on the show?
That was awesome having these celebrity judges… You start with Kesha and Jason Mraz... We’ve had all this great talent involved in the show. A lot of them are huge Bachelor fans. When Kesha walked up, she said ‘Oh my god I love the show’ and started peppering me with Bachelor and Bachelorette questions… Rita Wilson is a judge on the final episode in Nashville and I was talking to her and she was like, ‘Yeah, we’re watching the show’ and I thought to myself ‘Wow, Rita Wilson and Tom Hanks are watching the show, that’s really cool.’
“The Bachelor: Greatest Seasons – Ever!” will premiere on June 8. Which 10 seasons will you be highlighting?
This came out of the quarantine. Immediately Mike Fleiss the creator of the show and Rob Mills our executive editor at ABC started calling each other every day. What could we do? Our immediate answer is we couldn’t do anything right now, which I wish we could in those first few weeks because we were staving for content but logistically it wasn’t possible. As restrictions are lifting in California [it will become possible]. Sean Lowe, classic season you have to watch, Jake Pavelka, you have to watch. Jason Mesnik was the ultimate switch. If you ask me what the most dramatic ever was that moment with Jason, Molly [Mesnick] and Melissa [Rycroft]. And then you have to go back to the godmother of all this, Trista Rehn, the [first] Bachelorette. We caught lightning in a bottle that season. It’s going to feel dated, it’s going to feel slow. Fashion was out of date. I love the way we’re doing it. Think of it more of a podcast. We’ll talk to Trista, we’ll talk to these cast and characters. It’s going to move fast, it’s going to feel better.
Are all these people you mentioned going to be on the show?
I can’t say all of them but some of these people I mentioned are already confirmed. I will tell you the [first season we’re going to cover] is a Bachelor and he’s a beefy, big guy.
Will any of the couples from “Listen to Your Heart” be included? “Bachelor in Paradise”?
Right now it’s just Bachelor and Bachelorette. Right now we have ten episodes ordered and there’s a chance to do more.
Filming of “The Bachelorette” was put on hold due to the coronavirus. Do you have any information on the status of the upcoming season? Where Is the show currently standing?
We started photography for the most part and had to stop right before the first night when Claire was standing in the driveway and the guys come up. We were moments away. The guys were here, we were all ready and then we had to pull the plug… which was the right thing to do and the smart thing to do. We’re on hold right now but it looks like we are coming out of this and it looks like summer is going to happen for Hollywood and production…. If I was a gambling man…I would say mid-summer, late summer. I think we can be back to work safely as it gets hotter… How it’s going to look and where I don’t know. Clearly we’re not going to be traveling internationally; can we even travel domestically? I’m not sure. Whatever we do we’re going to have to be careful; there has to be testing, we’re going to have to take our temperature every day. I’m just excited to get everybody back to work, I truly am.
Photo Credit: ABC
Do you think [the coronavirus is] going to change the nature of the show?
The bigger question is how is this going to affect dating in general? The show is a microcosm of what happens in the real world. What’s dating going to look like? Are people going to go to a packed club or a bar and just talk and make out like normal? Claire and the men that choose to come on the show are going to be brave new warriors of talking about life post-quarantine. When do you make out? How do you make out? It’s going to be fascinating.
Do you have any updates on the 25th season of “The Bachelor?”
Once we get into The Bachelorette, then we’ll make a quick decision on The Bachelor. Say we’re quarantined on a campus and we’re all just staying there we might roll right into The Bachelor. Or we see four, five weeks form now we see that we can travel so we stop for a few weeks. This is inside baseball, but we try to get done with the The Bachelor in time for Thanksgiving and the holidays and that’s so we can give everyone a break and be home with their families. We don’t necessarily have to do that. We have a gap of a month, a month-and-a-half where we can push things into the holidays.
Where do you go when you aren’t filming?
It depends on what’s going on and where we are in the world and in the season. If things are intense and it’s a story I need to be aware of and watch, then I’m there at the house or at a control room. Like the night Colton [Underwood] jumped the fence. I knew that was going to be an intense night. We were in Portugal... I came in and went straight to that date and we were there until 2,3 or 4 in the morning. I was in a small hotel room for the entire night. We knew something was going to happen—not that he was going to jump the fence and run away—but that it might be intense enough that I might have to go in and be a part of it… Other times, I do try to take advantage of where I am in the world and exploring these cities. If I was asked what I missed the most, it would be [traveling]. I knew where we were going for Claire’s season and it was going to be a great season of travel. We were going to head off to Europe and some of my favorite places.
Do any of the contestants ever hit on you?
I’m sure they have over the years. There’s not really a situation or a time when I’m in a romantic-type moment with them.
Were there any unexpected engagements at the end in your opinion?
There’s been a lot. Peter [Weber’s] season. I wasn’t sure how that was going to go with Hannah Ann [Sluss] and Madison [Prewett]. By the time we were in Australia I had a good feeling of who the final two were. Until the last week I wasn’t sure how it was going to play out. Colton’s season, obviously, things turned on a dime when he jumped the fence and I realized he was in love with Cassie [Randolph] because I didn’t know that was the case until that moment.
Has there been a Bachelor or Bachelorette chosen when you wanted someone else?
[We do pick our favorites]. We’re always thinking ‘Who could be next?’ Claire is a good example. I fought for Claire several times. I always thought she’d be a great Bachelorette. There are people we’ve missed throughout the years, like Michelle Money. I thought she’d be great. I think she’s funny, self-deprecating, strong, independent, smart yet vulnerable. There are people we missed. Ari [Luyendyk Jr.] was a good example. We fight just like fans do. Sometimes I win, sometimes I lose.
