Season TWENTY of The Bachelor premieres tonight. Can you believe that?! 20 seasons. Craziness. You have to admit, the trainwrecks are crazy but sometimes you just can’t stop watching. I’ve watched at least 8 of those twenty seasons. Guilty pleasure at its finest.
So even though it had been a few seasons since I watched, I’ve been swayed back to the dark side and was excited to interview Chris Harrison a few weeks ago during a press trip with ABC, Disney and Lucasfilms.
This season, premiering TONIGHT — 1/4 at 8pm on ABC — has Ben Higgins as The Bachelor. He was on the last season of The Bachelorette and from what Chris told us, a ‘no-brainer’ when it came to picking this season’s Bachelor.
(ABC/Craig Sjodin)
We chatted with him for quite a long time, so I may have to do a second post at some point…
With Ben, it was just such a no brainer and it’s nice when you have something that’s such an easy choice. You guys, I mean you as the Bachelor Nation, if you watch the show, made that choice for us and we were all 100% in. He’s just such a genuine, sweet, humble, good guy. But as you’ll see, he also has something that as a Producer, is nice because there is that fragility and there’s that vulnerable side to him, where he does have some issues to deal with and some things to get over. And I know, it’s hard to believe with a guy that looks like that, has issues.
Again that goes to show just how hard it is out there and just how brutal it is. I think that’s the wonderful thing about The Bachelor is, I think that’s why we can all empathize. It’s why you can relate to what’s going on, and it’s why the franchise has spanned 15 years and now 20 Seasons of just The Bachelor. Not to mention The Bachelorette.
Ben’s going to be a great Season. We were a little bit pressured cause we wanted to really stand up to this 20th Season although you can’t really do that because you can only work with what you have. Luckily, I think we hit a home run with this guy. It’s a great Season, he’s a good guy, the women are fantastic. When you have a guy that is a catch like Ben, obviously the level of interest and the level of competition is high. When the women came in and saw what they were after, and it was on.
Did you know that there are TWINS on this season?! Chris talked a bit about that and just the general ups and downs of the season/s. I think most of the seasons follow a pattern, of all smiles at the beginning and then you peel back those layers and get to the “real” side of people.
So it’s good a Season with some familiar faces, and there’s Twins, the idea of Twins is appealing. You think Oh Twins, that’s, and then when you think about it for more than 4 seconds, like oh that’s horrible. There are so many problems with that. They’re related and Family and this is weird, they’re Sisters. So it’s a very interesting Season.
To go through with Ben, who very much is, you’ve heard the idea of him having trouble that he can’t be loved, and finding love, it’s something, it’s an arcing theme you’ll see throughout the Season that he deals with. And, inevitably, there’s that bottom out. This always happens. There’s a point in the Season when everybody just gets gutted. Not to be related to Alcoholism or some kind of Addiction. You know there is that bottom that you reach.
Everybody has a different bottom when you go through something like that and inevitably, every Bachelor and Bachelorette gets kind of strung out, and that’s one of the great things about how we produce this show. And this process that people probably outside the Show don’t understand is it does, it really does strip you down naked and then you kind of start new, and you start to build. You can’t fake your way through this. Whether you’re one of the 25 or 28 this season or if the guy or girl himself, you can’t fake your way through it, you just can’t. The first maybe, maybe the second night. But you will be found out. If you come in and say, you know what? I’ve never done this but I’m gonna be the wild person, I’m usually a really quiet, sweet girl.
But this, I’m gonna go in there and I’m gonna blow the doors off the place. You can’t, you can’t fake it for that long. Eventually, you show up, your real self and that is kind of the duty of this Show. We yell at our TV screens and oh my God, “WHY?!”, “get rid of that person!”, “Don’t you see what’s going on?” Well first of all, they don’t. They don’t get to see everything we do. But eventually they do get found out, whether it’s, Bentley or whoever it is. You get shown for who you are. Again, Kudos to the Producers and the process that we created that kind of exposes that. So with that, the best way to do this honestly is throwing it out to you guys. We’ll just do a little Q & A. I don’t care what you ask. I’ve been here 15 years. I promise there’s nothing out there. Yeah, nothing I haven’t been asked.
I HAD to know how he kept a straight face through so many of those train wrecks. How could he possibly stand to the side, KNOWING all the trash-talking, two-sidedness that went on behind the scenes. I asked…
So from all of the Seasons, has there ever been a time when you were just screaming inside and say, No, don’t pick this person.
His answer…
Yes and No. It’s interesting, you know, I think, obviously with age comes wisdom and obviously, this job, is giving me an amazing amount of experience. I don’t have a Doctorate in Love that I should be at this point. Life is not so black and white. I think we’ve all lived a life we enjoy. When you’re young, their age, that’s honestly what makes the show so good and why these people at this age, makes it such good television because life isn’t black and white, you know. There’s right, there’s wrong. There’s good, there’s bad, and then you get older and you’re like nah, there’s a bit of gray area there.
You know. Ben and Courtney is a good example because I think a lot of people were screaming Courtney’s terrible, she’s evil, she’s bad for you, whatever. I have kids, I have 2 kids. And what’s the first thing, you’re like, this stove’s hot, don’t touch it. (*Jokes that then the kid goes to touch it) So, that’s the way it is for humans. If I’m like, that guy you’re dating is a complete jack ass. That’s judgment on you, so you’re going to get defensive. You’re going to start defending him. You’re gonna run to him even more. Now I’ve ruined any chance I had of getting in between you guys. So now it’s like how do I approach this situation?
And by the way, I’m not all knowing, that’s very important to understand. Tell me what is it about this guy that you love so much. What do you see in this, and I’ll be honest, I’m not seeing it. I see certain things so tell me what I’m missing. How does he make you feel? What does he do to you? What does he say? How does he love you that I don’t get? And that is an interesting way to approach it. Helped me be a better Parent. Honestly, I talk to my daughter and my son so vastly different than I used to.
So when I talk to these Bachelors and Bachelorettes, I try to empathize with them a little more. And I can usually get my point across a lot better and impose my will so to speak.
I’ll leave it at that for today, watch tonight’s episode to meet Ben and the 28 girls vying for his attention, it’s bound to be a fun season!
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