Rumored The Bachelor Season 26 lead Clayton Echard seems to be appreciative of the opportunity to lead his own season.
Even though Michelle’s season of The Bachelorette hasn’t aired yet, one of its contestants, Clayton, is reportedly set to be the Bachelor lead.
Filming is set to begin at the end of the month, and it seems like Clayton left a message of gratitude on Instagram before he has to take a hiatus from social media for filming.
Clayton Echard shares a heartfelt message
Before he goes, it seems Clayton wanted to give a tribute to those closest to him.
In the first pic of the post, Clayton poses with his parents and in the latter two pics, he’s surrounded by friends.
He captioned the post, “Behind every good person is an even greater group of people. Feeling thankful.”
It’s likely that Clayton is “thankful” for the opportunity to be The Bachelor.
Clayton Echard will likely be the next Bachelor
Monsters and Critics previously reported that the upcoming Bachelor lead would be from Michelle Young’s season of The Bachelorette.
Bachelor producer Mike Fleiss even confirmed this was the case.
According to one of the season’s co-hosts, Tayshia Adams, Michelle’s men was an impressive group, and producers had plenty to choose from when it came to Bachelor candidates.
Shortly after, rumors began to surface that Clayton Echard was the lucky man selected to be the next Bachelor lead.
Pictures of Clayton on set filming his intro package were leaked.
Initially, spoiler king Reality Steve said that the franchise has filmed intro packages for those who weren’t chosen to be the lead to throw people off the scent.
However, shortly after, Reality Steve offered up his own tweet confirming that Clayton was in fact The Bachelor.
“It is official. Clayton Echard is the next Bachelor. He is from Michelle’s season. So he’ll be 3 weeks into filming his season before you ever see him on your screen,” he tweeted.
None of this has been confirmed by ABC, but there is photographic evidence supporting that Clayton will be the next Bachelor.
The following day, Reality Steve followed up his post with video footage and pictures of Clayton being revealed as the next Bachelor in his hometown.
Viewers will get to meet Clayton when Michelle’s season premieres on October 19.
Greg Grippo was initially rumored to be The Bachelor
Before producers set their eyes on the men from Michelle’s season, Greg Grippo, from Katie Thurston’s season, was rumored to be the next Bachelor lead.
However, this announcement caused a rift in Bachelor Nation.
Greg became a controversial figure after his dramatic breakup with Katie Thurston.
One night, Greg was professing his love to Katie, the next moment he was calling her cold and stormed off, breaking up with her in the process.
When the breakup aired, some viewers thought Katie had turned cold and they sided with Greg. However, others felt that Greg had gaslit Katie and didn’t think he deserved a platform to exhibit that behavior toward other women as the next Bachelor.
It was also rumored that women began to quit the show once they found out Greg was the Bachelor.
While none of this was confirmed by ABC, producer Mike Fleiss implied that a divisive candidate was chosen and that the network later changed its mind.
The Bachelorette returns to ABC on Tuesday, October 19 at 8/7c.