Joey Graziadei is the most popular The Bachelor star to hit our screens in years.
He proved as much after the numbers came out, and the Season 28 premiere drew in over 6 million viewers in the first week.
That was over 3 million tuning in for premiere night and another 3 million catching the first episode over the week.
While Deadline attributed part of those amazing numbers to the success of The Golden Bachelor, this new season of The Bachelor actually brought in bigger numbers for its premiere — by about 2 million!
With that kind of popularity comes fame.
This means that Joey Graziadei is getting recognized when he’s out in public, which isn’t a huge surprise considering the huge number of viewers that his season is getting.
Joey Graziadei opens up about newfound fame
Now that Joey is a Bachelor star, he’s somewhat famous, and with fame comes recognition while he’s out and about doing normal things.
While some Bachelor stars embrace their notoriety, Joey is taking the humble route as he talked to PEOPLE about getting recognized in public.
“I think one thing that’s never going to get normal is people that just walk up to you and say your name and already know you, and I have no idea who they are,” he admits.
“So that, I guess, could be a surprise in some way. I don’t know how anyone gets used to that whatsoever, but being known in any way is a little weird.”
Joey also opened up about making the big jump from being one of the guys on Charity Lawson’s season of The Bachelorette to leading his own season of The Bachelor.
“It feels very weird, but it’s been really fun so far,” Joey said of his new role. “These are an amazing group of women and I’m just really excited to get to know each and every one of them.”
Joey Graziadei shares his biggest turn-off
In another interview as The Bachelor’s Season 28 kicks off, Joey Graziadei was asked about his turn-offs.
Instead of sharing a relationship turn-off, he spoke about his Bachelor role, where he has to choose who to keep around and who to send home each week.
He shared that he doesn’t like it when “people get so lost in everything that’s going on, and they get so into the performance and the crowd that they don’t even focus on at all me and trying to create a connection with me.”
He continued, “So my turn-off in this type of setting is when someone is too lost in all the chaos of it and can’t actually realize what the whole purpose is, which is to still be further in connection and having me get to know them better.”
The Bachelor airs on Mondays at 8/7c on ABC.