Clayton Echard has finally, officially been named The Bachelor lead as Michelle Young’s season of The Bachelorette begins to wind down. But now, there might be a bit of disappointing news for fans of the show as it looks like he will be the only Bachelor star emerging from Michelle’s group of guys.
Previously, it was reported that Bachelor producers were planning to air back-to-back seasons of The Bachelor, forgoing the typical Bachelorette season that usually follows, with plans to bring The Bachelorette back for the fall lineup as we saw with Clare Crawley and Tayshia Adams’ shared season as well as Michelle Young’s season,
Now, it’s looking like that is not the case.
Reality Steve’s The Bachelor spoilers have changed
As Michelle Young’s season of The Bachelorette aired, Reality Steve revealed that ABC had plans to air two back-to-back seasons of The Bachelor, starting with Clayton Echard’s season and then quickly moving on to star another man that Bachelor Nation assumed would be chosen from the remainder of Michelle’s guys or possibly from Katie Thurston’s cast.
This was never officially announced by ABC but Reality Steve tends to be pretty accurate in his spoilers so most The Bachelor fans were ready to see two seasons as he had said. Now, Reality Steve has given another update and it looks like The Bachelor production may have changed course.
On Friday, he updated fans again, this time sharing news that The Bachelor is back to just one season for 2022 and it looks like The Bachelorette production may move right back into its old spot.
In a string of tweets, Reality Steve wrote, “(FILMING UPDATE): For whatever reason, this has been shelved. Women who were being cast were told last week that production on that was being pushed back. They were def set to do it as evidenced by the pics. Bachelor season was set to film end of February 2022. HOWEVER…”
The following tweet read, “Earlier this week, started hearing rumblings of men being cast for next Bachelorette to film in its normal time period, mid-March. March 20th to be exact judging by the application currently being sent out.”
And the final tweet said, “So it all adds up to basically you can scratch the back-to-back Bachelor seasons. Not happening anymore. We’re back to normal schedule. Clayton’s season will air Jan-March and the next ‘Bachelorette’ season will begin filming the week his finale airs, per usual.”
This was followed up with screenshots of the emails casting producers have been sending out that show the reverse course as initially, they were casting more women for the unofficial second season. But now, they are casting men again.
The Bachelorette fans upset that Rodney got The Bachelor edit but not the lead role
News that The Bachelor won’t be running back-to-back seasons may upset some The Bachelorette viewers who were hoping that one of Michelle’s top four might take the other Bachelor spot.
After all, there is a lot of love for Rodney Mathews after his recent exit from the show after making it to the top four. Many viewers felt that he got The Bachelor edit, which made him look like an amazing guy despite the fact that Michelle did not pick him.
There is also a lot of love for Joe Coleman, who started out the season with The Bachelorette fans questioning his reasons for coming on the show. Now that he’s in the top three, he’s become a Bachelorette fan-favorite, with many hoping that Michelle will choose him in the end.
With this latest report that The Bachelor will air just one season and will be followed immediately by The Bachelorette filming, as has been done in the past, there is no indication of who might be the next The Bachelorette lead. She will likely be someone from Clayton Echard’s season, which will begin airing in January. Maybe this time, we’ll get to meet all the ladies first, before we find out who the new star will be, unlike what happened with Clayton.
The Bachelorette airs on Tuesdays at 8/7c on ABC.