The Bachelor star Matt James is gearing up for his season of the show.
Unlike the show’s usual routine, ABC doesn’t announce the Bachelor until the late summer when Bachelor In Paradise wraps up.
However, due to COVID-19 and continuous discrimination against ABC for not casting more people of color, the network decided to pull the trigger early this year.
Back in June, Matt was removed from Clare Crawley’s season and he was instead announced as the lead for The Bachelor.
At the time, Matt revealed he was a little sad that he couldn’t meet Clare, but he’s more than ready to meet a good handful of women who are excited to meet him.
Matt James’ women have been introduced ahead of filming
This morning, ABC announced that they would be sharing Matt’s women. The network revealed that these 43 women could be on the show.
They have not confirmed that these are indeed the women who will appear on the show. Like with Clare’s season, some of the women won’t make it to the first night. Some of them will be removed, possibly due to positive COVID-19 test results.
These women are currently in quarantine at the Nemacolin Resort in Pennsylvania. Filming is scheduled to start on Saturday, October 10. Everyone is currently in quarantine to ensure no one brings COVID-19 onto the set.
ABC was able to film two seasons of The Bachelorette with tight security regulations and frequent testing, so they are aiming to do this again with Matt’s season.
Matt James was still casting back in August
We don’t know a lot about Matt’s season yet. Currently, all rumors and leaks have been in relation to Clare and Tayshia’s season. ABC has not issued any details about Tayshia yet.
We reported last week that Matt’s contestants were slowly disappearing from Instagram, including one Tik Tok star. This morning, we learned that one of Matt’s ex-girlfriends would be competing on the show. We don’t know if she wants to ensure that they are right for each other or if she wants answers as to why the relationship fizzled.
They reportedly dated for a few months last fall when Tyler Cameron was linked to Gigi Hadid.
The casting process for Matt’s season has taken months. On August 27, we reported that ABC was still looking to cast women for his season despite him being announced as the Bachelor in early June.
The women flew to Pennsylvania late last week, which means casting could have continued until September.
The Bachelorette premieres Tuesday, October 13, at 8/7c on ABC.