How Matt James’ Quarantined ‘Bachelor’ Season Will Differ From Clare Crawley’s ‘Bachelorette’
Will You Accept This News?
For exclusive news and updates, subscribe to our The Bachelor Newsletter:
After The Bachelorette successfully filmed its 16th season with Clare Crawley, the 39-year-old first introduced during Juan Pablo Galavis’ search for love, the upcoming Bachelor with Matt James will also be filmed with its cast and crew in quarantine.
“Yes, we are still in a quarantine pandemic bubble,” host Chris Harrison told ET. “I think the most important things we learned from last season — it worked, it was successful. … We had no issues whatsoever, so if it’s not broke, don’t fix it.”
TV and movie productions now have guidelines they must follow due to the pandemic, and some have had to pause production as a result of a cast or crew member testing positive for coronavirus. Harrison even had to reportedly step aside with JoJo Fletcher filling in as host on The Bachelorette while he quarantined after traveling to take his son to college.
While Clare’s season was filmed at La Quinta Resort & Club in Palm Springs, California, Matt’s is going to be in a different location. (It will reportedly take place at Nemacolin Woodlands Resort in Pennsylvania, but that has yet to be confirmed.) The one for The Bachelor “is a little more expansive,” according to the host, who then detailed what it has to offer that Clare’s resort didn’t. (Fans have already gotten a look at the set for Clare’s season, thanks to photos, like the one below, and video promos.) That also offers a tease of what to expect from Matt’s season and what we’ll see from him and the bachelorettes vying for his heart.
Clare Crawley in The Bachelorette Season 16 (ABC/Craig Sjodin)
“There’s gonna be a lot more offered to us as far as being outdoors. It’s not gonna be 155 degrees, which helps. Shooting on the surface of the sun was difficult this summer. So, this place is gonna give us a lot more outdoors, a lot more activities,” Harrison explained.
Clare said the quarantine bubble makes her search for love “different in the best way possible” when she appeared on The Bachelor: The Greatest Seasons — Ever! prior to the start of production on her season. “This is more of what I’m looking for, just real one-on-one connection or multiple connections and just having the time to get to know each other way better and not having to focus on anything greater or bigger than that,” she explained. We’ll have to wait and see if Matt’s location offers that opportunity as well.
Filming has yet to begin on The Bachelor, but Harrison already knows people will “absolutely fall in love” with 28-year-old Matt, the franchise’s first Black Bachelor. “He is so unbelievably genuine, smart, kind, has such a great head on his shoulders,” the host explained. “He’s a perfect Bachelor. He is the kind of guy this show was made for.”
That echoes what ABC Entertainment president Karey Burke said when Matt was announced as the next Bachelor: “Matt has been on our radar since February, when producers first approached him to join Bachelor Nation, as part of Clare’s season. When filming couldn’t move forward as planned, we were given the benefit of time to get to know Matt and all agreed he would make a perfect Bachelor.”
The Bachelor, Season 25, 2021, ABC
