'Bachelorette' Host Chris Harrison Talks Clare Crawley's Season And Diversity
"The Bachelor" has a whopping 24 seasons under its belt and that's not including any of the spinoffs like "The Bachelorette," "Bachelor Pad," or "Bachelor in Paradise." A lot has changed since the first episode in 2001 but there's one thing that the show still receives flack for -- diversity.
During a chat with Bevy Smith, 53, on her SiriusXM Radio Andy Show "Bevelations," longtime host Chris Harrison was candidly asked about the lack of "black and brown" people and he explained that it is something the show is working on.
"When you watch you don’t see yourself represented and I think that was what the issue was early on," the 48-year-old acknowledged. "We were begging people to come audition for the show and we weren’t getting the numbers. We had to stop and think why: is it the chicken or the egg?"
"We had to take that first step and have done better at casting and putting more diverse people on the show, therefore, you see yourself represented more. I think it takes a long time to turn around a big boat. I think we've done much better in the last few seasons for sure," he continued. "We'll continue to do that."
It seems like all of their efforts have been paying off too. Harrison explained, "Now we’re getting better numbers in auditions, therefore we’re getting people. We’re getting better quality people because also at the end of the day, I’m not really as worried about meeting a quota as I am about meeting a quota of quality people,”
He added, "I want [Bachelorette] Clare [Crawley] to have a broad spectrum but a broad spectrum of really good men and quality people."
In regards to Clare's season, which has been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Harrison dished that while he doesn't know when "The Bachelorette" will begin production it will definitely happen.
"I mean, we would be over halfway done [with filming by this point], and Clare might be narrowing down finding the love of her life," he said in early April. "How exciting -- and I hate that that is stolen from her at this particular time."
"Maybe we do it all this summer, but if things don't go as planned with this virus and with this quarantine, maybe we won't have time to do it all," he continued. "So we have to think, 'OK what is our priority?' It's trying to create any content in the interim, and then let's get 'The Bachelorette.'"
ABC's reality chief Rob Mills backed up that statement when speaking with Variety later that month and seemed to have a better grasp on when Clare's season could air.
"We’ve looked at everything — are travel restrictions going to ease up? And it just doesn’t look like anything is changing anytime soon, and what we would rather do is start getting the season underway, sooner rather than later," Mills said. "As of right now, the plan is to get a great location that has a ton of space where everybody could safely be together and we can still have great dates that still feel big and romantic, and we would shoot the entire season there."
"If I’m being realistic, it would probably be mid-summer that we start," Mills said about production and added that the season would then likely be ready for viewers in the fall.
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