While The Bachelorette and others within the ABC reality franchise don't often coax host Chris Harrison out of his usually genial and unflappable state, it sounds like even he couldn't be completely objective when it comes to the recently ousted contestant Luke Parker. Though Harrison and Luke P. were rarely, if ever, seen having a big conversation during Hannah Brown's season of The Bachelorette, that'll change for the primetime "Men Tell All" special airing Monday night, where Harrison had a shot to cut Luke P. down.
The Tell-All specials are usually meant to bring spicy and silly details to light that fans likely couldn't glean from the episodes themselves, but this season's wildest moments have definitely been making it to air, such as the aftermath of Luke P.'s one-on-one date with Hannah that delivered killer ratings. Chris Harrison claims he tried to give Luke P. the opportunity to save some face following everything that went down during and after the would-be couple's sexually motivated conversation. In Harrison's words:
I gave Luke so many chances tonight to redeem himself, to fix things, to fall on the sword. He never really got there, I don’t think.
Power to Chris Harrison for being able to hold it together during a conversation with Luke P. There are many within the show's viewership that would likely rather eat fire than try to have a sensible conversation with the former frontrunner. A growing chunk of the fanbase dismissed Luke P. as weeks went on and more of his layers were revealed.
The most controversial of those layers, of course, came after Luke P. and Hannah's one-on-one in Greece came to a heinously screeching halt once the subject of sex came up. Luke P. spoke his mind and stated that if he knew that she had sex with one or more of the other contestants, he would "100%" want to go home.
After a long and explosive back-and-forth in which Hannah dropped that long-awaited "windmill sex" reveal, she sent Luke P. packing. It was an argument so ugly that both of them got into it on Twitter the night the episode aired.
As such, Chris Harrison had his work cut out for him when sitting with Luke P. for the "Men Tell All" special. In fact, Harrison said he fell back on his parenting instincts to keep himself calm and collected during the taping as Luke P. failed to qualify for TV redemption. Here's how Harrison put it to People:
I think being a dad really came into play tonight, it really came in handy. I could have taken Luke to task, I could have cut him down at any time and gotten contentious. But I felt like I was going to get more from him and get more out of him if I kept my cool.
With his ex-wife Gwen, Chris Harrison has two teenage children: a daughter, Taylor, and a son, Joshua. As any parent knows, having a conversation with a child can sometimes be the most infuriating and stress-inducing thing in the world. So it will often take that extra bit of effort to remain calm and realize that flying of the handle won't help anything.
Unfortunately, while that technique might work on one's offspring, it apparently didn't have the same effect on The Bachelorette's Luke Parker, who doesn't sound like he was too concerned with turning over a new leaf in front of Bachelor Nation fans. Now I'm kind of wondering what would happen if Chris Harrison was unable to keep his cool. I'm guessing it would be too extreme for even cable TV. Expect to see just about every other guy throwing Luke P. under the bus, though.
Thankfully for Hannah Brown and all of her fans, the situation with Luke P. provided her a silver lining in that she now understands more about herself and what she needs and doesn't need in relationships. Still, one has to assume that there will be at least one or two more conflicting discussions between Hannah and Luke P. before it's all over with. Those personalities are too big not to crash into each other.
The Bachelorette will air the "Men Tell All" special on Monday, July 22, at 8:00 p.m. ET, with the season finale set to air Part 1 on Monday, July 29, in the same time slot. You just know shit is going to hit the fan once they start splitting finales into two separate parts. Will she end up with Jed? Will she end up with Tyler? What about Peter? Find out next week!
