SPOILERS ahead from Bachelor in Paradise 2019 finale and The Bachelor 2020.
Are you ready for The Bachelor 2020 to be the -- wait for it -- most dramatic season ever? It may not be, but filming starts this week so we may know soon. The Bachelor Season 24 will probably have the most references to windmills, at any rate. The Bachelor in Paradise Season 6 finale on Tuesday, September 17, 2019 officially announced what spoilers already revealed (sorry, Mike): Bachelorette alum Peter Weber is the next Bachelor. Pilot Pete has already shot some very predictable promo footage and he will actually start his "journey" to love this very week.
Spoiler guru Reality Steve is always on top of stuff while The Bachelor films, and here's what we should expect for the new season based on the usual schedule.
When Will The Bachelor 2020 Premiere?
Ever since Jason Mesnick's truly shocking The Bachelor Season 13, every season of The Bachelor has premiered in early January. Chris Harrison announced on 9/17 that The Bachelor Season 24 will stick with tradition and premiere on the first Monday in 2020, Monday, January 6 from 8-10 p.m. on ABC.
When Does Bachelor Peter Film Season 24?
The Bachelor seasons tend to film from late September to late November. According to Reality Steve's site, filming for Bachelor Peter's Season 24 starts this Friday, September 20, 2019.
Saturday should be a move-in day, and then pilot Pete's first dates, to be shown in Episode 2, will begin on September 22 and continue on 9/23 and 9/24 with the Sept. 24th being a public date. The second rose ceremony should be taped on September 25. Episode 3's dates are all meant to be public dates, Steve said, and so those 9/26-9/28 dates should all be spoiled online. All public dates end up being spoiled by fans who take photos and share them online, or specifically with Steve. The third rose ceremony will be on 9/29. The should travel from that point, including three international locations before hometowns in Episode 8. Steve said they will be heading to Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru this year, although he wasn't sure of the country order. He also said the overnights and finale would be held in Australia.
When Will The Bachelor Spoilers Come Out?
In addition to spoilers on any public dates Bachelor Pete has, fans should be able to look forward to Reality Steve's usual Final 4 spoilers, finale/engagement spoilers, and then episode-by-episode spoilers. Also, ABC tends to release the official list of contestants in early December -- like last year -- but they already did what they did for Hannah's season and posted a bunch of photos of who "may" be on The Bachelor. A few of these women will be cut. Also, on 9/17, Steve posted a bunch of bios for the bachelorettes. In early September 2019, he teased one 2020 contestant as a potential frontrunner to either be the one Bachelor Peter picks in the end or be The Bachelorette 2020. And that's before Peter even got to meet her!
Final four hometown date spoilers tend to come out in early November, finale spoilers can -- but don't always -- come out in late November. Steve usually posts episode-by-episode spoilers in December, sometimes right before the early January premiere. It's not always a set thing. It depends on his sources, and then sometimes the information changes. Keeps it all interesting. The show behind the show is often more fascinating than what actually airs on TV. (Just ask Bachelor in Paradise Season 6, which sounded exciting in spoilers but was a long dragged out mess on TV.)
Last year, Bachelor Colton Underwood's overnight dates were held in early November. On November 28, 2018, Steve posted finale spoilers on how Colton's season would end. On January 2, 2019, he updated that Colton and Cassie were together but did not get engaged in the finale.
Sometimes spoilers have updates like that, and things can change -- as they certainly did during Bachelorette Hannah Brown's season, when the initial spoiler said she picked Tyler C. and that was changed to Wrong Reasons Jed Wyatt; spoilers later followed the story with Hannah dumping Jed. In the previous season of The Bachelor, Steve updated on January 23, 2018 that Arie Luyendyk Jr. had dumped his fiancée Becca Kufrin a little over a week prior and had started dating Lauren Burnham.
So that Bachelor season also had a lot of real-time updates after the finale. We don't know yet whether to expect the same from Peter, but the kind of drama that Bachelorette Hannah had definitely translated into good ratings.
The Powers That Be may be looking for more drama to sell Bachelor Peter's Season 24. Peter isn't very dramatic himself (although his ex-girlfriend might disagree) but The Bachelor drama usually comes from the contestants anyway.
Then again, Bachelor Nation is also looking for a love story. Bachelorette Hannah did not have a happy ending. Bachelor Colton had a tearful fence jump and just started dating his Chosen One, who was not ready to get engaged. I do think Bachelor fans are ready for a more traditional finale engagement love story where the couple gets engaged and stays engaged -- or maybe even actually gets married.
Will The Bachelor get a happy ending from Peter, no windmill puns intended? I was hoping we'd get a love story from his fellow Bachelorette alum Mike Johnson, but now I'm thinking Mike was never even considered as a serious option for The Bachelor 2020.
It is September 16 as I write this, and Bachelor Peter should meet his ladies later this week, with his love story premiering in January on ABC. So just get ready for whatever happens from here.
