Whenever you settle in to watch dozens of sexy singles try to find the love of their life, you know you're going to be in for quite a ride. The Bachelor (and its sister shows, The Bachelorette and Bachelor in Paradise) is well-known for bringing audiences plenty of drama, fights, tears and heartbreak each season. But, it sounds like "Pilot" Peter "windmill sex" Weber is going to give us a show filled with even more tension, as Chris Harrison has teased that the ending will be "wild" and "turbulent." Yay?
As already mentioned, those of us in Bachelor Nation know that every season of the shows we watch are going to be filled with high emotional stakes and the (sometimes silly) behavior that accompanies those stakes, but it sounds like Peter Weber's season finale, especially, will really ratchet up the confusion and OHMYGAWD moments to 11. Here's what Chris Harrison had to say about the upcoming season:
It’s a wild, turbulent ending. You won’t predict how this comes to a conclusion. It’s not one of those endings where you go, ‘Oh, this is the one. And this is this great, crazy long love story and she’s always been the one since the beginning. And it’s so simple and beautiful.’ It’s a wild ride. It is a turbulent, wild, emotional, gut-wrenching ride right up until the very end.
Phew! Well, I've seen no indication so far, while watching Peter Weber talk about what's to come as we watch his season of The Bachelor, that it will be so emotional as to be "gut-wrenching," but maybe the producers only let Chris Harrison tease such things before seasons start because he's just so damn good at it.
However, it's also possible that Weber simply doesn't want to get too far into the weeds talking about the "wild ride" he went on trying to find a lady to replace The Bachelorette, Hannah Brown, whom he fell for during her season of the show last spring. Brown's time in reality TV was its own turbulent journey, with her spending a large portion of the season dealing with two liars, one she kept in the running for a baffling amount of time, and the other she ended up engaged to...until she found out he still had a girlfriend waiting for him back home the whole time.
A lot of fans were hoping that Weber and Brown would end the season together, but it wasn't to be. The two had an undeniable connection throughout The Bachelorette, and famously had sex four times during their overnight date in a windmill, but Brown had just kicked the very difficult Luke P. to the love curb and was trying to decide between Weber, Tyler Cameron and Jed Wyatt (the fiancé she ended up dumping), whom she all really liked, so she had to make a cut somewhere.
While Weber's time as The Bachelor has already offered up some potential spoilers on who his final four ladies will be, we have also gotten hints from Reality Steve about some of the drama to come. There will, reportedly, be a lot more pageant tension this time around (as we saw last year with Colton Underwood's season), and a serious divide in the mansion as some of those vying for Weber's heart nickname themselves "The Cats" while calling those they don't like "The Rats" (ugh).
One of the ladies will also be forced to watch her country-singing ex-boyfriend perform while she's on a one-on-one date with Peter Weber, which, as you can likely imagine, will cause some less than positive things to happen. And, aside from all that, Weber had to cancel a date, reportedly because of food poisoning, and also had an accident on a golf course that left him with stitches and a nasty scar. He's also going to get a visit from former love Hannah Brown, and I can only guess that that will lead to some confusing moments for himself and the ladies he'll be courting, even if it doesn't last for long.
It sounds like there's going to be no shortage of turbulence on this season of The Bachelor, and while that will make for entertaining television, it had to have been rough on Weber and the women. Speaking of the ladies that Pilot Pete will be loving on during his season, Chris Harrison, who spoke with The Hollywood Reporter, believes that another thing which will make the season imminently watchable is Weber's own ability to see each woman as an individual and not shut anyone out because of preconceived notions:
What’s interesting with Peter is that I think he is the one who is going to open this to a whole wide, diverse group of women from all walks of life, because he really doesn’t have a type. He’s maybe the most open, inclusive Bachelor that we’ve ever had in that he really doesn’t narrow it down to any stereotypical, geography, superficial, looks ... whatever it is. He’s open. It made it difficult as a producer and as a host to figure out what he was looking for, but it’s really fun to watch because you’re not going to see what’s coming next with him since he just really didn’t have a type. So it really is a great, diverse cast of women who really come from all walks of life. Different stories, different jobs. It’s pretty fascinating.
I have to say, I really like the idea of Peter Weber's season turning The Bachelor into a more "inclusive" affair. While the ladies who've been chosen for Season 24 don't seem all that diverse on the face of things (especially considering that several of them come from the pageant circuit), it'll at least be nice to see Weber consider everyone from a more or less equal footing that doesn't take into account a lot of things that people usually judge potential romantic partners on.
If Weber goes as deep as Chris Harrison is making it sound like he does when looking for love, and if we really get the crazy drama we're being promised, it seems like Bachelor Nation will be in for an eye-popping treat every week.
We can all see for ourselves when Peter Weber begins his run on The Bachelor, Monday, January 6 at 8 p.m. EST. For more on what's coming up on TV early this year, check out our 2020 television premiere guide!
