Wow. This has been quite a year, in general, but it's also been quite a year for Bachelor Nation. No one could have predicted, once Peter Weber's crazy season finally wrapped up with a bang in mid-March, just how long we'd all have to wait until we could feast our eyes on the rose-filled ups and downs of Clare Crawley's (probably very short-lived) time as The Bachelorette. So, it makes sense that fans would wonder just when we'll be able to see new Bachelor lead Matt James begin to fulfill his duties. Well, it turns out that fans shouldn't worry too much about more delays, as we should still have Matt on our screens in January 2021.
Along with the delay of Clare's (and, let's be honest, Tayshia Adams') season came the loss of our beloved Bachelor in Paradise sassy beach time for this year, and it has felt like the whole franchise might be out of wack and off schedule for the foreseeable future. But, luckily, filming on The Bachelorette has finally ended, and according to what Rob Mills, ABC's senior vice president of Alternative Series, Specials & Late-Night Programming, told Deadline, the team behind The Bachelor is so confident in the quarantine bubble process which was used to film Clare and Tayshia, that they expect to start on Matt's season by the end of this month.
As many fans probably know by now, September is around the time of year that The Bachelor begins filming anyway, so this means that ABC fully expects to be able to deliver Matt, his dimples, and everything else from his upcoming season in January, just like the past 12 seasons before his. And, in case you're wondering, yes, this is going to be another season set in one location, seeing as how we can't shake this pesky pandemic yet. But, as Mills noted, the process that was implemented for The Bachelorette worked, so there's no reason for things to be seriously delayed for Matt.
According to Reality Steve, the knower of all things Bachelor Nation, Matt's season will film at the Nemacolin Woodlands Resort in Pennsylvania, so I certainly hope that they've found the perfect location for our first black Bachelor to kiss, date and hand out roses to all of his pretty ladies. While I'm glad they were able to completely secure another resort for filming, I do wonder how long it'll be until we get to see the Bachelor Mansion again, and who the next lead will be to travel the globe as they search for true love.
I know I'm not alone in saying that I've been seriously looking forward to Matt's season of The Bachelor ever since he was announced in mid-June. Obviously, the franchise broke with recent protocol in a big way to cast Matt before Clare had even filmed her season, but I'm convinced it was a solid move for several reasons, the first of which was that it was really way past time for them to cast a black Bachelor. So, even though it's clear it was a reaction to what's been going on in the country this summer, at least it gives us the increased diversity we've been hoping for.
Secondly, while Matt had, in fact, originally been cast on Clare's season, he was already way more of a known and well-liked quantity than any of the other men who'd been cast. Many fans had gotten to know Matt through social media, because he's a good friend of Hannah Brown's 2019 Bachelorette runner-up, Tyler Cameron.
While I'm interested to see how the whole Clare / Tayshia drama will play out on The Bachelorette (which debuts on Tuesday, October 13 at 8 p.m. EST), it's really good to know that we can still count on The Bachelor and Matt to help us get the new year off to a, hopefully, fun start. There's no set date for Matt's Season 25 to premiere just yet, so be sure to stay tuned to CinemaBlend for the latest!
