If you've been keeping up with Season 25 of The Bachelor, you'll know that one of the standouts among the women Matt James has had on his season is Katie Thurston. The funny lady has turned out to be quite gutsy in many ways, and fans have been calling for her to be our next star of The Bachelorette for a few weeks now. But, how does Matt feel about this possibility? He's now opened up about fans' hope that Katie will be Bachelorette in 2021.
Katie Thurston has become one of the true surprises of Matt James' Season 25 of The Bachelor. The lovely lady showed up on the first night with a very...expressive vibrator and seemed destined to be this season's comedic relief. Instead, Katie quickly turned into one of the heroes of the franchise, as she has been the main person for the first part of the season who was determined to stand up to the bullies among the contestants. Matt recently spoke to Entertainment Tonight, and talked about his thoughts on Katie maybe becoming the next lead of The Bachelorette, saying:
You saw Night One the type of woman that Katie is. She isn't going to be afraid to be herself, and you have seen that with the way that she has handled her business… be patient to see how everything plays out. Katie will have her time. And having a woman like that in the house made the experience better for anybody.
Matt is certainly correct that Katie "handled her business" while she was at Nemacolin. Not only did she take it upon herself to confront the women and try to urge them to be decent humans to each other, but she also showed no shame in directly talking to the bullies and calling out their abhorrent behavior. And, when that didn't work, she went to Matt and brought up the toxicity of the group, so that he would be aware and could try to handle the situation as he wanted to.
That led to all of the main bullies in the house (finally) being sent home by Matt (after Katie won a confrontation with a certain supposed "queen" who tried to shame her for her vibrator habits), and Katie got herself a 1-on-1 after showing that she was willing to stand up for others, regardless of whether or not it could hurt her changes with Matt.
Of course, Katie ended up being sent home by Matt during the evening portion of their date, and all of the fan love for her is now combined with a pretty big rumor about her chances of leading The Bachelorette.
Bachelor Nation spoiler king Reality Steve has reported that Katie will, in fact, be announced as The Bachelorette for Season 17, noting that she was officially appointed as such during the taping of the Women Tell All, which occurred last Thursday. Obviously, none of this has been confirmed by either ABC or the producers right now, but he did nail the fact that she would get sent home last night (and has been known to have correct info frequently), so it's not impossible that fan dreams could come true.
It's always good to hear that a lead is supportive of a fan pick to lead the next Bachelor franchise show, so it seems that audiences are on track when it comes to wanting Katie Thurston as the next star of The Bachelorette. All we have to do now is wait and see if Katie, is, in fact, the new lead. The Bachelor will eventually let us in on the secret, when new episodes air every Monday, at 8 p.m. EST, on ABC.
