Um, 'Bachelorette' Producers Want New Cast Members For Clare's Season

You can never get too comfortable when it comes to the Bachelor franchise. The series that's famous for its twists and turns just revealed another major update is on the horizon. The cast for the upcoming season of The Bachelorette had already been announced before filming was postponed due to coronavirus, but now producers are apparently taking the extra time on their hands to recast Clare Crawley's Bachelorette season, Chris Harrison said.

Fans have actually been thinking a recast should happen for some time now, mostly because the majority of men cast on Clare's season were under 30 years old, and she's 38. Since a lot of the casting process happens before producers decide who's going to become the Bachelorette, it makes sense the cast skewed a bit young (since the franchise has had young leads and contestants for the last several seasons). Although this has been on fans' minds for some time, the reason for the recast actually has to do with scheduling.

On an Instagram Live on March 17, Chris Harrison was chatting with Lauren Zima (his partner and an entertainment reporter) and Clare. In the video, he explained recasting would likely need to happen because filming has been delayed due to coronavirus. Since, you know, not everyone can just take two months away from their job to pursue love on a whim, and then do it again because of a pandemic, Harrison said he and producers are still looking for men to join the season: "We are still casting, so if you have somebody you think is great for this beautiful woman right here..."

He explained the reason for this in the video as well:

The thought that 25, 30, 35 guys, everybody that was able to take time off and come on the Bachelorette is going to be able to come back again whenever we do this — ‘cause we don’t have a set time of when we’re gonna come back ... The idea that everybody is going to be able to take off work and do this again [is] probably very slim.

Clare had already encouraged new men to apply to her season of The Bachelorette, even before Chris Harrison made his statement. In a live Instagram Q&A earlier on March 17, she told her fans: “I feel like, since we have a break in the show right now, I don’t think it’s too late to submit people. So, submit them, why not?"

As to who will actually be featured on the upcoming Bachelorette season, Chris Harrison says it's all still up in the air. “There will be some different guys,” he explained. “Maybe it’ll be completely different guys, maybe it’ll be a mixture. Who knows? We really don’t know, with the way the world is right now, with everybody’s schedule.”

Fans will have to look out for more updates on the cast and new filming dates. In the meantime, audiences can tune into Chris Harrison's Instagram for updates. He's hosting fireside chats from his home every night with Lauren to encourage people to stay inside and help stop the spread of coronavirus.

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