Most dramatic season ever? Clare Crawley's season of Bachelorette begins
NEW YORK -- "The Bachelorette" shut down due to the pandemic hours before production was to begin, and it was among the first TV shows to start up again.
This, after cast, crew, and host quarantined together in Palm Springs -- unusual circumstances to be sure.
Fans of the show know that Chris Harrison always promises the "the most dramatic season ever." He has been saying this so long, but, this time, his catch phrase might actually be true.
"Several times throughout I thought, 'this is the craziest thing we've ever pulled off in the history of our show," Harrison said.
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"The Bachelorette" was taped in the middle of a pandemic, and to add to the drama, Bachelorette Clare Crawley zeroed in on Dale at the start of the show after checking him out beforehand on social media.
"I definitely feel like I just met my husband," Crawley says in the promo for the first episode.
This is just one reason Harrison said "it's an explosive season the likes of which honestly we've never seen, never dealt with, and I know I say that kind of hyperbole a lot. This one is unlike any other."
He is seen telling a tearful Crawley, "the path we're on now, it doesn't end well: for you, for the guys, for anybody. Congratulations, you've just blown-up 'The Bachelorette."
It turns out this was nothing Crawley couldn't handle, as she said during a separate chat.
"This was kinda something that was going to be done my way and different from a lot of the other seasons so if that's blowin' up 'The Bachelorette,' so be it," she said.
At 39, Crawley is older and more experienced than pervious contestants.
"She was really here to find somebody," Harrison said.
Entertainment reporter Sandy Kenyon noted reports that said "she found someone before shooting of the series started."
So when Harrison was asked if the reports were true or false, he acknowledged that he's "heard those rumors, and we will face those rumors and get you all of the answers during the show."
After a delay of several months due to the pandemic, production was able to conclude safely, and dramatically.
"It was a lot of unknowns and a fluid situation of how we were going to treat this, but at the end of the day it worked," Harrison said.
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