Keeping her options open! Clare Crawley is still encouraging men to consider joining her season of The Bachelorette after filming was put on hold in response to coronavirus concerns.
On March 13, Warner Bros. Television group confirmed that the reality dating series would be “halting production” due to “rapidly changing events related to COVID-19.” Crawley, 38, was set to begin filming that night, but hasn’t let the curveball get in the way of her finding love.
“I feel like since we have a break in the show right now, I don’t think it’s too late to submit people,” the hairstylist told fans in a live Instagram Q&A on Tuesday, March 17. “So, submit them, why not? What’s the worst that could happen?”
Crawley’s call to action comes one week after ABC revealed the men who would be competing for her heart on season 16 of The Bachelorette. The casting choices caused a stir within Bachelor Nation, as more than half of the 32 men who made the cut are still in their 20s. Crawley, who will turn 39 on March 20, is the oldest lead that the series has ever had.
At the time, ABC executive Rob Mills defended the younger contestants, telling Variety that fans should remember last season’s Hannah Brown, “who was 24, and she was poised, confident and ready.”
Shortly after the future Bachelorette voiced her desire for more men to apply to be on her delayed season, host Chris Harrison echoed her statement in a livestream of his own.
“It’s not such a bad idea, I mean it’s not out of the realm of possibility,” Harrison, 48, said while answering fan questions on Instagram with his girlfriend, Lauren Zima. “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.”
The longtime host then teased that there could be some changes in the season’s dynamic once production is back in full swing. “Maybe it’ll be completely different guys. Maybe it’ll be a little mixture, who knows? We really don’t know,” he concluded.
