Done already? Chris Harrison teased that Clare Crawley and Tayshia Adams may have wrapped filming for season 16 of The Bachelorette.
“Good to be home!” the TV host, 49, captioned a photo of his Traeger grill and a pint of beer from Steam Theory Brewing Company via Instagram Stories on Sunday, August 30.
While Harrison famously calls nearly every season of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette “the most dramatic yet,” the upcoming installment is shaping up to be just that. Us Weekly confirmed earlier this month that Crawley, who is the franchise’s oldest female lead at 39, found love just 12 days into filming and exited the ABC reality dating series early. Adams, 29, then stepped in to complete the season, making her the second black Bachelorette in history after Rachel Lindsay’s 2017 stint.
“[Producers] had to find a way to continue the show without just starting from scratch,” a source exclusively told Us, noting that the team was “scrambling” and “frantic” to come up with another plan. “They were shocked by [Clare’s] choice.”
Season 16, which was postponed in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, faced another shake-up on August 11 when Harrison left the set at La Quinta Resort & Club in Palm Springs, California, to drop off his son Joshua at Texas Christian University. Us broke the news that former Bachelorette JoJo Fletcher temporarily stepped in to host the show in his place.
While it was initially believed that the former Who Wants to Be a Millionaire host would have to quarantine for two weeks upon his return to California, he was spotted back on set on August 16 without a face mask.
A number of Bachelor Nation stars have been seen at La Quinta in recent weeks, including Hannah Ann Sluss, Wells Adams and Sydney Lotuaco, indicating that they will make appearances during season 16.
Ashley Iaconetti, who was also photographed at the resort, shot down reports that The Bachelorette had turned into a Bachelor in Paradise-like season, saying on her “Almost Famous” podcast, “The Bachelor bubble down there is the safest place you can be right now. There’s so many tests going on down there and so much quarantining going on.”
The Bachelorette season 16 premieres on ABC Tuesday, October 13, at 8 p.m. ET.
