Former Bachelor host Chris Harrison publicly responded to the ABC dating show sending a cease-and-desist letter over his new series The Vow.
“Sounds like somebody misses somebody really bad,” Harrison, 55, told Entertainment Tonight on Monday, October 26. “Jealousy’s a tough thing. Green’s not a great color on anybody, is it?”
The reality TV personality also responded to critics who said The Vow feels like a “knockoff” of The Bachelor.
“You know, they haven’t seen it yet, and I would just urge people to watch and then judge, and judge for yourself on the quality and the authenticity and the intention of the show,” he said.
The Vow, hosted and cocreated by Harrison with his wife, Lauren Zima, is a dating show in which 10 women vie for the heart of bachelor Jace Cates. Though the concept sounds similar to the Bachelor franchise, Harrison told ET that The Vow has more of a focus on faith and long-lasting connections.
“Lauren and I were talking about what we were going to do, and the more we saw this kind of reemergence and this renaissance of young people going to church, seeking faith, seeking kind of foundation in their lives, we thought this is an interesting kind of niche to dive into, and more and more, we kind of cultivated this idea and thought, ‘Can you find love in this modern world?’” he explained.
Harrison continued, “What if we raise the bar and raise the stakes and made it as authentic and intentional as you possibly could, and try and take away every hurdle that would get in their way?”
Harrison said they intentionally chose not to have “elimination ceremonies” and “trinkets that are given out throughout” the series.
“If and when you see a relationship is not heading in the right direction or not happening, then you break up and you do it face-to-face, like real people do and real people should,” he added. “The lengths we went to cast this show, the people that are on it and what we’re going for, I think will be very different, very telling when everybody sees it. And I can’t wait for everybody to see it.”
Shortly after The Vow was announced in September, multiple outlets reported that WBTV, which produces The Bachelor, issued a cease-and-desist letter to Fox Nation, accusing The Vow of copying its dating show.
In the letter, WBTV claimed that promos for The Vow show “a plain attempt to capitalize on and ‘ride on the coattails’ of WB’s instantly recognizable intellectual property and the Franchise’s goodwill in violation of, inter alia, state and federal trademark, copyright, and unfair competition laws. Without having seen the Series itself, we cannot comment on it and reserve all rights in connection therewith. To be clear, though, we have no objection to Fox and Lionsgate releasing a dating show hosted by Chris Harrison in and of itself. But thus far, Fox and Lionsgate have promoted the Series entirely on the back of the Franchise, not on its own merits.”
The letter specifically cited the use of roses in the promo, claiming that the flower is a known marker of the Bachelor franchise, as well as a mansion that seemingly bears a resemblance to the famous “Bachelor Mansion.”
Fox Nation denied attempts to replicate The Bachelor, arguing that the show does not own the rights to use roses as a motif, nor does it own the rights to the term “the bachelor” when referring to an unmarried man.
“Your letter also focuses myopically on certain stills from the trailer, while omitting that its clear purpose is to convey that The Vow ‘offers a different approach’ from other dating shows ‘by placing the focus on meaningful relationships, commitment and building a life together,’” Katherine Moran Meeks, Fox News Media’s executive vice president and general counsel, wrote in the network’s response.
The Vow premieres on Fox Nation on November 11.
