Going according to plan! It’s been a little over a month since production began on season 25 of The Bachelor and things are going smoothly, Chris Harrison revealed in a new interview.
“It’s the blueprint and the formula we used to shoot Clare [Crawley]‘s season, and is working out perfectly,” the host, 49, told Entertainment Tonight on Monday, November 2. “I can tell you it’s working, it’s successful and — knock on wood — it’ll continue to be successful.”
Crawley’s season of The Bachelorette became the first season not shot at the Bachelor mansion. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, it instead took place at the La Quinta Resort & Spa in Palm Springs, California, so that the cast and the crew remained in a bubble.
They’re doing the same thing at the Nemacolin Woodlands Resort in Pennsylvania for Matt James‘ season of The Bachelor.
“It’s going great,” the Texas native said. “He is absolutely awesome. I can’t wait for people to see his season of The Bachelor.”
Harrison recently opened up to Variety about how filming at the Pennsylvania resort was a bit easier than filming in Palm Springs.
“It was a little bit fluid inside this last season, having to adjust and change some things. Shooting in California, our wonderful governor was just changing things on a whim,” he said in an interview published last month. “We had to adjust with our wonderful governor — my tongue is firmly planted in my cheek — so this will be a lot easier and a lot more organized because we know what we’re dealing with going in, so Matt James, going in, is going to have a much smoother ride than The Bachelorette did.”
ABC exec Rob Mills also told the magazine that thanks to their experience filming The Bachelorette, they knew a bit more going into The Bachelor.
“The look of it will be completely different. It was nice to have a change of scenery, but beyond that, the protocols and everything are the same — we have a good system in place for as long as we’re in pandemic mode,” he said. “There was a ton of learning from the season of Bachelorette that we were able to take and make this season of Bachelor even better. It is impressive — the bubble that they’ve devised is so fantastic. It really is the one way you can do it safely.”
As for James’ connection with the women, Mills stayed tight-lipped but teased that night one “couldn’t have gone better.”
The Bachelor is set to premiere in January.
