Clayton, who? Bravo Historian a.k.a Sam Bush recaps the Tuesday, November 9, episode of The Bachelorette on Us Weekly’s “Here for the Right Reasons” podcast — and she’s not the only one who doesn’t understand why Clayton Echard was given the Bachelor season 26 gig.
“The fact that I can’t even place him, why is he the next Bachelor?” Sam asks on the Wednesday, November 10, episode of the “Here for the Right Reasons” podcast. “ I want someone like an oil tycoon’s grandson. I want rich. … I want Dynasty. I want someone who owns a vineyard. … I don’t want someone who’s there for social media. I want someone who’s, like, ‘I’m so above us,’ almost like a Quincy Morgan, [daughter of RHONY’s Sonja Morgan].”
During Tuesday’s episode, Clayton was one of the many men on the group date accused of making Michelle feel “unseen” as they didn’t pay attention to her or try to pull her aside to chat.
“If these men don’t get their s—t together soon, I could picture Michelle maybe sending [a lot of contestants] home. I can see her just being, ‘You’re done,’” Sam says. “If you’re on the next group date and the same thing happens again, she’ll [be] like, ‘I actually don’t even have a connection with you, you need to leave. … If I’ve already expressed to you how I felt multiple times, get out of here.’”
Bachelor viewers have similar concerns about the future of the franchise as Clayton’s name trended on Twitter during Tuesday’s episode despite him barely getting any screen time. (While ABC has yet to officially announce Clayton as the season 26 star, a source confirmed the news to Us. During Tuesday’s episode, creator Mike Fleiss also posted and deleted pics of the former football player and host Jesse Palmer filming.)
“I’m seriously going to need to see a singular reason for choosing Clayton to be the next bachelor SOON #TheBacheloretteABC #thebachelorette,” one fan tweeted during Tuesday’s episode.
A second viewer asked, “WHEN ARE WE GOING TO LIKE CLAYTON??? I have no investment in him #TheBachelorette #Bachelorette.”
Other fans are calling out other contestants from Michelle’s season who they would want to see hand out roses.
“Petition to replace Clayton with Olu as next Bachelor #TheBachelorette,” one person tweeted.
Another added, “Based on Rick and Olu on dates I feel like Clayton is maybe the last person that should be the bachelor #TheBachelorette.”
Season 20 Bachelor Ben Higgins recently told Us that he expected Clayton to be a “huge, likable character” from the beginning, but he hasn’t been impressed yet either.
“We’ve seen rocket ship type of character development where one episode changes everything for us. One one-on-one makes us go, ‘This guy is great.’ And I think he has it in him,” Ben said. “I don’t think he doesn’t, but he hasn’t had that chance to stand out yet. And so as a result, we don’t have the chance to the viewer to get behind them yet.”
For a complete recap of Tuesday’s episode of The Bachelorette, listen to Us Weekly’s “Here for the Right Reasons” podcast.