Matt James eliminated half of his remaining contestants on the Monday, February 15, episode of The Bachelor — but how many of his castoffs will we see on Bachelor in Paradise? Teddi Mellencamp joined Us Weekly’s “Here for the Right Reasons” podcast to recap Monday’s episode and weigh in on which season 25 stars should go to Mexico for another shot at love.
“I want messy!” the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills alum, who is a longtime fan of the Bachelor franchise, said of the beach spinoff. “On Bachelor, I’m really looking for love. Paradise? I mean, I love even the Ashley [Iaconetti] and Jared [Haibon] of it all — the back and forth, the turmoil and the ‘you can’t decide and she’s in love with him and banging on his door.’ That’s what I want.”
During Monday’s episode of the ABC series, Matt sent home Chelsea Vaughn, Serena Chew, Pieper James, Jessenia Cruz and Abigail Heringer. Kit Keenan, meanwhile, quit because she knew she wasn’t ready for the Bachelor to meet her family. Season 23 alum Heather Martin was also turned down by Matt after she attempted to join the cast.
“I think [Chelsea] would be great for Paradise,” Teddi said on the podcast, noting that Serena C. is a “pass” for her. “I also have to look at the women like, ‘Would I want to be pals with her?’ I have to think about if I was, like, the bartender in Paradise would I want to, like, sit and have a skinny marg with her? And the way that she acted on the season, no.”
Teddi added that she doesn’t want to see Abigail in Mexico because she thinks she could make a good Bachelorette.
“I don’t want to see somebody else breaking Abigail’s heart!” the former Bravo star quipped. “I want to see Abigail going for the full thing, getting the Neil Lane ring on her finger and going for it.”
While the “Teddi Tea Pod” podcast host said she would tune in to watch Pieper and Jessenia on the spinoff, she doesn’t think “Queen” Victoria Larson should return.
“I think if Victoria came back and said, ‘Listen, guys, I watched this back and I realized, maybe I wasn’t actually just making jokes, maybe I wasn’t being funny, maybe I was being malicious or I was trying to hurt people’s feelings,’ then maybe [she could go on BiP], but she doesn’t seem to be taking that approach from what I’ve seen,” Teddi said.
While ABC executive Robert Mills previously said the franchise hopes to film Bachelor in Paradise during the summer of 2021 after shooting season 17 of The Bachelorette, the network has yet to announce official plans. Matt, meanwhile, set his final four at the end of Monday’s episode: Serena Pitt, Bri Springs, Michelle Young and Rachael Kirkconnell.
“I definitely think the top two are Michelle and Rachael,” Teddi said. “My pick is Michelle. I think they have the most connection. Truthfully, I think they had the most fun. It was the relationship that seemed like it could really go somewhere. That being said, they show in the trailer, like, she’s having hesitation, it’s moving too fast for her. But she has also said that she really struggles with seeing him with other women. So that could just be her thinking about fantasy suites, the idea of him going to multiple fantasy suites, any of that she could just be playing mind games with herself on that.”
Teddi concluded: “I do think Rachael’s probably the winner. And I think that we’ll have a perfectly curated relationship for a bit of time on the ‘gram.”
For Teddi’s complete recap, including how she thinks dad John Mellencamp would handle a Bachelor hometown date and her thoughts on the upcoming season of RHOBH, listen to Us Weekly’s “Here for the Right Reasons” podcast.