The Bachelorette has finally announced its Season 16 premiere date for this fall.
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ABC announced the premiere date in a new The Bachelorette Season 16 key art photo showing Clare posing with a red rose as she watches an off-camera man pull a dress sock up his leg.
The Bachelorette released the key art photo on its official Instagram page and captioned the photo, "Get ready Bachelor Nation! @clarecrawley's season of #TheBachelorette premieres Tuesday, October 13th at 8|7c on ABC. It's about time."
The photo is a takeoff of the movie poster for The Graduate, the iconic 1967 film about a recent college graduate, played by Dustin Hoffman, who is seduced by an older woman played by Anne Bancroft.
While many The Bachelorette viewers appear to have not gotten The Graduate reference given their puzzled comments on the Instagram posting, the key art photo pokes fun at the fact Clare is the oldest The Bachelorette star the franchise has ever had at age 39.
Most of her The Bachelorette suitors are also much younger.
Although The Bachelorette typically airs on Monday nights every year, Dancing with the Stars will air on Monday nights instead, with The Bachelorette airing on Tuesday nights this fall.
Clare began filming Season 16 of The Bachelorette at La Quinta Resort & Club in Palm Springs, CA, in mid-July but reportedly quit production 12 days in because she had "already fallen in love" with one of her bachelors, Dale Moss, a 31-year-old model and former college basketball and football player.
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' COUPLES NOW: WHO DID 'THE BACHELOR' STARS AND THEIR BACHELORETTE PICKS ACTUALLY END UP MARRYING? (PHOTOS)
A source previously told Life & Style that Clare even "refused to come out of her room" at one point to film.
An insider had told Us Weekly that The Bachelorette producers were therefore left "scrambling" and "frantic" over how to proceed with the show once Clare opted to end her The Bachelorette journey early.
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELORETTE' COUPLES NOWTayshia was therefore brought to The Bachelorette set as Clare's replacement, and photos were recently taken of her filming at the resort in a turquoise bikini.
According to the U.K.'s Daily Mail, Tayshia was filming her round of overnight Fantasy Suite dates late last week and so production is close to wrapping on Season 16.
News of Tayshia's participation first shocked the world on July 31 when a spoiler about her replacing Clare was posted on Reddit and then Reality Steve spoiler blogger Steve Carbone tweeted there was "some serious validity" to the posting.
Entertainment Tonight subsequently confirmed on August 3 that Tayshia is the new star of The Bachelorette but Clare's short journey to find love will also be featured on the show when it airs this year.
What remains to be seen is whether more men were brought to the resort to date Tayshia, giving her a full roster of The Bachelorette suitors, or if she only had Clare's remaining men to choose from.
Us previously reported the production team began tracking down some of the 42 potential suitors -- who were announced in July as a revised list of candidates -- to come back and film for Tayshia given they had already quarantined.
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELORETTE' COUPLES NOW: WHOM DID 'THE BACHELORETTE' STARS AND THEIR BACHELOR PICKS ULTIMATELY END UP WITH?! (PHOTOS)
Clare and/or Tayshia's official and final set of bachelors who will star on The Bachelorette's sixteenth season will be confirmed at a later date.
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Reports have swirled Clare is still being "kept" at The Bachelorette resort while Tayshia films and Dale, whom Clare is reportedly engaged to, is elsewhere. Dale was spotted hanging out in his hometown of Brandon, SD, in early August.
While it appears Clare and Dale fell in love in only 12 days of filming, multiple sources claim their love affair began way before cameras even started rolling at the La Quinta Resort and Club in July.
After The Bachelorette announced its initial cast of 32 potential bachelors and then filming of Season 16 was postponed in March due to COVID-19, Clare admitted she googled some of the original cast, which included Dale.
And according to Us, Dale made a move on Clare during the four-month hiatus leading up to the start of The Bachelorette production last month.
Dale "contacted her before the show and they really hit it off," a source told Us. "They would DM a bunch and then started FaceTiming and things moved quickly.
RELATED LINK: '90 DAY FIANCE' COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER? WHO HAS SPLIT? WHERE ARE THEY KNOW? (PHOTOS)
People recently reported similar findings, revealing that one of Clare's potential bachelors "found a way to get in touch with her and they began talking" earlier this year.
"By the time filming officially began, they were basically already in love. No one else stood a chance," an insider explained to People.
"It just became so obvious from her subsequent few dates that her heart wasn't in it and she just wasn't feeling it. Then she said she wanted out."
Clare's best friend, The Bachelor alum Michelle Money, however, has denied Clare communicated with Dale prior to filming The Bachelorette.
"Clare Crawley never spoke to Dale before filming. That is 1,000 percent factual information," Michelle said in her Instagram Stories reposted by Access earlier this month. "Never happened. Fake news."
"She was impressed by his social media account," conceded Michele, who competed for Brad Womack's heart on The Bachelor's fifteenth season and also appeared on Season 2 of Bachelor Pad.
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The Bachelorette's new season was supposed to begin production in March and premiere on May 18, but global health restrictions in light of the coronavirus pandemic had shut down nearly all Hollywood productions.
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' FRANCHISE COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER?? (PHOTOS)
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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
