ABC is clearing up rumors and has revealed production-schedule updates on Clare Crawley's season of The Bachelorette and Matt James' edition of The Bachelor.
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ABC reality chief Robert Mills and The Bachelor host Chris Harrison have repeatedly told the press Clare's season will 100 percent happen, but fans have been wondering how and when cameras will roll considering quarantine regulations are in place.
"Here's what were going to do for Clare's season, which is going to come first: that's going to shoot in about a month," Mills said during a recent appearance on the On Air with Ryan Seacrest radio show.
That means producers plan to start production on The Bachelorette this summer between mid-to-late July!
"Everybody is going to be at one location," Mills continued. "Everybody is going to be tested [for COVID-19] a week before. Everybody comes back negative, we shoot, and they're inside that bubble."
Mills also confirmed the cast will not film at the famed Bachelor mansion in Malibu, CA.
"They won't be at The Bachelor mansion. They will be at some sort of resort and we've scouted several of them and all of them have been scouted for good date locations," Rob said in regards to how the show will film group and one-on-one dates.
Mills warned Bachelor Nation that The Bachelorette's upcoming edition "will not be over the top," but that also doesn't necessarily mean fans will be disappointed.
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"We had incredible travel planned for Clare's season. We were going to Italy, to all these places that were going to be great, but this will also be great," Mills insisted.
"There will be plenty of different date locations that will feel hopefully as close to The Bachelorette as possible."
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELORETTE' COUPLES NOWAs far as The Bachelor's 25th season goes, Mills spilled the tea on casting so far and what ABC has in store for Matt, who will be the franchise's first black Bachelor ever since the show debuted nearly two decades ago.
According to Mills, The Bachelor has already seen a "record-setting pace" of 6,500 applicants for Matt's season, which he called "fantastic."
Given Matt's The Bachelor casting was announced prematurely and he was supposed to be one of Clare's potential 32 The Bachelorette suitors, ABC has received some backlash for not being fair to Clare.
Mills assured Ryan Seacrest, however, that Clare knew Matt was going to be plucked from her lineup of guys to star on The Bachelor's 25th edition.
"Somebody said something to Us Weekly that [Clare] did not know; that she found out on [Good Morning America]. Of course we would never do that to Clare," Mills clarified.
"She found out the day before. Look, we wanted to keep this under wraps. We wanted to control the announcement and not have it leak, but Clare of course was told beforehand."
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As previously reported, The Bachelorette is still casting and Clare could end with a vastly different lineup of bachelors once the season begins taping.
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On announcing Matt earlier this month on GMA, Mills explained producers are going to have to shoot Clare and Matt's seasons back to back this year and so viewers wouldn't have time to get to know Clare's suitors and pick favorites by the time they need to start filming The Bachelor's 25th season.
Mills said in, fact, The Bachelor will begin production before Clare's season even airs.
"It made more sense to announce him now and get people applying and ready," Mills noted, adding, "Matt's season, we're hoping to start on time, which would be end of September."
He elaborated on Seacrest's show, "We'll see where the world is. Hopefully that's one where we would be at The Bachelor mansion. Maybe there's some travel, maybe it's just domestic -- maybe it's just by bus."
"But if things aren't that safe, we'll shoot it the same way where everybody is safe, everyone is tested, they're quarantined, and then you can have kissing and arguing and everything else... We think it will be absolutely safe."
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In the meantime, Bachelor in Paradise's seventh season could get scrapped altogether.
"We're certainly discussing [Bachelor in Paradise] and how it could work and if it could work, but we want to make sure that the next season of The Bachelor stays on track because that's something that everybody looks forward to at the beginning of the year," Mills previously revealed to Variety.
"The goal is to make sure we absolutely have Bachelorette and Bachelor, and then, if there's a way to do Bachelor in Paradise, we would love to do it."
Prior to landing their starring roles, Clare competed for Juan Pablo Galavis' heart on The Bachelor's seventeenth season before testing her luck on multiple seasons of Bachelor in Paradise.
And Matt, a 28-year-old real estate broker, entrepreneur and community organization founder, initially came into the limelight last year as The Bachelorette alum Tyler Cameron's best friend.
Tyler finished as the runner-up on Hannah Brown's 2019 season of The Bachelorette, and he and Matt started a small charity, ABC Food Tours, together.
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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
