ABC's 'The Bachelor' targeting architects, planning to film in the tropics

Although The Bachelor: Paris couple Travis Stork and Sarah Stone ended their relationship in record time and ABC hasn't officially renewed the show yet, the show's producers aren't wasting any time in beginning their search for the star of the next potential edition of the long-running ABC reality series.


In addition to plugging its casting application in a brief blurb that aired after conclusion of The Bachelor: Paris' finale and launching a series of nationwide casting calls, much like they did in the "athlete" casting search that eventually netted them NFL quarterback Jesse Palmer (The Bachelor 5 star), The Bachelor's casting directors have also begun searching through other more non-traditional means.

While The Bachelor casting director Robyn Cass later told the New York Daily News that architects are only one of several professions that the show's producers are targeting in their search for the show's next star, earlier this month, casting producer Danielle Barba began contacting architectural firms, including Gensler...Architecture, Design & Planning Worldwide, in an attempt to see if any of their architects would be interested in applying for the show.

According to the email Barba sent to the firm (a copy of which was reposted on The Gutter architecture blog), "In the past we have gone down the doctor, heir, and athlete route... this time around we are interested in finding an architect."

However according to Cass' subsequent statement to the Daily News (published in a Tuesday story based on the email posted by The Gutter), similar to how The Bachelor's previous search for an "athlete" included everything from water polo players to professional football players, the producers are also considering men "in a few other fields as well."


"We think an architect would be amazing on the show. It just seems like a really interesting profession," Cass told the newspaper. But that doesn't mean any non-architects hoping for a chance to star in the next The Bachelor edition should give up hope just yet. "Regardless of profession, though, we're just going to pick the best bachelor in the country," Cass added.

More interesting than the profession that the show's producers are considering was another part of Barba's email -- the section where she revealed that having presumably enjoyed the twist that filming the show overseas brought to The Bachelor's eighth edition, the producers are planning to also film The Bachelor 9 outside the United States.

"Basically we are searching for a 27-33 year old single, handsome, successful, charismatic guy who would like to be whisked away to an exotic, tropical location dating 25 beautiful girls," wrote Barba.

So far there's no word if "an exotic, tropical location" is code for the same Gulf of Mexico island on which The Bachelor executive producer Mike Fleiss filmed both editions of The Real Gilligan's Island, the reality series he produced for TBS.

According to The Bachelor's casting website, all mail-in applications -- including those for women interested in being part of the show's group of bachelorettes -- are due by August 17, 2006, a deadline that would be consistent with The Bachelor 9 (assuming ABC orders it) airing as part of ABC's 2006-2007 midseason schedule.


Although it didn't start out very strongly, The Bachelor: Paris turned out to be a modest ratings success for ABC, averaging 11.5 million viewers during its February 26 two-hour finale. Overall, The Bachelor averaged averaging 9.3 million viewers during its seven episode run (a total that doesn't include The Women Tell All, which is tracked separately) -- a figure that represented a 13% increase over Spring 2005's The Bachelor 7.