Chris Harrison admits production of The Bachelorette's sixteenth season starring Clare Crawley may end up being postponed longer than the two weeks initially projected.
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The Bachelorette host went live on Instagram with girlfriend and Entertainment Tonight reporter Lauren Zima on Monday and addressed concerns about the future of Clare's The Bachelorette season, which was originally scheduled to begin filming on Friday, March 13.
"I can't tell you a whole lot more than what I told you on Instagram the other day and that is, we're on hold right now. We're calling a two-week postponement -- hopefully, it will be a two-week postponement -- but look, the way things are changing out there and cities are closing down and restaurants and bars and you know, is it going to be two weeks? Who knows," Chris said in the video, according to Us Weekly.
"Who knows how long this is going to go and how long this thing needs to run its course. We're just going to do what is best for Clare, best for everybody's safety and health-wise."
When Chris first announced The Bachelorette's postponement, he admitted ABC didn't feel it had much of a choice.
"Things are not changing by the day; they are changing by the hour. But I was consulted about this. It was not only the right thing to do; it was the only thing to do," Chris had said March 13 on Instagram.
But Chris insisted in the video the decision to push off filming was still "hard to make" considering so many people work to create the show and the cast of Clare's bachelors took time out of the lives to appear on The Bachelorette.
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"This is massive. Jobs will be lost, paychecks will be lost, and there's just no way to avoid that, and that doesn't avoid the fact that this was still the right thing to do and the only thing to do," Chris had explained.
Warner Bros. Television Group, which produces all Bachelor spinoffs, also issued a statement to Us on March 13 announcing production of The Bachelorette was going to be delayed.
"With the rapidly changing events related to COVID-19, and out of an abundance of caution, Warner Bros. Television Group is halting production on some of our 70-plus series and pilots currently filming or about to begin," The Bachelorette's production company told the magazine in a statement.
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELORETTE' COUPLES NOW"There have been no confirmed cases of COVID-19 on any of our productions, but the health and safety of our employees, casts and crews remains our top priority. During this time, we will continue to follow the guidance of the Centers for Disease Control as well as local officials and public health professionals in each city where our productions are based."
A source told Us at the time, however, there were no plans to cancel the season entirely.
Clare's season of The Bachelorette was set to premiere on Monday, May 18, but it remains unclear how the production delay will impact when the show begins airing on ABC.
Chris reportedly acknowledged on Monday he's well aware there will be "a little bit of a hole" for Bachelor viewers when it comes to TV viewing.
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"I can feel that loss by everybody because we're quarantined and we're sitting in our homes, we're looking for stuff to do," Chris told ET's Lauren.
"Something is missing and there is also this huge need out there while we're quarantined and sheltering in place and doing the right thing so how do we fill that void? How can the Bachelor world and Bachelor Nation fill that? And we don't have an answer -- I'll just tell you that right now -- but we're all collectively trying to figure something out."
Clare, 38, was announced as The Bachelorette's Season 16 star on the March 2 episode of Good Morning America. She will be the oldest woman to ever take on the leading role, and her cast of 32 potential bachelors was just announced last week.
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Earlier this month, CBS postponed the back-to-back production of Survivor's 41st and 42nd seasons.
Season 41 of Survivor was supposed to begin filming on March 24 in the Mamanuca Islands in Fiji, however Survivor host and executive producer Jeff Probst informed crew members that cameras will not start rolling until at least May due to the coronavirus pandemic, Entertainment Weekly reported.
Season 42 of Survivor was reportedly set to begin filming on May 24, a few weeks after Season 41 was scheduled to wrap production.
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Assuming the two-month delay isn't extended further, both Survivor seasons will still reportedly be filmed in time to maintain their original premiere dates.
Survivor's 41st season is expected to debut in September 2020, while CBS plans to premiere Season 42 of the franchise in February 2021.
And last month, CBS had to suspend production of Season 33 of The Amazing Race after filming its third leg due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Amazing Race's Season 33 teams had reportedly already traveled to England and Scotland prior to the sudden suspension of the show's production.
While it has yet to air on CBS -- or even have a premiere date announced -- The Amazing Race's 32nd season already completed filming over a year ago.
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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
