The Bachelor host Jesse Palmer has revealed the most shocking thing that happened on Clayton Echard's season hasn't even been teased in one of the Season 26 trailers.
|
ADVERTISEMENT
|
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' FRANCHISE COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER?? (PHOTOS)
But Jesse said the most shocking part of Clayton's journey to find love "is something we don't know about yet," according to Us Weekly.
"You're going to have to tune in and watch," Jesse, 43, told Us on Tuesday.
"We have very smart people on the show with respect to what they're putting out and how they're editing everything and putting it together, but there are multiple, multiple moments that I think are gonna be very, very eye-opening for our viewers at home."
Jesse went on to share, "I know we always say, 'It's the most dramatic season,' [but] Clayton's season [is] the most dramatic season ever because there's so many things that have never happened before."
Jesse starred on The Bachelor's fifth season in 2004 and replaced longtime host Chris Harrison for the show's 2022 season.
Jesse said his return to the franchise was nostalgic and he realized The Bachelor host must wear many hats, from simply acting as a soundboard for the lead to sometimes behaving like a therapist.
"As the host, there were moments where I was kind of sitting there going, 'Whoa, like, 'This didn't happen on my season. I don't know where we're going right now,'" Jesse noted.
Jesse suggested that Clayton followed his heart and didn't let producers get in his head.
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELORETTE' COUPLES NOW: WHOM DID 'THE BACHELORETTE' STARS AND THEIR BACHELOR PICKS ULTIMATELY END UP WITH?! (PHOTOS)
"One thing people need to know about Clayton's season, in general, is that on The Bachelor, there just are no rules and Clayton is willing to do whatever it takes to find his person. He's gonna take risks, he's gonna take chances," Jesse shared.
FOLLOW REALITY TV WORLD ON THE ALL-NEW GOOGLE NEWS!
Reality TV World is now available on the all-new Google News app and website. Click here to visit our Google News page, and then click FOLLOW to add us as a news source!
"We've already seen a little bit of that in the first couple episodes, but I think fans moving forward -- they've already seen some of it -- but they're gonna see things on this season that they haven't seen in 20 years of watching The Bachelor."
ABC did not air a new episode of The Bachelor on Monday night due to the NFL playoffs, but then the series returns on January 24, the story will pick up right where footage had left off.
"We've got a cliffhanger right now, for sure. [Sierra Jackson] has just informed Clayton that [Cassidy Timbrooks] may have a 'friend with benefits,'" Jesse recalled.
"Of course, Clayton [has] at this point sort of established a pretty strong connection with Cassidy right out the gate."
Clayton was shown questioning whether he should rescind Cassidy's group-date rose considering she had allegedly been FaceTiming with a "f-ck buddy" back home while quarantining in her hotel prior to the start of Season 26 production.
"[He asked] me at the end of that last episode, 'Has anybody ever given a rose back before?'" Jesse said, adding, "We're sort of at pretty big moment right now with respect to kind of learning about Clayton, and what he's willing to do moving forward to find his person."
Clayton hasn't exactly been a popular choice for The Bachelor star, but Jesse insisted the 28-year-old orthopedic sales representative and former college football player is a sincere and great guy.
"As I've gotten to know him so much better as time goes on, he's really a guy I think is so genuine, so sweet and caring, and so deserving of this opportunity. He's someone I'm really rooting for," Jesse told the magazine.
ADVERTISEMENT
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' COUPLES NOW: WHO DID 'THE BACHELOR' STARS AND THEIR BACHELORETTE PICKS ACTUALLY END UP MARRYING? (PHOTOS)
Jesse reminded fans how Clayton had cried on Michelle Young's The Bachelorette season last year because he wants to get married and have children more than anything.
"He's nervous because he knows this is such a big opportunity for him," Jesse shared.
The Bachelor host also noted how Clayton had experienced "the whole spectrum of emotion" while filming the show -- excitement, feelings of self-doubt, and more -- and it was a taxing journey for him.
"He surrenders to this process. He really lets himself go to give himself the best chance, which I think you have to do," Jesse explained.
"And when you do that, you can become pretty emotionally vulnerable, and I think Clayton figured that out this season."
Clayton recently told Glamour that he's happy and in a good spot after wrapping up The Bachelor.
"I was a little skeptical going into the whole journey," Clayton shared on Good Morning America in November 2021, "but I'm so pleasantly surprised that things worked out much different than what I had thought."
Clayton went into The Bachelor with "a checklist of sorts" and hoped to find a woman who is "funny, intelligent, driven, [and] put forth effort.
"What I found is very quickly the women blew my expectations out of the water. They brought all of that and so much more," Clayton teased at the time, adding, "I realized that, ultimately, I was going to find everything that I wanted and so much more."
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' FRANCHISE COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER?? (PHOTOS)
Interested in more The Bachelor news? Join our The Bachelor Facebook Group.
About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
