The Bachelorette host Chris Harrison has admitted Clare Crawley's previously announced pool of 32 potential bachelors may change significantly due to Season 16's production being postponed for two weeks or longer.
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Chris teased viewers may see some major changes to The Bachelorette cast once the new season actually begins production, which had originally been scheduled to have started on March 13.
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"Maybe it'll be completely different guys," Chris suggested in an Instagram live session with his girlfriend Lauren Zima on Tuesday, according to Us Weekly.
"Maybe it'll be a little mixture [of previously-announced and new guys]. Who knows? We really don't know."
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Late last week, Chris revealed "production of The Bachelorette has been postponed for two weeks, at least," due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, and in two weeks, ABC and show executives will reassess the situation.
And on Monday, Chris reportedly admitted on Instagram filming may be pushed back even more.
Since Clare is waiting for her season to begin and most people are self-quarantining themselves in light of coronavirus concerns, she suggested Tuesday on Instagram "it's not too late" for men to submit applications or be nominated for The Bachelorette's Season 16 cast.
It may be possible Clare, who will be the oldest The Bachelorette star the franchise has ever had at age 39, saw her list of potential suitors that was announced last week and isn't thrilled given more than half the men are still in their twenties.
Of the 32 bachelors ABC unveiled last week who may compete for Clare's heart, 21 of them are age 29 or younger. And one of her potential suitors is only 23 years old.
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Although ABC already publicly announced Clare's cast, Chris backed the hairstylist on her call to action and admitted Tuesday that continuing to submit applications may not be wasted effort.
"It's not such a bad idea, I mean it's not out of the realm of possibility," Chris said in his live Instagram session of extending the casting process, according to Us.
"The thought that 25, 30, 35 guys, everybody that was able to take time off and come on the Bachelorette is going to be able to come back again whenever we do this -- because we don't have a set time of when we're going to come back... the idea that everybody is going to be able to take off work and do this again [is] probably very slim."
When Chris first announced The Bachelorette's postponement over the coronavirus pandemic, he admitted on March 13 that ABC didn't feel it had much of a choice.
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"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 in an Instagram video.
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 already took time out of the lives to appear on The Bachelorette.
"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.
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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.
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"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.
"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 there were no plans to cancel the season entirely, but it remains unclear how the production delay will impact when the show begins airing on ABC.
The coronavirus pandemic has also affected production schedules of dozens of other television shows, including other reality shows like CBS' Survivor and The Amazing Race.
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