The Bachelorette host Chris Harrison acknowledges the announcement of Rachel Lindsay starring on Season 13 was really early -- but he has a good reason for that.
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Harrison understood that by naming Lindsay the next Bachelorette when she's still in the running for Nick Viall's heart on The Bachelor, fans are "led to believe she didn't get picked by Nick" in the end.
After all, The Bachelor's 21st season hasn't even aired Lindsay's hometown date with Viall in Dallas, TX, yet. Her chemistry with Viall has been so strong up until now that her inevitable elimination came as a bit of a shock.
"Here's the thing, in all seriousness, I just want to say this in front of everyone: it's Kelly's fault," Harrison joked before getting to the truth of the matter.
"So, can we clear something up? First of all, I am so excited it's Rachel. I adore this woman. She's going to be fantastic. She's great. She's a star. She just has this star quality about her."
After pointing out to her viewers that Lindsay will be the franchise's first-ever black Bachelorette, Ripa agreed with Harrison that she's lovely and "sparkles" on TV. Harrison nodded his head and added that the confident attorney also has "charisma."
"We named her the Bachelorette early because weird TV calendar stuff is that The Bachelor runs right up to when we start taping The Bachelorette," Harrison continued. "Like, we're talking days [and] we're done. And [Rachel] goes further in the show and we're like, 'Well we need to let everybody know that Rachel's our Bachelorette. We would like to cast the show for her.'"
In other words, the earlier ABC reveals the next Bachelorette, the more time they have to cast the right men -- a solid group of suitors who are truly invested in finding love, particularly with Lindsay this season.
"We cast all year long, but like we did with Nick, it's easier with The Bachelor because the calendar is different leading into it," Harrison explained to Ripa. "But we wanted everyone to know it's Nick so we can find people that really want to be with Nick. And so we want to cast the show for Rachel, but we can't do that in two days."
And the plan makes sense because a source recently told Us Weekly, "The response has been amazing about Rachel. There's been a huge spike in casting. Rachel is open to different types of guys. So it'll be a mix of different types and races of guys for her season."
Harrison apologized to fans about "the timing" of the announcement several days ago on Instagram, saying he'd hate to ruin anything for Bachelor Nation, but he's so excited about casting Lindsay.
"I'm wondering why she's doing [the show]," Harrison said, as if she's too good for it. "She's beautiful, smart -- love her!"
About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
