The Bachelorette host Chris Harrison has revealed the status of production on Season 16 and whether Clare Crawley can expect to begin filming soon.
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Now that three weeks have gone by, Bachelor Nation has been waiting for news on when cameras will start rolling, but Chris unfortunately doesn't have much of an update to give.
"Until we can do this show and do it safely, we won't do it," Chris told People in a recent interview.
"Right now we are just on hold and it's being postponed. But we're all chomping at the bit to get back to it and to have Clare be our Bachelorette."
Given The Bachelorette's initial cast of 32 bachelors has already been announced by ABC, fans have been wondering if Clare is spending her free time looking up the male suitors and doing research on them and their social media accounts.
"Oh, probably," Chris admitted. "Yeah. I'm sure the first thing I would've done, if I got my phone back, was check out the contestants."
Clare suggested last month "it's not too late" for men to submit applications or be nominated for her The Bachelorette cast, so it's possible Clare -- who will be the oldest The Bachelorette star ever at age 39 -- saw her list of potential suitors and isn't impressed considering 21 of them are age 29 or younger.
Although Clare has been given the opportunity to essentially do a background check on each of her bachelors, Chris said she's still bothered by the delay in filming.
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"Like everybody, she's frustrated," Chris confessed.
"She's safe and she's doing what she's supposed to do, but that means she's sequestered at home and she lives by herself. Bad timing for Clare."
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELORETTE' COUPLES NOWChris pointed out, "It would have been great right after. She could have been quarantined with the man of her dreams, but now she just has to sit and think about being the Bachelorette."
As Chris previously discussed, coronavirus may affect Clare's final lineup of bachelors.
Some of the previously-announced men may be sick or unable to take more time off from work and participate, and so new bachelors may be added to the cast.
"If you use your common sense, you have to think, 'Okay, out of all these people, are they all going to be healthy?' You pray to God that they all are, but what happens if some of these people are infected? What happens if some of them get severely sick?" Chris reasoned.
"I mean, [Colton Underwood] went down, so once the smoke clears and this virus subsides and we think, 'Okay, let's get back to work.' It's going to be a brave new world and we're all going to have to reassess everything."
Chris also revealed The Bachelorette will talk about coronavirus when the show returns and quarantine regulations will almost certainly affect Clare's conversations and physical interactions with the men.
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"When we shoot Clare's season, it's going to be indicative of what's happening in the world. Obviously there will be talks of the pandemic and, 'What were you doing quarantining and who were you with?' Those are going to be the conversations that we're going to embrace," Chris shared with People.
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Since production of The Bachelorette's next season has been pushed back so drastically, it's possible Bachelor in Paradise's seventh season may be in jeopardy of postponement or cancellation as well.
Chris, however, assured the magazine those conversations are "so premature."
"It's all about the calendar," Chris explained. "It's all about time and all we can do is sit and wait for this thing to subside. And then, we can start having those serious conversations."
In the meantime, Chris has been quarantining himself with his girlfriend Lauren Zima for the past two weeks.
When Chris first announced The Bachelorette's postponement over coronavirus concerns, he admitted on March 13 that 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 in an Instagram video.
But Chris insisted in the video the decision to push off filming was still "hard to make."
"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 Weekly on March 13 announcing production of The Bachelorette was going to be delayed "out of an abundance of caution."
"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," said the production company.
The coronavirus pandemic has affected production schedules of dozens of other reality TV shows. Not only is ABC reportedly scrapping The Bachelor Summer Games, but CBS has also postponed filming new seasons of Survivor and The Amazing Race.
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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
