The Bachelorette's eleventh season will wrap with Kaitlyn Bristowe choosing between Nick Viall and Shawn Booth on Monday night's episode at 8PM ET/PT on ABC. Only one week later, on August 3, fans can anticipate the debut of Bachelor in Paradise.

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During a recent conference call with reporters, host Chris Harrison teased The Bachelorette's finale as one of the most dramatic ever, while he insists Bachelor in Paradise's format works and the show will likely end with at least one couple in love.

Below is a part of Chris' lengthy The Bachelorette interview. Check back with Reality TV World soon for the concluding portion.

Will Bachelor in Paradise's second edition be any different from its first?  Is it exactly the same format?  Are you expecting some more long-lasting relationships or just a lot of hook-ups?

Chris Harrison: Yes.  All of that.  You know, the great thing about Paradise is, you know, there are some returning cast members, but there's a lot of new cast members. 

And when you plug that many people into it, you put them on a beach and, you know, that's all they're doing is dating, you're bound to have all of those things -- the drama, the romance, the hook-ups, the love triangles.  But also, you know, at the end of it, the whole goal is to find love and I think we're going to find that as well.

Was it really difficult for you to decide to read the tweets on The Men Tell All, and how did you react to protect Kaitlyn from the hurt?

Chris Harrison: It was really difficult to decide to read the tweets.  And I read over them and we okay'd them with Kaitlyn and she had read them.  She knew about them, so nothing was going to be a surprise.  We made sure of that, that she knew exactly what was going to happen.

But I didn't realize and anticipate how difficult it was going to be to read it in front of a studio audience -- read it in front of her.  We've talked about it and I know exactly what's been said and written.  But, you know, I've never been in a case where I've actually read them out loud to her.

And so, that was difficult because even though obviously they weren't my words, it was hard to say, but I felt like it was important to do that.  So I really respect her for allowing us to kind of use her as the vehicle and the voice to do that, because that's not easy. 

And again, that says a lot because it's embarrassing, it's hurtful and it's tough to hear that stuff.  And so, I really respect her for that and I was appreciative and I thanked her for it.  And I apologized.  Even though it wasn't me, I still apologized to her afterwards for doing it. 

It was brutal, but again, maybe that's why it was so important to do it.  At least I felt like it was important and, again, maybe it's because I'm a dad, I'm making a bigger deal out of it.  But, you know, I'm also a little bit tied to the Kind Campaign. 

You guys might know that because of Aaron Paul.  It's his wife Lauren Paul and my former assistant Molly [who] actually created Kind Campaign.  So I've been kind of involved in the anti-bullying thing for some time now and I kind of believe in it and I think it's a big deal.

Do you think that because of all the bullying Kaitlyn faced this season people are going to change the way they view The Bachelor and maybe pull it in a little bit on social media?

Chris Harrison: You hope, you know, that is my hope.  That's my dream.  My hope is that we start a discussion and that's kind of how everything happens.  You know, change -- real change -- takes time.  Things don't happen overnight. 

But, you know, there's a discussion going on and that's a good thing, and that's all I want.  You know, The Bachelor has always raised the level of debate on social issues whether -- honestly from the beginning, it was having The Bachelor itself. 

And remember, The Bachelorette was a hugely controversial issue and situation when we brought [Trista Rehn] in.  And she caught a lot of backlash.  I talked to her about it over the years.  And so, we've always pushed these hot-button topics and I'm glad that we have these discussions. 

Again, as a father of two, I think it's important.  And again, I want people to remember and understand it's not that I want everyone to be positive and lovey-dovey.  That's not the case and nothing changes and nothing gets better with everybody being positive.

There needs to be the dissenters; you know, outrage; people that are really angry about it or disgusted or whatever.  Whatever the situation or whatever the topic that's good, you need that.  But it's just the way in which you present it.  You can present your case and make a point without being hurtful and hateful.

Typically on the show, a Bachelorette's Final 2 suitors are friendly, or at least things are amicable between them.  What should we expect for the finale given how much we all know Nick and Shawn are definitely not friends?

Chris Harrison: Yes.  You know, this definitely isn't going to be one of those cases where Nick or Shawn feels good about, "Well, at least the other person's a good guy."  You're right.  They just don't like each other.  If they don't get along, they will never get along probably.  They don't see eye to eye. 

And you put on top of that the fact they're in love with the same woman.  It's not going to get better anytime soon.  And that leads to a difficult situation for Kaitlyn too because she's not only trying to make a huge life decision -- a life-altering decision -- but one that she knows the other guy is going to be very much affected by. 

Either Shawn or Nick will be truly upset and affected by this decision.  And so, you know, it definitely creates more havoc, more emotion and more drama where she's trying to make this decision.

Why decide to create an after show for Bachelor in Paradise?  What's going to go down on that?

Chris Harrison: Well, I think it's, you know, I hate to call us guinea pigs, but I think essentially we kind of are on the network level.  This show has never been done before.  You know, we've done the tell-alls and stuff like that.

And you've seen it on cable where, you know, Andy Cohen's done his show, Walking Dead.  But those types of shows really haven't been attempted on network TV.  And really, there's no other show that, socially, is as relevant as The Bachelor. 

It is, in my opinion -- and maybe you guys are better people to ask -- but I think it's the most socially relevant show on TV right now.  Yes, you know, obviously, it's trending every Monday night.  It fills every magazine and it's not even this season.  It could be former couples, whatever it is. 

So this show, unlike probably any other show on network TV, lends itself to a social medium like an after show.  So we're going to try it with Bachelor in Paradise and we're going to give it a shot.  And again, who knows if people will love it, if they will gravitate towards it?  Maybe they'll hate it.  I don't know. 

It's really exciting for me as a host and as a broadcaster and as student of the game to try something new.  It's a little bit scary and, you know, I'm not sure how it's going to go.  So we'll see, but I'm excited about it.

Click here and here to read portions of Chris' The Bachelorette interview with reporters. Check back with Reality TV World soon for the last part.


About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski

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