It’s been a crazy summer for fans of the Bachelor franchise. The last few months were packed with Carly and Evan’s wedding, Rachel’s search for love and, most importantly, the Bachelor in Paradise scandal with DeMario Jackson and Corinne Olympios. The summer winding down equates to the premiere of the controversial BiP season that temporarily shut down production after DeMario and Corinne were tied to a case of alleged sexual misconduct. Entertainment Weekly reports that host Chris Harrison has finally revealed how the show, which resumed filming after no misconduct was confirmed, plans to handle the event.
“It’s going to be literally dealt with the moment we come on the air,” Harrison said of the shutdown. “We’ll start talking about it right away and start dealing with it. If you don’t, it’s the elephant in the room and then it will taint the entire season. So we want to show everybody and then get on with Paradise because there are some wonderful things that are going to be happening.”
The only thing that won’t be shown is the exact moment involving the scandal surrounding DeMario and Corinne. However, footage from before the incident will still air. “A lot of people had arrived, there had been dates, we’d gotten to the point where there was about to be our first rose ceremony—so we had a week’s worth of stuff [that] we didn’t want to just throw that away because that’s what impacted the show and it’s what led to the shutdown,” Harrison explained.
Harrison promised that he will appear on the program explaining what happened when the show reaches that point chronologically. “To the best of my knowledge, you’re going to see more than enough to show you what was happening that led up to the shutdown, within certain taste and values of what we can show on network TV,” he said.
Cast members from the upcoming season have also spoken about what’s to come. Vinny Ventiera, who originally appeared on JoJo Fletcher’s Bachelorette season, told HuffPost, “It was a negative situation that was turned into a positive now with a public network and a television show because those are situations people deal with every day and now someone can watch this and say, ‘I had a similar situation and I’m not afraid to go public about it.’”
I don’t know about you, but I’ll definitely feel a sense of discomfort and uncertainty when BiP airs on Aug. 14. Bachelor Nation will have to wait and see how well this situation is handled.