Matt James’ The Bachelor Season Will Begin Shooting This Month for Planned January Premiere

Bachelor Nation is getting back on schedule for 2021. With filming completed on the unique upcoming season of The Bachelorette as of Sept. 1, Matt James‘ season of The Bachelor will begin shooting later this month with plans to air in January, Deadline reports. Starting filming in September and premiering in January is the traditional Bachelor schedule, so this means the reality franchise is returning to normal after joining the rest of the world in being shaken up by the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, with Bachelor in Paradise‘s season canceled and The Bachelorette pushed back several months and filmed at a single location in a quarantine “bubble.” The Bachelor, like The Bachelorette, will be filmed in a bubble. 

“Right before we started, around July 4, as excited as everyone was to get it started, we’d heard about other productions that had had outbreaks even in a bubble and had to shut down. So, for us, starting was not the victory, it was the finish. The fact that it’s in the can and we have an entire season of The Bachelorette that will air is fantastic. It’s a big deal to have all of our signature shows on this fall,” Rob Mills, ABC’s head of Alternative Series, Specials & Late-Night Programming, told Deadline. Dancing with the Stars will also return this fall. 

ABC and studio Warner Bros. have not confirmed, but it’s an open secret that the upcoming season of The Bachelorette will be unlike any other, as lead Clare Crawley was reportedly replaced by Tayshia Adams midway through the season after falling in love with one of her contestants and refusing to continue the season. Both Bachelorettes are expected to lead this season. 

The Bachelorette premieres Tuesday, Oct. 13 at 8/7c on ABC. 

Clare Crawley, Tayshia AdamsPhoto: Paul Hebert, ABC/John Fleenor, ABC