Before Covid-19 shut down the world in March, the next Bachelorette had been announced as Clare Crawley. If you are like me and have not watched the show for very long, you didn't know who Clare was. I thought maybe they did what several people were speculating about and chose a random lead, which has not happened in a while. Soon after that announcement, and the announcement of the men on her season, the world shut down and filming of her season, which typically starts around the middle of March, was postponed.
Then, in the midst of everything going on in the world, they announced the lead for the newest season of the Bachelor as Matt James. The announcement of "The Bachelor" typically doesn't happen until after "The Bachelorette" and "Bachelor in Paradise" airs. Then, it was announced that for this season the cast will not leave the resort where they are filming at all, along with other precautions. Now, they are in quarantine and starting to film the show. But, I think there are things we can learn about Clare before her season airs, especially if you are like me and are fairly new to Bachelor Nation.
She's the oldest Bachelorette in the show's history, but that isn't bad.
Clare Crawley is 39 years old, making her the oldest Bachelorette in the show's history. From this, I think we can see that ABC wanted a change in dynamics. The past few seasons have not been very successful from Peter not finding love until the show was over, to Hannah B getting engaged to someone in a relationship, and with Colton and Cassie breaking up. With this season having a more mature cast, maybe there will be a better success for Clare's journey at love. I hope that, with the more mature cast, there will be the possibility of more mature conversations at dates that viewers will get to see. I think possibly that the cast will be better prepared to settle down with Clare, and actually fall in love.
She is from a former Bachelor season, and her ending there wasn't pretty from what I've read.
Clare is coming from Juan Pablo's season of The Bachelor in 2014. This shows that ABC somewhat agreed with the fans who wanted a fresh start, after Peter's somewhat disastrous season. ABC could have very easily picked someone not related to the show, which has not happened in quite a while and some viewers were asking for it. Hopefully, with her age and the experiences she had with Juan Pablo, she will have better luck than previous leads have. If you don't know, here is an article that vaguely talks about what happened between her and Juan Pablo. Viewers wanted her as The Bachelorette after this had happened but Andi Dorfman was chosen.
They had to recast her season, twice.
When ABC announced the men of her season the first time, they faced backlash for not casting men closer to her age. The first cast list had men as young as 23 for the 39-year-old lead making at least a 16-year age difference. They then had to recast before they postponed filming to get the men closer to her age. Then, after deciding to start filming again, they had to recast some men again. This included for Matt James, who was originally going to be on her season but is now the first male Bachelor. Now she has 42 men with her on this journey for love.
Overall, I am glad they picked a lead from an older season, even if there were some decent options from Peter's season. I am also glad they didn't just pick someone random, like a Kardashian, which has been thrown around for years. The more I learn about Clare, the more excited I get for her season. I just hope it comes soon. But with Covid-19 being as unpredictable as ever, who knows when it will air?
