“The Bachelorette” has a game plan for when production resumes on Clare Crawley’s season this summer amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
During an appearance Wednesday on “On Air with Ryan Seacrest,” ABC exec Rob Mills confirmed that filming will start in a month.
“We’re going to be at one location, and everyone will be tested a week before, everyone comes back negative, we shoot and they’re inside that bubble, basically,” he said.
Shortly after Crawley, 39, was named “The Bachelorette” in March, production was halted due to the global health crisis. Unlike previous seasons — which also included international travel — Mills said Crawley’s journey won’t feature dates at the “Bachelor” mansion.
“They won’t be at the ‘Bachelor’ mansion, they will be at some sort of resort, and we’ve scouted several of them and all of them have been scouted for good date locations,” Mills said.
“It will not be as over-the-top, we had incredible travel planned for Clare’s season. We would have gone to Italy, all these places that were going to be great. This will be great, but there will be plenty of different date locations that will feel hopefully as close to ‘The Bachelorette’ as possible,” he continued.
As for Matt James, who became the first black “Bachelor” in franchise history last week, Mills said they’re hoping to start shooting his season in late September.
“We’ll see where the world is, hopefully, that’s one where we would be at the ‘Bachelor’ mansion, maybe there’s some travel, maybe it’s just domestic, maybe it’s by bus, but we’ll see,” Mills said. “If things aren’t that safe, we’ll shoot it the same way where everybody is safe, they’re tested, they’re quarantined. And then you can have kissing, arguing, and everything else.”
James, 28, was originally cast as a suitor on Crawley’s season.