Since the news broke that season 22 of “The Bachelorette” will no longer be airing as planned, fans from all over the world have been speculating on what ABC will do with the fallout.
After all, with only three days remaining until the season premiere, not only was Taylor Frankie Paul‘s season was filmed, but some episodes were ready to go. And as speculation continues, former “Bachelorette” and “Bachelor in Paradise” star Blake Horstmann is giving his inside perspective.
Blake Horstmann Reveals What Goes Into Filming a Season of ‘The Bachelorette’
On Instagram, Hortsmann, who first entered Bachelor Nation in Becca Kufrin’s season of “The Bachelorette,” explained why ABC can’t simply air another season of “The Bachelorette” with a new lead right away.
“I don’t think people understand how much works goes into these shows,” Hortsmann, who is engaged to “Love Is Blind” star Giannina Gibelli, began in the video. “And that’s okay, you shouldn’t, you wouldn’t know unless you’re in the industry or you’ve been on the show like me, you wouldn’t understand.”
“I’ve seen people act like these shows are filmed on iPhones,” he continued. “But somehow the lighting is perfect, the sound is perfect, the blocking of cameras is perfect.”
In reality, however, a lot of time, effort and money goes into every episode of the show. “At any given time, in any of the episodes, in any of the scenes that you’re watching, hundreds of people are on site,” Hortsmann detailed. “You have producers, you have light guys, you have sound guys, you have electrical guys, you have producers in the trailer watching.”
“It’s insane the amount of work that goes into these, especially for a show like “The Bachelor” that travels,” he said.
He then explained that traveling adds a whole logistics “nightmare” to the equation. “When we went to Thailand, there was a team that was in Thailand for two weeks finding places to shoot,” he remembered from his season. “Months in advance they’re setting up deals with hotels.”
“It’s months and months and months of work and thousands of hours that go into every single season, every single episode,” he said. “They’re losing hundreds of millions of dollars.”
Season 22 Was Replaced With Another Familiar Show
ABCAs Hortsmann described, season 22 not being aired does not mean the show will be reshot and re-edited anytime soon. Instead, the series was replaced on premiere nighton Sunday, March 22, at 8 p.m. ET by “American Idol.”
As a reminder, the network pulled Paul’s season on Thursday, March 19, amid the controversy surrounding the reality television star that has surfaced over the last week. The final straw for the network was a video involving Paul and her ex, Dakota Mortensen, that was released by TMZ. The two shared a two-year-old son, Ever.
“In light of the newly released video just surfaced today, we have made the decision to not move forward with the new season of ‘The Bachelorette’ at this time, and our focus is on supporting the family,” A Disney Entertainment spokesperson told TMZ.
In light of this decision, ABC is also set to lose a lot of money, as each episode costs around $2 million to produce, per TMZ.
