The Bachelorette: Production postponed due to coronavirus

Well, it’s official–The Bachelorette is officially postponed due to further notice due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Following other networks, movies, and television show productions, ABC has officially halted production on Clare Crawley’s season of The Bachelorette due to concerns surrounding the coronavirus.

Our resident sleuths at Bachsleuthers suspiciously noted this morning that several of the contestants went public on Instagram and their accounts had an uptick in followers. Further, ABC deleted the cast photos on Facebook earlier prior to the announcement.

We had a feeling that would all culminate in postponement, but it’s disheartening nonetheless.

Entertainment Weekly first broke the news just earlier today.

Particularly, I was looking forward to a clean slate from Meet The Webers and was excited to see how Clare would fare with a few more years under her belt and a sense of conviction. They have notably not announced a change in the premiere date, but it’s hard to surmise how they pull this all together by May 18. We may be getting a summer ‘Ette at best.

Further, we’re entering unprecedented waters with releasing the contestants seemingly back into the wild – I can’t imagine them holding them hostage in the mansion until further notice. This is a bit alarming.

We’ve seen…well, more than a few contestants let the show fame get to their head, but these guys have a sense of notoriety now but may be sent home in the interim. I fear that we’ll be getting a lot of unpalatable information through the rumor mill. Boys, please do not do Clare dirty while playing hookie.

Many of us were disappointed in the lack of age-appropriate men, despite ABC’s repeated assurance that they would be casting older contestants. The silver lining could be a recast of everyone under 25. In any event, here’s hoping that things calm down in the next coming weeks, and we’ll have something to look forward to after Listen To Your Heart.

Did you guys see this coming? Do you think we’ll still get a Bachelorette season this spring? Let us know your thoughts.

For more information about COVID-19, visit the CDC’s website or the website for your state’s Department of Health.