It seems Clare Crawley wasn’t Bachelorette producers’ first choice for The Bachelorette 2020 season. Find out which bachelorettes from Peter Weber’s season missed the cut!
After months of anticipation, The Bachelorette finally kicked off its new season on Oct. 13 as Clare Crawley met the 31 men vying for her affections.
While the premiere got off to a bit of a slow start thanks to the unusual nature of season 16 caused by the ongoing pandemic, once Clare’s suitors finally started to arrive the action quickly picked up. We were treated to several memorable limo entrances, watched Clare fall head-over-heels with Dale Moss and got to enjoy more than a little premiere night drama — including a showdown between two bachelors.
Clare definitely managed to get fans talking and draw new eyes to ABC‘s long-running reality series, it turns out Clare wasn’t ABC’s first pick for The Bachelorette 2020. In fact, she wasn’t even in their Top 3!
Who else did ABC consider for The Bachelorette 2020?
When Clare was announced as the latest Bachelorette, it’s fair to say there was some initial surprise from fans — not because of any dislike of Clare, but because fans have become accustomed to ABC selecting someone from the most recent season.
Looking back on Peter Weber’s season, there were more than a few memorable bachelorettes who would have made for an interesting Bachelorette and it now seems that ABC had its sights on several women from Peter’s season.
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During an interview with Variety, ABC Entertainment’s senior vice president of alternative series, specials & late-night programming Rob Mills revealed that the ABC brass was looking into four women from Peter’s season for season 16 of The Bachelorette.
"“Well, Madison [Prewett] was not really an option because Peter still had feelings with her,” Mills revealed. “From Peter’s season, we met with Victoria P. and Victoria F. And then we met with Tia [Booth] who is fantastic, and then we met with Tayshia [Adams].”"
Color us surprised!
While we’re not surprised to see the two Victoria’s were considered for The Bachelorette season 16 given how much drama they found themselves entangled in during Peter’s season. Victoria F., in particular, was viewed as more of a villain during Peter’s season making it even more intriguing to discover she was almost selected over Clare.
Luckily, ABC’s brass took note of how loved Clare is by viewers and the maturity she brings to the role in her readiness to settle down setting the stage for what promises to be a season for the history books!
"“Clare is loved by viewers of The Bachelor, but there were also plenty of viewers who didn’t know her and they do like [that] she’s a bit older. At least, that’s what I saw on Twitter. One of the criticisms of Peter’s season is that some of the girls seemed awfully young and the audience was questioning if they were ready to settle down. No one can argue with the fact that Clare is ready,” Mills noted of ABC’s decision to cast Clare over anyone from Peter Weber’s season."
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