Should Ben Smith be the next Bachelor?

Season 25 of The Bachelor, starring Matt James, has only just begun, but that hasn’t stopped Bachelor Nation from speculating about who will take the lead in 2022–and many are rooting for Ben Smith.

Is it too early for this? Maybe. After all, there will be another season of The Bachelorette and a whole new crop of potential Bachelors before then. Still, Brad Womack 2.0, Nick Viall, and Arie Luyendyk Jr. have all shown us that ABC isn’t afraid to go back in time to pick their next lead. A man from Season 16 of The Bachelorette stands a decent chance of handing out the roses in the future.

Ben Smith might just be a top candidate. The Army veteran stood out after he opened up to Tayshia Adams about his eating disorder and previous suicide attempts, but he was unable to voice his love for her and Tayshia eliminated him after hometowns. Although he returned later and met her family, things didn’t work out, and they parted ways once again before she got engaged to Zac Clark.

Since then, many fans have cheered for Ben Smith to get a second chance at love as the Bachelor for Season 26. “Obviously we are all on the same page, right? #BenForBachelor”, fan @MoniAvila6 tweeted, tagging the official Bachelorette account for good measure.

Another fan, @emily_honeywell, declared that Ben as the Bachelor would finally make her apply.

Former Bachelorette Rachel Lindsay is convinced that “Ben 1,000 percent wants to be the Bachelor” (though she doesn’t love the idea). He hasn’t confirmed or denied this, but in some ways, a Ben season makes sense. ABC loves a star with a built-in story arc, and Ben’s would be compelling –  a man who once struggled to express himself tears down his walls and finds his happy ending. But not everyone is aboard the #BenForBachelor train.

The day Bachelor Nation universally agrees on a new lead will never come, but the debate over Ben Smith is more fraught than usual. His story has uniquely resonated with many viewers, so the question “should Ben be the next Bachelor?” has several much more complicated questions tied up in it. It has opened some difficult conversations about the stigmatization of mental illness and the potential for exploitation of vulnerable people on a public stage.

For example, a user on The Bachelor subreddit wrote that “I think bachelor [sic] would be really bad for Bens [sic] mental health and growth. He’s better off staying away from this franchise.”

In an “Unpopular Opinion” thread, another user argued that Ben should not have come on The Bachelorette at all only a year after his last suicide attempt. “I think allowing him on was f**ked up and exploitative. This has nothing to do with Ben being a genuine person, which I think he is, and he has every right to fall in love and he deserves happiness and a good relationship etc.etc. [sic] …But reality tv shows can be very dangerous spaces for people with ongoing mental health struggles.”

These worries aren’t unreasonable. A contestant on The Bachelorette is almost guaranteed to experience a fall from grace once he becomes the Bachelor. When he’s devoted to one woman and receiving an edit designed to elicit maximum sympathy, he is dreamy, sweet, and sensitive. When he’s in the driver’s seat and inevitably sending fan favorites home, the audience will deem him boring, shallow, and stupid (or worse). This backlash happens literally every season; though Ben is popular now, it’s unlikely that he would be an exception.

There’s no shortage of franchise stars who have struggled because of the criticism. Blake Horstmann, for example, was adored on Becca Kufrin’s season of The Bachelorette, but a messy love triangle on Bachelor in Paradise resulted in a wave of public vitriol. He wrote in an Instagram post a year later that he became “severely depressed” and “could barely get out of bed” while Paradise aired. Plus, the filming process itself can be very taxing – Kaitlyn Bristowe, who headed The Bachelorette Season 11, revealed that she literally started balding because of the stress.

With that history in mind, it’s easy to see why some viewers find the prospect of Ben Smith as the Bachelor concerning. But others believe that it’s unfair to bar him from opportunities in the franchise because of his past. When some fans accused producers of pressuring Ben to share his story with Tayshia, a Reddit user wrote that “I HATE this narrative that people with mental health issues or who have attempted suicide are like made of glass, [sic] and could just shatter at any moment, and other people should tiptoe around us because we’re just permanently damaged. Ben is a fully grown adult. He knew what kind of show he was signing up for.”

That’s a fair point, too. Just because someone has a mental illness doesn’t mean they can’t decide what’s best for them. It’s good to be mindful of reality TV’s emotional toll, but Ben has his own autonomy. Nobody but him knows whether he would be ready to be the lead.

So, where does this leave us? In my opinion, we need to recognize the show’s poor record with mental health issues and encourage them to treat their cast members responsibly. But it’s also important not to invalidate Ben’s choices.

Hopefully, these conversations will help us remember that we’re all only human. Bachelor Nation can’t make Ben’s decisions, but we can make our own, and everyone should choose to have grace for Matt James and whoever comes after him. Whether it’s Ben or not, we can all wish him a happy and healthy 2021.

Do you think Ben Smith is a good choice for the next Bachelor? Let us know in the comments!

The Bachelor Season 25 airs every Monday on ABC at 8 PM EST!