Clayton Echard from Michelle’s season of ‘The Bachelorette’ premieres on January 3rd as our new Bachelor, here is everything we know about the new season so far!
After two seasons of The Bachelorette, bachelor nation is ready for some girl drama. We will miss our stacked men of the past few months, but if we know anything about the franchise, we will see them soon. Clayton Echard’s season of The Bachelor premieres at the start of 2022, three days after the new year. Read on to hear what we know so far about the tear-filled (and tongue) filled 26th season of ABC’s The Bachelor.
Who is Clayton?
In September of 2021, Clayton Echard was announced as the 26 Bachelor, leaving fans to question, why him? And who is this Clayton anyways? Well, Clayton is a 28-year-old Taurus from Columbia Missouri. He is a medical sales representative who was a walk-on football player for the University of Missouri.
Clayton was eliminated fairly early on in week 6 of Michelle Young’s The Bachelorette season 18. During his exit, Clayton emotionally expressed his genuine desire to find a partner and start a family. Because his “bachelor reign” was announced before The Bachelorette season after he was spotted filming, fans felt let down after comparing Clayton’s small impact to that of Michelle’s other men. There are a handful of gorgeous men who have something new to bring to the franchise, yet fans roll their eyes as producers chose another white dude from the Midwest.
While the past few seasons have featured some progressive strides for the franchise, fans worry this season will be a mere copy and paste from five years ago. On the other hand, an insider source told Us Weekly that they believe Clayton is in fact the best fit for the role. This season, they wanted to highlight someone who has not been in the spotlight yet. Whereas in past seasons, the fan-favorite is typically chosen as the next lead. Not only does the mystery make the series more exciting for fans and contestants, but even Michelle’s men shared their utmost confidence in Clayton’s ability to lead bachelor nation in a good direction.
Season 26 promo:
It is now about time to break down the recently released season 26 preview. The editing team nailed it with this one, showing off a lot of intimacy and drama. After all the make-out scenes, we hear Clayton admitting to two women, “I was intimate with both of you.” It hasn’t been since Juan Pablo’s season, I believe, that bachelor/contestant intimacy has messed up a lot of relationships in the house. Additionally, we hear Clayton tell multiple women that he was either falling in love with them or already in love with them! It’s clear that he is not messing around.
In this promo, fans are pleased to find out that this season will be returning to the beloved and historical Bachelor mansion in California after isolated seasons at various remote resorts. Speaking of normalcy, it seems that Clayton and his women will return to international travel. Although we see an interview of Clayton confessing to the cameras that he is “so broken,” he also told Good Morning America that he “did find love” in the end.
New host:
After the exit of longtime franchise host Chris Harrison, ex-Bachelor contestants and Bachelorettes Kaitlyn Bristowe and Tayshia Adams stepped in to host the past few seasons. They have done a fabulous job at keeping us entertained with their humor and fierce fashion. This season, we will be introduced to a new host, Jesse Palmer, who starred in season 5 of The Bachelor in 2004. Since his Bachelor debut, Jesse continued his television career as a college football analyst for ESPN and a host for shows like Spring Baking Championship and The Ultimate Surfer on ABC. Last year in June of 2020, Palmer married his longtime girlfriend, model Emely Fardo.
It’s an understatement to say that Bachelor nation has not been starved for content recently. In fact, after Clayton’s season finishes airing, we will have been treated to nearly 7 months of straight content. Additionally, another Bachelor season is rumored to air directly after Clayton’s, which will bring us to around 10 months of weekly reality love from everyone’s favorite reality romance series.
Still not sick of the hype? Make sure to catch Clayton’s season of The Bachelor Monday, January 3rd on ABC!
