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ABC has already announced that Zach Shallcross, from Season 19 of The Bachelorette, will be the lead on Season 27 of The Bachelor. But will ABC ever have two leads again? 

There are plenty of fan favorites out there who could be foils for Zach and many great guys who didn’t quite finish the way they wanted to despite Bachelor Nation screaming at their collective TVs (looking at you, hair-flippy Nate Mitchell).

Two leads worked (kind of) for ‘The Bachelorette’ in 2022

Rachel Recchia and Gabby Windey kicked off their season of The Bachelorette with two leads to make up for the horrendous mess that was Clayton Echard’s version of The Bachelor. And he and Susie Evans just announced a split after being together less than a year. Ouch. Maybe sleeping with multiple finalists wasn’t the way to go after all.

But back to dual leads. Recchia and Windey started dating all of the same guys before splitting them into groups by week 3, notes Distractify. Windey quipped to Today.com, “Hopefully, I’m going to meet my husband, and hopefully, it’s not going to be the same one Rachel wants.”

Hence the conundrum, right?

Maybe two Bachelor leads would work out better

ABC could still throw Bachelor Nation a curve ball by announcing a second bachelor closer to the premier night in January. It’s a perfect scenario with the NFL playoffs in full swing.

If they decide on night one to divide the contestants based on what Bachelor they wanted to pursue, as they did part way through the recent season of The Bachelorette, could that work? It would give Zach and a fellow lead more time to decide.

Maybe they could introduce different kinds of getting-to-know-you group dates so the leads could see which women they are most interested in to go about the process more efficiently than The Bachelorette did.

How about a sports theme for two Bachelors?

'The Bachelor' season 26 lead Clayton Echard stands in front of a fireplace
Clayton Echard | John Fleenor/ABC via Getty Images
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The network might not be willing to go through another season with two leads, even though there are plenty of women (32) who will seek to win the heart of Shallcross. He’s gonna need some help. Showrunners told The Daily Beast they weren’t sure how they were going to handle two leads. 

However, rather than splitting the 32 contestants into groups based on what the leads like and don’t like after dates, why not just split them up into two teams before getting to know them? It’s like picking teams for flag football or wiffle ball back in high school. Shallcross did play college football for Cal Poly.

The young man is also a tech executive. He could use an algorithm to split the contestants into two groups. He’s driven, for sure, despite other members of Bachelor Nation claiming he’s too young to know what a commitment truly is. In his defense, he did play football AND get a tech degree. That takes commitment.

Will the next iteration of The Bachelor get not one but two leads? Find out on Jan. 23, 2023.

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