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The Bachelor producers have done it again. On the most recent episode, Peter Weber gives Victoria Fuller the coveted one-on-one date. They ride rollercoasters in an empty amusement park, but then comes the real thrill: dancing along to the music of country artist Chase Rice, who just so happens to be Fuller’s ex (or something like it) in concert. Rice was once a college football player, and later in a pit crew for NASCAR. But he’s also been on reality TV before The Bachelor. Which television show did Rice compete on ten years ago?

Victoria F on The Bachelor
Victoria Fuller on The Bachelor | Eric McCandless/ABC via Getty Images

Chase Rice was on a reality show before ‘The Bachelor’: he was a cast member of ‘Survivor’

The Ringer’s Juliet Litman talked about Rice on her podcast Bachelor Party with her guest Lauren Zima. Zima is The Bachelor host Chris Harrison’s girlfriend; she also works for Entertainment Tonight. The two Bachelor experts discussed Fuller’s ex at length.

“I remember when Chase was on Survivor, I watched that season. It was like ten years ago,” Litman said.

“You have just dropped a bomb on me,” Zima responded. “I did not know he was on Survivor.”

The cast of Survivor
The cast of Survivor: Nicaragua | Monty Brinton/CBS via Getty Images

“Yes! He was on Survivor ten years ago,” Litman confirmed. “He got voted out pretty early.” (She actually has that fact wrong: he was the runner-up of the season). “But he was like, handsome.”

“Wow,” Zima replied. “So maybe this is why Chase is so empathetic to Victoria in all this because he knows what it’s like to like, go a reality show.” Both women commended Rice on his advice for Fuller in the Bachelor episode.

However, the difference between the reality shows? Survivor contestants don’t really come out famous or at the very least, they don’t get teeth whitener Instagram ad deals.

“He’s one of the few people from Survivor who’s gone on to have a second career,” Litman said.

Zima and Litman also discussed how Rice had been booked for this episode of season 24

How much producer intervention was involved in this “surprise” country star concert?

“I heard Chase was booked for the date before casting had been completed,” Litman offered. She believes it was a “lucky coincidence.” She clarified:

I think it’s coincidental that Victoria ended up on the season for which Chase was booked. I think once they found out Victoria had a past with Chase, they put her on that date.

But some argue that Fuller could have brought up her storied past earlier in the date with Pilot Pete.

“When should she have told him?” Zima asked.

“I think she could have slipped in, ‘Oh my god, I know him,’ without saying, ‘Oh my god, I dated him,’” The Bachelor podcast host suggested. “When Peter asked if she knew the song” [that Rice was singing], she could’ve said she knew him, and “she could have explained it later.”

Peter Weber The Bachelor
Peter Weber and Jimmy Kimmel | Randy Holmes via Getty Images

“I think she needed to tell him so much sooner than she did,” Zima argued. However, she conceded: “Holding off on telling him made great TV.”

Zima had another idea for Fuller: “just laugh it off a little bit.” Rather than make a big deal out of it, “it can turn into a funny, casual moment,” Zima said. “Instead, we got amazing television.”

Litman offers ‘inside scoop’ on ‘The Bachelor’ contestant Victoria F.’s ex

The Bachelor Party host then told Zima she heard a rumor about Rice. She explained that a friend of hers was at a party and “Chase Rice was there.” At the party, Rice told the story of appearing and performing on The Bachelor.

“He almost denied knowing Victoria, and he was very pissed that he felt like he’d been used on the show,” Litman claimed.

The Bachelor and Survivor contestant Chase Rice
Chase Rice during an episode of Survivor | Monty Brinton/CBS via Getty Images

The former Survivor competitor was apparently denying any relationship with Fuller. He maintained that he didn’t know her very well.

Perhaps, Litman offered, the reason Fuller didn’t want to go up to Chase with Peter on their one-on-one date was “because their relationship maybe wasn’t as straightforward as, ‘We dated.'”

“Which is fine,” Litman clarified. “Very often relationships … are complicated, hence the Facebook status ‘It’s Complicated.’”

However, it wasn’t complicated between the two bros; Weber seemed to love Rice on the most recent episode of The Bachelor. Pilot Pete even gave the country singer his number, which Zima called “unbelievable television.”

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