‘The Bachelor’: Who Is Replacing Chris Harrison During His Hiatus?
Chris Harrison has become somewhat of a black sheep in the world of The Bachelor over the past week. After his interview with Rachel Lindsay, where he defended contestant Rachael Kirkconnell’s attendance at an antebellum party, fans called for Harrison to be fired. Instead, the host decided to take a hiatus from the show and will not be attending the After the Final Rose ceremony. So, who is replacing Harrison?
Chris Harrison’s interview
By now, all of Bachelor Nation is talking about Harrison’s interview with Lindsay. During the interview, he urged fans to give Kirkconnell grace.
“I haven’t talked to Rachael about it,” he told Lindsay. “And this is, again, where we all need to have a little grace, a little understanding, a little compassion. Because I’ve seen some stuff online—again this judge-jury-executioner thing—where people are just tearing this girl’s life apart and diving into, like, her parents and her parents’ voting record. It’s unbelievably alarming to watch this. I haven’t heard Rachael speak on this yet. And until I actually hear this woman have a chance to speak, who am I to say any of this?”
Throughout the interview, Harrison falsely claimed that the pictures of Kirkconnell were taken five years ago. He also claimed that attending racist parties wasn’t as bad in 2018 as it is now.
Chris apologizes and steps away
Of course, after the backlash started pouring in, Harrison issued an apology. When the apology didn’t seem to stave off the calls for Harrison to lose his job, he wrote a longer statement.
“To the Black community, to the BIPOC community: I am so sorry. My words were harmful,” the host said in an Instagram post. “I am listening, and I truly apologize for my ignorance and any pain it caused you. I want to give my heartfelt thanks to the people from these communities who I’ve had enlightening conversations with over the past few days, and I am so grateful to those who have reached out to help me on my path to anti-racism.”
He continued, revealing that he was stepping away from the show for now.
“This historic season of ‘The Bachelor’ should not be marred or overshadowed by my mistakes or diminished by my actions,” he continued. “To that end, I have consulted with Warner Bros. and ABC and will be stepping aside for a period of time and will not join for the After the Final Rose special.”
Who is replacing Chris Harrison?
There has yet to be an official announcement of who will replace Harrison during the After the Final Rose special. Lindsay would be an obvious choice as she was the first Black Bachelorette and Matt James, the current Bachelor, is the first Black Bachelor. But she seems pretty done with the franchise.
“I can’t take it anymore,” she said of the franchise on the Higher Learning podcast last week. “I’m contractually bound in some ways, but when it’s up, I am, too. I can’t. I can’t do it anymore.”
The top pick for Harrison’s role seems to be former contestant Wells Adams, who has been rumored to be replacing Harrison when he retires for some time. When Adams spoke to People about the rumors in January, he told fans that Harrison wasn’t retiring.
“It’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard,” Adams said at the time. “First of all, Chris isn’t going anywhere. He’s got the best job in Hollywood. Tom Hanks would agree that he has the best job in Hollywood. He’s not going anywhere.”
But now that Harrison is actually stepping away, it clears the space for Adams to step in.
