Despite its better judgement, and my professional opinion, The Bachelor franchise may not skip a new season of The Bachelorette in favor of heading straight into a new season of Bachelor in Paradise. Luckily, the laid-back late-summer show is still going to happen. With the warm weather just around the corner, your favorite (and least favorite) Bachelor Nation stars will be back for all the romance and redemptions arcs you can imagine. So when does BIP 2021 premiere and what are all of the details about it? Here’s all the info you need.
Update: On April 7, ABC announced that Bachelor in Paradise will premiere on Aug. 16.
Earlier: We haven’t gotten any official announcements yet about Season 7, but there’s a good chance we’ll actually be seeing the show sooner rather than later. In the past, the series has debuted its new seasons in early August, typically on the first Monday of the month. In Season 4, they started a little later than usual thanks to the shut-down, but even then they managed to get on the air by August 14, the second Monday of the month. After airing twice a week for about a month and change, the seasons wrap up by mid-September.
So why would this season look any different? With two Bachelorette seasons on their way — one in the summer and one in the fall — a new BIP sandwiched in between may have its schedule shifted. It’s certainly possible that a September finale would be too close to an October premiere date. Think July and August rather than August and September.
We didn’t get a new season of Paradise last summer, which means there are plenty of potential contestants to fill out the cast, but Bachelorette is often still filming into May — and BIP doesn’t film long after. If they bump up Paradise too far, they won’t get the men from the next season of the Bachelorette any time to decompress, get their heads straight, and pack their bags to find love again, so the producers might just keep the schedule as is. That said, I’m going to go ahead and block off Monday, Aug. 2 on my calendar just in case.
Will Chris Harrison be hosting BIP this year?
The show recently announced that host Chris Harrison would be taking a break from the next season of The Bachelorette as he continues to learn, grow, and ~do the work~ when it comes to learning about racism and how to be actively anti-racist. In his place, former Bachelorettes Kaitlyn Bristowe and Tayshia Adams are stepping up to guide the next lead through her time on the show.
ABC hasn’t said anything yet about if and how this will affect Paradise, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see a similar rotating crew of familiar faces there, too. In the meantime, it seems like the reality franchise is playing it by ear when it comes to Chris, and we’ll keep you updated with everything we know.
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