Here’s When Zach’s Women Tell All Special Was Filmed

Women Tell All serves a crucial role at the end of every Bachelor season. It bridges the emotions of hometowns to the inevitable chaos of Fantasy Suites, while giving the eliminated contestants a chance to air out their grievances and address some of their own drama, too. Plus, with so many denizens of Bachelor Nation gathered together, it’s the perfect place to make a big announcement — just like Jesse Palmer teased in the sneak peek for the March 14 special. “One woman’s life is about to change forever,” he said, fueling speculation that the next Bachelorette might be revealed at the show.

But when was Women Tell All filmed? If you’re unfamiliar with how the special works, it usually includes contestants who have gone home. So you shouldn’t expect to see Kaity Biggar, Gabi Elnicki, or Ariel Frenkel on the stage. But that doesn’t mean they were waiting in Krabi, Thailand for Zach Shallcross to return and get their overnight dates started. In fact, Women Tell All filmed well after production wrapped on Zach’s season (which was reportedly back in November).

The special was actually taped on Feb. 24, Reality Steve reports, adding that filming for The Bachelorette was rumored to start the following month in mid-March — which would be new for the franchise. “If that’s the case, then I think for the first time ever ... that show will start filming before the ‘Bachelor’ ends airing,” he wrote. That would definitely explain why Jesse’s life-changing announcement is set to happen during Women Tell All, as opposed to later on at After the Final Rose.

The Women Tell All filming timeline means that Zach’s Bachelor journey had already played out by the time he took the stage. But of course, viewers will have to wait two more weeks to see how it ends on screen. (There are spoilers about who he ends up with, if you’re interested.) As Zach told People, he’s “very confident” in his final decision. That doesn’t necessarily mean it was easy to face his exes in such a high-profile setting, though.

“I think my heart was beating through my throat ... because it’s been literally since doing the show since I’ve seen them,” Zach said, comparing the evening to Night 1 nerves. “All these beautiful women that are my exes are now staring at me and may or may not like me. Honestly, it was a cool experience, though, to get to see them again.”