Last week, Bachelor Nation was stunned to learn that none other than Arie Luyendyk, Jr. was chosen to be the new Bachelor. That's right, Arie from Emily Maynard's Bachelorette season...in 2012. And already, we've got our first look at Arie as the main man in the franchise. ABC released the first promo of Arie Luyendyk, Jr. as The Bachelor to E! News on Monday, Sept. 11, and it will air during the Bachelor in Paradise Season 4 finale on Monday night. Don't get too excited, though — the promo is mostly filled with footage of Arie from Emily's Bachelorette season, where he finished as runner-up.
The commercial also includes some shots from Arie's Sept. 7 appearance on Good Morning America to reveal his new journey to find love. So, as you watch the teaser trailer for Arie's season, you'll quickly see realize that nope, that footage of him getting out of a limo isn't new — it's probably from Emily's season of The Bachelorette five years ago. There's also shots of Arie racing cars, along with the tagline "Hearts will race," because he's a race car driver (get it?). It's unclear if that footage is new, but the fan tweets featured in the promo seem to be recent — and yup, they are real. The promo ends by teasing the premiere of the new Bachelor season in January 2018.
The wait for a new Bachelor season is frustrating enough, but the new promo seemed to further divide Bachelor Nation over the choice of Arie as the new main man in the franchise. Some fans voiced their disapproval of the promo's use of throwback footage on Twitter.
One fan wasn't into tagline of Arie's season.
Another fan was just plain excited for the new season.
Some fans even started naming men they wished were the Bachelor instead.
Since late August, Bachelor franchise exec producer Mike Fleiss dropped hints about who the 2018 Bachelor could be, but it was still a shock to fans that it's Arie — from five years ago. But with each tweet, Fleiss began eliminating several fan-favorite choices to take the role. He tweeted that it wouldn't be Dean Unglert or Peter Kraus from Rachel's Bachelorette season, and it wouldn't be Bachelor in Paradise bartender Wells, who competed during JoJo's season. On Sept. 7, it was revealed that Arie would be the Bachelor in a breaking of what fans have seen as Bachelor tradition. But alas, the rules of love and reality TV are always changing.
Usually, the chosen man has been a recent contestant on a previous season of The Bachelorette, like Chris Soules and Ben Higgins. Last year, the show broke tradition a bit and tapped Nick Viall, a two-time Bachelorette runner-up and Bachelor in Paradise contestant.
Yet here we are — Arie is getting a second chance at love on the franchise and brand new footage of his journey could be available soon enough.
