So far, Peter Weber's Bachelor season has been kind of a disaster. But the good news is that an all-new season of The Bachelorette is right around the corner. In fact, that series films so close to the end of The Bachelor, that the 2020 Bachelorette will be announced during the finale of Peter's season. At least, that's how the show has structured things for the past few seasons. There has been a two-night finale, with the announcement of the Bachelorette coming on the second night.
Then, the show starts immediately, with the new lucky lady meeting five of her men right then and there to kick things off. Actual filming for the season then starts about a week or so later. For example, Hannah Brown was announced as Bachelorette on March 12, and her season began filming at The Bachelorette mansion on March 18. Becca Kufrin was announced as Bachelorette on March 6 and started filming on March 15.
By that pattern, the 2020 Bachelorette will likely be announced on March 10 during the tail end of Peter's two-night finale. Filming on her season will probably begin around a week later. Of course, ABC can change things up whenever. As The Hollywood Reporter noted, Rachel Lindsay was announced as Bachelorette before she was even eliminated from Nick Viall's season.
THR said that Chris Harrison explained on Live With Kelly that the series wanted to be sure to cast her season with Rachel in mind, so they wanted potential applicants to know in time that it would be her. The same went for when Nick Viall was crowned Bachelor before he had finished competing on Bachelor in Paradise. "We wanted everyone to know it's Nick so we can find people who really want to be with Nick," Harrison said.
But even though the series has changed things up in the past, the last couple of seasons have all followed the same format of announcing on The Bachelor's two-night finale, previewing the season by having the Bachelorette meet five men in about five minutes, having real filming commence days later, and premiering the season come the third week or so of May. Since the timing of the announcement itself is not a question, the only real question is who the 2020 Bachelorette may be.
There's the obvious contenders like Madison Prewett and Hannah Ann Sluss if either of them are heartbroken at the end of all this. Devastated runners-up make for great comeback stories. Kelsey Weier may be in contention. According to Reality Steve, reportedly neither Kelley Flanagan nor Natasha Parker were at the Women Tell All, which would seemingly signal that their Bachelorette chances are nil. Victoria Fuller has one too many controversies to probably make for a fan-supported lead. And most of the other women were sent home so long ago that fans probably don't remember them enough to really rally behind them.
A wild card option would be to bring Hannah Brown back for another chance at love after she had her heart broken by Jed Wyatt. The show's sort of done that before with Emily Maynard after she won Brad Womack's season. When things didn't work out with him, ABC gave her the Bachelorette spot for her second chance at love.
Basically anything can happen casting wise, but at least we can all count on knowing the answer by the end of Peter's season on March 10.
