Fasten your seatbelts, folks, because Peter Weber's season of The Bachelor is about to descend into uncharted territory. At the end of this week's Jan. 27 episode, it was announced that The Bachelor will be airing two episodes next week, which means viewers can expect double the amount of drama heading their way. The first episode will air during the show's usual Monday night time slot on Feb. 3 at 8 p.m. ET; however, there will also be a second installment two days later on Wednesday, Feb. 5 at 8 p.m. ET.
Typically, this level of footage is only reserved for the show's big premiere week (Peter's premiere turned into a two-night event) and the season finale, which combines footage from the end of the season with the After the Final Rose ceremony. So having a double episode take place during Week 5 is highly unprecedented, leaving many to wonder one simple question: why?
The actual cause of this surprise schedule change-up remains unclear, though it most likely has something to do with Peter's upcoming accident, which was teased during the latest promo. Back in October 2019, multiple media outlets reported that Peter had suffered a head injury while filming in Costa Rica, which resulted in a trip to the hospital.
Chris Harrison later confirmed the reports to Entertainment Tonight, revealing that Peter had been hurt but that he was alright and on the mend. "He did get stitches, but he's 100% OK and production is already back underway," Harrison said in a statement. "He's still the dashing, handsome pilot we've all dreamed of."
Peter himself commented on the incident to ET in a separate interview, admitting that the ordeal looked pretty gruesome at the time. "There was a ton of blood. It looked like a murder scene when it happened," he explained. "It just started pouring out." He added, "My forehead was literally split open."
At the time, Peter claimed that the accident "didn't slow anything down," but if producers plan on showing footage of what happened, the hospital trip, and the contestants' reactions, that's sure to eat up airtime — time that they hadn't previously allotted for, which could explain why an extra episode was added to the docket for next week.
Peter's stitches get removed by the time the group moves on to Chile, but the pilot did hint to ET that what happened does end up playing a role later on in the season. "I'm not gonna spoil it, but it's actually kind of cool. The girls took care of me," he said. "They definitely kind of felt bad about it, but I wasn't gonna let this slow down my journey to find what I really wanted and it's all good. I got a battle scar now."
It certainly sounds like the accident serves as a very important turning point of the season. Whether it's worth four hours of your life in one week, well, we'll let the fans decide.
