Forget The Most Exciting Rose Ceremony of All-Time for a moment.
Instead, we must stop for a moment and wonder the following:
Will there be any Rose Ceremony of any kind for Clare Crawley as The Bachelorette?
Crawley was confirmed as the next Bachelorette way back in early March -- and there's been non-stop controversy and/or significant obstacles in her way ever since.
First, many viewers wondered why the heck executives selected this former Bachelor suitor, who hadn't really been a relevant part of Bachelor Nation for years.
Then, many of these same critics took issue with Crawley's age. At 39, she's set to be the oldest franchise lead in history.
And then from there, of course, COVID-19 prompted production of the new season to be placed on halt, with no resume date able to be scheduled as long as this pandemic continued to spread.
Now, meanwhile?
ABC has cast Matt James as the next Bachelor, which is exciting news for those who have been pushing producers to FINALLY select an African-American for this role.
However, the news was less exciting for Crawley than it was surprising.
Why?
Because James had previously been picked as one of her suitors!
According to various insiders, Clare had no clue the network higher-ups were going to yank James off her season and give him his own show.
Not exactly a sign of respect for The Bachelorette, right?
Karey Burke, president of ABC Entertainment, said late last week James has been on their radar for The Bachelor for a while now, stating:
“Matt has been on our radar since February, when producers first approached him to join Bachelor Nation, as part of Clare’s season.
"When filming couldn’t move forward as planned, we were given the benefit of time to get to know Matt and all agreed he would make a perfect Bachelor."
That's fine and all.
Heck, it's great and it's about time.
But Clare's unpopularity... combined with the interest in the next Bachelor... combined with COVID-19 pushing back Crawley's season until who-the-heck-knows-when ... has left many fans curious about what's going on here.
Might ABC just skip her season entirely?
No, Chris Harrison says.
As you can see above, the question of cancelation has been floating online, but it's also been shot down online by the beloved host himself.
"Absolutely not!" Harrison said over the weekend in response to this topic, adding for emphasis:
"Clare's love story is next."
Hooray? We guess?
Previous reports have also indicated that Clare's season willl shoot some time this summer and air some time this year.
What does this mean, exactly? We wish we know, folks.
Stay tuned and we'll all find out together.
