The Bachelor: Chris Harrison says the women fell for Arie 'very very quickly'
Arie Luyendyk Jr. is ready to find love… again.
It’s been years since Emily Maynard broke Arie’s heart on The Bachelorette, and the “kissing bandit” is finally getting his second chance at love. But before his journey begins, EW spoke with Bachelor host Chris Harrison about what fans can expect (and what he says to everyone who doubts their decision to choose Arie)…
How would you describe the women in the house this season?
It’s an incredible group of women — highly educated, very professional and fun. Arie connected with them incredibly well; I connected with this group really well. It was really a good, dynamic group and that’s not to say that we’re not going to have our moments, our drama and the competition and all that, but it really was a very good group. He was very blown away on night one after meeting everybody.
His family plays a big role, right?
His dad is a part of the show and his family. He’s a namesake and his dad is racing royalty. That’s a big part of Arie’s life so we had to make his family a part of the show and you will see, early on in the season, earlier than normal, we make his hometown a little bit more of the show than we normally do.
How does his season differ from others we’ve seen?
The beauty of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette is that every season is different. There’s a reason I still care after 16 years and it’s because it’s different every time. Doing it with Arie is not like doing the show with Rachel [Lindsay] or doing it with Ben [Higgins] or Nick [Viall] or Kaitlyn [Bristowe]. They all bring their own spin to the show so the idea is basically the same, but Arie’s take on it is 100 percent different than anything you’ve ever seen before and that’s one of the things I love about the show. It really is a new story and a new journey every time.
The Bachelor premieres Monday, Jan. 1 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
