I think it’s fair to say that every single week for the last, oh I don’t know month or so, that something happening off screen has completely overtaken what’s happening on screen with the “Bachelor.” I mean, with the internet frenzy over the weekend in regards to a new ATFR host announcement and the Taylor Nolan tweets that surfaced on Sunday, sitting down to watch the women on the WTA last night was, ummmm, an afterthought. Not a whole lot to cover there, although I do have some thoughts on what we saw last night. But so much more to get to before that as I know a lot of you are certainly in awe of what you saw surface this past weekend. As am I. We’ll get to that momentarily. Remember last week I said it was really weird that the show had promoted the WTA then said “in 2 weeks” essentially before showing clips for the rest of the season? Well, now it’s been confirmed that they’re on normal schedule as I suspected. Next week is overnight dates, and then the following Monday the 15th is the 2 hr finale, followed by a 1 hr ATFR. Or maybe the finale is 90 min and the ATFR is 90 min since I think they probably need more than an hour to go over everything. Whatever the case, the overall finale is on the 15th.
On Saturday, it was announced that Emmanuel Acho, co-host of FS1’s daily show “Speak for Yourself” and author of “Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man” (which is now also a YouTube series), was named as Chris Harrison’s replacement for the ATFR. This is a guy that Rachel Lindsay actually suggested last week when asked if she would host it, and according to Emmanuel, he was twice asked in the past to be on the “Bachelorette” but turned it down. So this is a guy who’s been on the show’s radar for a while now, and it’s not surprising they made him the ATFR host. I think this was an excellent choice. Being the college football nerd I am, I’ve been watching Emmanuel for years on ESPN and then now on FS1. Great hire for this spot and I think he’ll do really well. I just hope they let him be him and they don’t try and reign him in too much.
Here was his announcement on IG on Saturday where he included 5 facts about himself:
As I reported over the weekend once the announcement was made, the ATFR was set to film yesterday. However, with Emmanuel not being confirmed as the host until Saturday, and as you saw on his IG stories he was filming a commercial over the weekend not related to the “Bachelorette,” the ATFR filming has been pushed back until this Friday. I don’t remember exactly what season it was, but I wanna say it’s been at least 10 years or so (possibly 20 or so seasons) since the ATFR has been filmed in advance. Usually finale night is live, where Chris Harrison is with the studio audience coming in and out of commercial breaks, talking about the show, then they go straight into the ATFR once the final rose ceremony happens. Maybe they’ll still do that with Emmanuel, but just know, it will have been taped already, and that happens this Friday.
The next question becomes, what will happen on the ATFR. Sooooo many questions as rumors are circulating in the tabloids and what not. I’m still trying to get to the bottom of things, but what I reported a couple weeks ago still holds true. Matt and Rachael are broken up, there will be no reconciliation happening at the ATFR, nor will anything happen with Bri or Michelle either. Matt seems to be content on leaving this thing as a single man, and frankly, seems to be done with this franchise. Can’t say I’m surprised at all. However, I’m really curious to see what he says sitting on a couch next to the girl he just broke up with less than 2 weeks ago. What was his reasoning? What’s Rachael’s reaction gonna be? I know that she didn’t want the break up to happen, so what mind set will she be in? Will Matt say something different on TV than what he told her during the breakup? I’m not sure where this all goes, but it sure as hell will be interesting.
A lot of people have expressed either excitement or “Who the f**k is this guy” attitude towards this announcement. Just because you may not know who Emmanuel is doesn’t mean he’s not qualified to host. Like I said, I think he’s an excellent hire and I’m looking forward to see how this guys handles himself doing this for the first time. You know the response that I find funny is? “I’m not watching if Chris Harrison isn’t the host! I’m done!” Good. 1) No one cares and 2) You do realize that this is the most watched episode of the season, right? So you’re telling me that you will tune in to watch the finale, see Matt choose Rachael at the end and, whether you know the spoilers or not, are NOT going to stick around for the ATFR to actually see them together for the first time and see what happens because…Chris isn’t hosting? Sure you aren’t. I say this every season, and I’ll say it again: No. One. Cares. You. Aren’t. Going. To. Watch. Anymore. Not a single soul. And the more you keep telling us you aren’t going to watch, the more I think you are.
