Chris Harrison on what to know about upcoming season of 'The Bachelorette'
With the premiere of "The Bachelorette" on Monday, host Chris Harrison is dishing on everything you need to know before the upcoming drama-filled 15th season!
The host spoke to ABC News Radio about what Hannah Brown is looking for, where they'll head this season and more.
"If you’re gotten to know Hannah at all, you know she’s southern," he said. "That means she has strong family roots, that means she’s strong in her faith, that means she’s family oriented and she knows where she comes from and that’s important."
He said being from Texas helped him understand Brown and her background more.
"I relate to her on that level, so I clearly know what she’s looking for -- a man of character, integrity, a man of faith, a guy who knows where he came from, but also there’s the other side -- to having the personality, the character, that sense of humor -- because she definitely has that self-deprecating sense of humor."
The 30 men competing in Brown's season range in age from 23 to 33, which begs the question if some of the younger men will be ready to propose to Brown.
Harrison said that could be a concern for contestants of all ages, though.
"I think with guys you always have to be worried that they’re not ready, whether they’re 48 or 28,” he shared with a laugh. “It really has to do with your experience, where you’re coming from, where you are in your life – so that’s her job."
"That part of your job as the Bachelor or the Bachelorette is, you know, am I just going purely on looks?" he continued. "Am I going because they’re rich, or am I going because they’re famous? Or am I going because this person, we have a deep connection. What are you attracted to and why?"
However, Harrison has faith in Brown's ability to decipher who is there for the right reasons. "She's sharp as a tack," he said. "She's a very smart girl and knows exactly how to handle her own business."
He says that the show does everything it can to evaluate contestants and their intentions before coming on the show, but much of that responsibility falls in Brown's hands.
"The show has evolved massively over the 17 years. I mean there was no social media -- there was no such thing as a blog when we started," Harrison said. "We’ve had to evolve in dating, in how we cast the show and all of those things come into play now, so you have to be cognizant of what is out there."
"You use the best resources you have and now part of that is social media, trying to back track into their lives," he continued. "We do the best we can, and then we have to figure out the rest as we’re going like everybody else. But I will say this for this season, I don’t know if we’ve ever had more drama ever in the history of this show."
Harrison also revealed some of the spots the contestants and Brown will hit this season. Destinations include Newport, Rhode Island, Scotland, Amsterdam and Latvia among other places.
"One of the cool things about this for me, over the last two decades, has been going to places that wouldn’t necessarily be on your bucket list," Harrison explained. "I wouldn’t have thought, ‘Let’s go to Latvia’ but it was absolutely beautiful and we were in the capital Riga, so it was great."
