Chris Harrison News

Monday night's stunning "After the Final Rose" special of The Bachelor, in which Jason Mesnick dumped Melissa Rycroft for runner-up Molly Malaney, has sparked outrage, big ratings and plenty of unanswered questions.

Did the producers know? Did they script this whole thing? Did Molly know what was coming? Did Melissa? Why did Jason pull the switch?

Jason Mesnick's short-lived engagement to Melissa Rycroft.

The Bachelor host Chris Harrison is speaking out about the finale in an attempt to clear up some of the rumors going around. Here are his thoughts ...

They were shocked: "When we left New Zealand, we were high-fiving, thinking this is great, 'People are going to love this guy and love the story.' I talked to Jason Mesnick when we got back, and things were going great. And then the next thing I hear, the producers are saying, 'He wants another shot with Molly.' And I just said, 'You've got to be kidding me!' We were all blown away."

This was not staged: "People think we wanted to pull this stunt, but we didn't!" This isn't good for us. I mean, the ratings were insane and all that, but we would have much rather had him end up with Melissa and have them get married. In the long run, that's a better story for us and for the fans."

Continue Reading...

It's a good time to be The Bachelorette.

After years of choosing her from among the contestants who don't find a love connection on The Bachelor, ABC's hit reality TV spin-off is conducting its first-ever search for a female star of the series.

Chris Harrison, the host of both shows, talked to TV Guide about the search, and about the next season of The Bachelor, starring Jason Mesnick.

The happily married Harrison also talked about DeAnna and Jesse, finding love on TV, and whether we'll ever see a gay Bachelor or Bachelorette.

TV Guide.com: What are the qualities you're looking for in the next Bachelorette?

Chris Harrison: It's hard to answer that because really, there's no set picture. We've had rich, we've had poor, we've had famous athletes, actors, we've had it all. So we're not exactly looking for a type. It's just somebody who's willing to take this leap of faith, who's obviously ready to commit and ready for a relationship. Honestly, you really never know what we're looking for and we never know until we find it. There's really not this set picture that we go into casting and say that's it - the blond-haired, blue-eyed six foot model. Because that's not necessarily what we want.

THE MEDIATOR: Chris Harrison with last season's star, DeAnna Pappas.

TV Guide.com: There must be a huge number of women who see this as a big break and want to be famous more than they want to meet the right guy. How do you weed them out?

Chris Harrison: When it's The Bachelor and it's 25 women, you do get your share of that. It's impossible not to. But I always love that aspect of the show because we don't - it's not a game show. There's no big prize at the end. So it's really up to the Bachelor to find those girls and weed them out. That's part of life. There's always girls in relationships for the wrong reason. When we're looking for The Bachelorette, that's kind of our job. Does she just want to be a model, or does she really want to get into movies or whatever. I have found that when we've done the Bachelorette they are even more sincere when they come into this than the guys are.

Continue Reading...

It was a shocking breakup none of us saw coming.

Chris Harrison opened up Monday about the recent split of the latest star of The Bachelorette, DeAnna Pappas, and her former fiancé, Jesse Csincsak.

The host of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette told 104.3 MY fm's Valentine in the Morning: "DeAnna went to Breckenridge last week and broke up with Jesse. He was stunned. I've talked to Jesse several times, and he did not see it coming."

Chris Harrison claims DeAnna Pappas leaked the break-up to the press early.

"They agreed that this was not gonna get out to the public until Thursday, they were going to release a joint statement and try and keep this above board, and she went out on her own, leaked it, and so he's just feeling a little beat up."

"He really truly loved DeAnna," Chris Harrison said of Jesse Csincsak.

"He was so happy and he's like, 'Let's just go, let's go to Breckenridge, let's go to Atlanta, let's get the heck out of here, and let's live our lives. Let's just get to know each other and hang out.'"

Interestingly, Harrison says that DeAnna Pappas - for all her laid-back, authentic, down to earth charm, has big Hollywood dreams.

He says Pappas has been getting "bad advice" from people like "paparazzi guys, and other people that she's been running into that have filled her head with, you know, these dreams that she's going to come to Hollywood and make it big and do all this stuff. And I think her head's getting a little bigger than it should and I think that's led to this as well."