For months rumors have swirled that Clare Crawley quit as “The Bachelorette” midseason and the latest promo for the ABC show seems to tease the production shakeup.
In the trailer released on Monday ahead of the Tuesday night premiere, Crawley says, “I’ve been looking for love my entire life. I’m 39. This might just be my last chance. I promise you: this [ring] finger will be no bare no more.”
“The Bachelorette” is then seen getting starstruck over contestant Dale Moss upon their first introduction.
“I definitely felt like I just met my husband,” she tells the cameras after he walks away.
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Clare Crawley is rumored to quit as lead of “The Bachelorette”
(ABC)
The drama then picks up as Crawley is seen crying and a contestant screams, “I expected way more from the oldest ‘Bachelorette.'”
“I don’t care what I’ve done. To sit there and say you’re the oldest ‘Bachelorette.’ Guess what, I’m the oldest ‘Bachelorette’ that’s 39, that’s standing here, that’s single because I didn’t settle for men like that,” Crawley says.
In a voiceover, one contestant expressed, “It’s only a matter of time before Clare realizes the truth – that Dale’s may be not who Clare thinks he is.”
“I don’t know how you can be so sure so quick,” another contestant says.
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One contestant then is heard telling the group of men, “How about the 15 of us walk out?”
Host Chris Harrison later appears in the trailer and tells the contestants, “In the 18 years I’ve been doing this show, we’ve never dealt with anything like this. There’s also not going to be a rose ceremony tonight. I can’t even fathom how you guys are going to try and process this.”
“I don’t know what that means, like, OK, do we get a new ‘Bachelorette’ in here?” a contestant asks.
Crawley’s season has come with a lot of rumored and confirmed twists and turns.
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She was supposed to start filming in March, but due to the coronavirus pandemic production didn’t resume until July. Because of the delay, several contestants from her original roster quit and new ones were cast for various reasons.
In August, Life & Style magazine reported that Crawley quit filming only three weeks in and got engaged to Moss, who was heavily featured in the new trailer.
“One of her potential guys found a way to get in touch with her and they began talking,” a source claimed to People magazine of the delay in filming. “By the time filming officially began, they were basically already in love. No one else stood a chance. It just became so obvious from her subsequent few dates that her heart wasn’t in it and she just wasn’t feeling it. Then she said she wanted out.”
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Tayshia Adams, who first appeared on Colton Underwood’s season of “The Bachelor,” is rumored to be Crawley’s replacement. ABC has yet to confirm the potential switch.