Bachelor Nation tuned in to “The Bachelor” Monday night where, for the first time ever, the lead of the show contracted and tested positive for COVID-19 during filming, causing Zach Shallcross to conduct his cocktail party and his rose ceremony over Zoom.
Now, after the episode has aired, “The Bachelor”‘s executive producers Bennett Graebner and Nicole Woods and director Dave Miller, are speaking out about production during this time, and how they even felt it was in crisis and had to scramble to figure out what to do after finding out the Shallcross tested positive for COVID-19.
‘The Bachelor’ Producer Felt The Virtual Rose Ceremony Was A ‘Bad Idea’
Zach Shallcross was reportedly quite adamant at not wanting to send any of the women home until he got to see them and spend time with them as both the group date and his one-on-one with Charity Lawson got canceled, meaning the only time he got to spend with one of the women this week was with Gabi Elnicki prior to his testing positive.
“Talking to Zach, he was quite adamant that he was not going to send anyone home without spending time with them. The options were limited, and I believe it was [Disney/ABC exec] Rob Mills who said, ‘We should do a virtual cocktail party and a virtual rose ceremony,’” Graebner told Entertainment Weekly in a recent interview.
Graebner then went on to admit he did not think the Zoom idea would work. “In full disclosure, I thought it was a bad idea, and I told him,” he continued to explain before adding, “I said, ‘I really don’t think this is a good idea.’ He said, ‘Why? What are you so worried about?’ What I was worried about was that, here we are two-and-a-half years into a pandemic, where people are just so fatigued by looking at people interacting on screens.”
The producer continued, “We have to project forward five months later to when this airs, and I think people will be even more fatigued and less interested in seeing people communicate on screens. I wasn’t supportive of it for that reason.”
In addition to the worry of viewers being tired of Zoom meetings, the producer also explained how Bachelor Nation may not approve as this was not the reality television show fans have come to “know and love.”
“To be frank, I thought it might look embarrassing,” he admitted. “I remember telling Rob that, and he said, ‘Well, let’s give it a shot.’ So, we sat down in a large group with our tech department, our audio department, our lighting department, our director here, to try to figure out how we would get it done — knowing that we couldn’t even get into Zach’s room.”
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Zoom Almost Became A Parody
Director Dave Miller also had his concerns — the number one being that fans wouldn’t take this seriously as some parts almost looked like a “Saturday Night Live” skit.
“The first reaction was like, it feels like we’re shooting an SNL skit or something. Let’s not let it become that,” Miller explained to EW before adding, “There were many different turns that we could have taken where it would’ve gone into parody. And I think we found the next best thing. Like, if we can’t have two people in the room talking to each other, how do we create the best version of that virtually?”
That is when they decided on an iPad as people are used to using iPads and it was a way for the women to hold Shallcross in their hands and move around the room to be comfortable.
“It’s a language people understand,” Miller explained. “So, let’s just have the girls hold an iPad — so they can kiss the screen.”
The show went on to conduct a virtual cocktail party, where Shallcross was able to have one-on-one conversations with the women utilizing the iPad. For the rose ceremony, the show ended up putting the women in a small room, facing a large television screen with Shallcross’s face on it. A platter of roses sat in front of the TV so the women went up and grabbed their own roses after their names were called.
In the end, Shallcross decided to send Kylee Russell and Mercedes Northup home.
Zach Shallcross’s season of “The Bachelor” continues Mondays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC. The episodes are available to stream the following day on Hulu.
