ABC Exec Rob Mills Reveals How 'Bachelor' Will Film, Clarifies Clare Rumors

Setting the record straight. ABC’s Rob Mills, Vice President of Alternative Programming, dished to Ryan Seacrest on Wednesday, June 17, exactly how The Bachelor and The Bachelorette will film amid quarantine and whether or not Clare Crawley knew Matt James was going to be crowned the next bachelor.

According to reports, Clare had no idea James — who was supposed to be a contestant on her forthcoming season — was going to be crowned The Bachelor. But Rob says not so fast.

“Somebody said something to Us Weekly that she did not know; that she found out on GMA. Of course we would never do that to Clare,” Rob clarified. “She found out the day before. Look,” he added. “We wanted to keep this under wraps. We wanted to control the announcement and not have it leak, but Clare of course was told before that.”

And on the heels of the announcement of their first-ever Black bachelor, Rob shared the response has been met with a “record-setting pace” of 6,5000 applicants.

So how will James and Clare’s seasons go down amid COVID-19 quarantine and filming restrictions?

“Here’s what were going to do: For Clare’s season, which is going to come first, that’s going to shoot in about a month,” Rob shared. “Everybody is going to be at one location. Everybody is going to be tested a week before; everybody comes back negative; we shoot; and they’re inside that bubble.”

Rob added that it won’t be shot at the mansion either.

“They won’t be at The Bachelor mansion. They’ll be at some sort of resort and we’ve scouted several of them and all of them have been scouted for good date locations,” he added in regards to how they’ll handle filming group and one-on-one dates. “We had incredible travel planned for Clare’s season. We were going to Italy — all these places that were going to be great — but there will be plenty of different date locations that will feel hopefully as close to The Bachelorette as possible.”

And what about Matt’s season?

“We’re hoping to start on time which will be the end of September and we’ll see where the world is,” Rob added. “Hopefully that’s when we would be at The Bachelor mansion. Maybe there’s some travel. Maybe it’s just domestic. Maybe it’s by bus, but we’ll see. If not, if things aren’t that safe, we’ll shoot it the same way [as Clare’s] where everybody is safe; they’re tested; they’re quarantined; and then you can have kissing, arguing and everything else.”

Are you excited for the upcoming seasons? Sound off on social @OnAirWithRyan and listen back to the full interview above for more, including to find out why they announced Matt James ahead of Clare’s season.