'The Bachelor' Season 21: Is Nick Viall The Right Choice For New Season's Star? [VIDEO]
Fans of the Bachelor have officially been thrown into a mixed state of shock, disgust, and in some cases, awe, over the announcement of the newest man to be handing out the roses and (hopefully) finding a future wife-two-time runner-up Nick Viall!
The announcement came during the Bachelor in Paradise Aftershow After Paradise that Viall, who was the first runner-up on both Andi Dorfman and Caitlyn Bristowe's seasons of The Bachelorette, and is currently starring on Bachelor in Paradise, would take his fourth turn at finding love within the franchise as the new Bachelor next year.
The decision to choose Viall slightly breaks from the pattern the show has used most often, where the newest Bachelor or Bachelorette is often chosen from the most recent season's pool of men who made it either to the final round, or a few rounds beforehand. It was expected that either Chase of Luke from JoJo's season would have been chosen, and the fact that they weren't chosen so Viall could come back instead was part of drove people to express issues with the announcement on Twitter, especially since his time on Dorfman's season saw him painted in a more negative light, though he has had a different portrayal since.
One critic even ventured to suggest that choosing Viall would prove to be an even bigger mistake than choosing Desiree Hartstock cast-off Juan Pablo Galavis as the Bachelor, as he proved to be the most controversial Bachelor of all-time through his insulting runner-up Clare Crawley by telling her he wanted to "f**k her but not marry her" and refusing to tell his eventual pick Nikki Ferrell that he loved her.
However, it isn't the first time the show has broken format by choosing the previous season's cast-offs as new Bachelors and Bachelorettes. The show brought back Season 11's Brad Womack for Season 15, and while he didn't reject both girls in the end as he did on his first appearance, his relationship with Emily Maynard failed to last and she later became the season 8 Bachelorette.