Luke Pell Teases Possible Return To ‘The Bachelor’ Franchise
Luke Pell has not completely closed the door on The Bachelor. The Season 21 frontrunner, who was replaced by Nick Viall at the last minute, says he hasn’t ruled out a return to the ABC reality franchise. In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Pell said he is prepared for future conversations with the network despite the last minute switcheroo for what was almost his Bachelor season.
Pell, who was left heartbroken when Bachelorette star JoJo Fletcher dumped him after his hometown date last season, told ET that if he was offered The Bachelor lead again, he would be hesitant to take it after what he has been through.
“After this past experience with it, that would be really tough,” Pell admitted. “It’s a lot emotionally and mentally to prepare for.”
Still, Luke didn’t rule out anything and he said he fully expects to be approached by ABC just based on his past experiences with the network.
“I’m expecting those conversations to probably start just from being an alum,” Pell said. “We’ll see how that goes in the spring. I don’t think that’s going to be in the cards from my standpoint, but I’ll just kind of make that decision when I get to that point.”
While Luke is understandably hesitant about taking on the lead Bachelor role, the 32-year-old country singer sounds much more open to scoring a three-week gig on the summertime spinoff, Bachelor in Paradise.
“Bachelorette was such an intensive schedule,” Pell explained. “For eight weeks you’re just completely unplugged from your life…It would be hard for me to do that…Paradise is quick, it films really quick, it’s on the beach!”
Luke Pell also admitted that he doesn’t actually need a dating show to find women these days, but that his newfound fame does come with “its own different set of pitfalls.” Pell revealed that a lot of the women he meets seem to be only interested in him because he was on a TV show.
Earlier this year, Luke Pell revealed that he had his flight booked and his contract finalized to star in the 21st season of The Bachelor, but at the last minute, he got a call notifying him that the network had decided to go with Nick Viall instead. Pell told E! News he was blindsided by the last-minute switch.
“We planned out what the season would look like in detail,” Pell told E! “They even asked about my sister coming on an episode of the show…The decision was made apparently on Sunday, and I was supposed to fly to L.A. Monday and already had all my bags packed. They called me Sunday night and said it wasn’t me.”
Pell added that while he has “no ill will” towards Viall, he does think the network should have handled the situation better.
“I felt like I didn’t deserve that,” Luke said. “I don’t have a problem with it if they think that they have a better candidate for the show, that’s fine. But it’s the way that it was handled. Asking me to be genuine and authentic and open and vulnerable…and then I don’t get genuine and authentic in return from the organization.”
If Luke Pell does make his way back to ABC, potential bachelorettes should know that he’s looking for the real deal. Luke told ET that he loves confident women with a sense of humor and he hopes to find a “genuine”girl.
“That is the biggest turn-on for me, when somebody’s just confident in who they are and they’re genuine,” Pell said.
“These days so many people have this character of who they are on Instagram or something like that…and they’re not that in real life… So when I can find somebody who’s genuine, and an open book and I’m attracted to them, that’s awesome.”
In addition to his possible return to The Bachelor franchise, Luke Pell plans to release his first country music EP early next year. Luke has said some of the songs were inspired by his experiences on The Bachelor.
Take a look at the video below to see Luke Pell talking about getting passed over for The Bachelor.
[Featured Image by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images]
