Chris Harrison Says ‘Bachelorette’ Clare Crawley May Have To Walk Around With A Thermometer When Show Resumes

Chris Harrison says Clare Crawley will follow safety rules when her season of The Bachelorette starts filming.

In a new interview, the longtime ABC host, who previously announced that The Bachelorette will remain on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic, reiterated that every precaution will be taken when the rose-filled reality show resumes production sometime in the future.

Amid rumors that some summertime reality shows may be forced to cancel for this season — a planned Bachelor spinoff, Summer Games, has already been scrapped — Harrison told Glamour that he is “at the front of the line” of people that hope to keep The Bachelorette and Bachelor in Paradise “alive” for this summer.

If and when production does resume, Harrison admitted everything will look “very different” in the dating world and elsewhere when the world comes out of quarantine. He added that The Bachelor franchise has always been “really good” about embracing what is going on in the world, and Crawley’s season of The Bachelorette will be no different.

“How do people date now in the modern world?” Harrison mused. “Does Clare walk around with a thermometer? I mean, who knows? But obviously, when we do get there, we will have the strictest, safest measures put in place. That is why we shut production down in the first place.”

While he sounds hopeful that the show will eventually go on, Harrison did admit it will be a while before his team can safely produce The Bachelorette.

“It’s not like there’s going to be a day, say May 1, if the governor and president decides that we can all [resume work], and then boom, we have a television show,” Harrison said. ‘That’s not how it works.”

Trying to get Bachelor in Paradise finished for this summer will be even more challenging. The two shows can’t be filmed simultaneously, as the same production crew works on both The Bachelorette and Bachelor in Paradise. In addition, Paradise also relies on castoffs from the previous season of The Bachelorette to populate its cast.

In the Glamour interview, Harrison revealed that he talks to Bachelor creator Mike Fleiss, ABC executive Rob Mills, and all the show’s producers nearly every day as they brainstorm ways to get a Bachelor check-in or a reunion type show on the air “immediately.” A previously filmed spinoff, The Bachelor: Listen To Your Heart, premieres April 13.

The American version of The Bachelorette isn’t the only one in limbo. Entertainment Tonight reports that the Australian adaptation of the ABC dating series has also been postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Dancing with the Stars pro dancer Sharna Burgess had been in talks to headline the Aussie version, but she says it’s all been put on hold for now.