Chris Harrison's Bachelorette 8 Blogs & Interviews - Discussion

There’s no question that the first night of every season is one of the most exciting nights of any Bachelor or Bachelorette’s life, but the next day is where the real journey begins. Anyone can make a great first impression if they really put their minds to it, but when you go on a date and have to really let someone see who you are, inside and out, that’s when real relationships begin to form.

I have to admit it feels a little strange to move into a whole new mansion. Little things feel different and while it takes some getting used to, it’s pretty exciting. For me, little things like calling all the guys into the outdoor courtyard was a challenge. You might have noticed I was screaming like a mad man to get the guys to come outside to join me. I didn’t notice until I watched the show back that I had to yell so loud. Guess it wasn’t a good idea to have all the doors closed but it was so hot that day, the house was locked up.

Right from the get-go, there was a lot of tension around the first date card. I think by now everyone knows that going on the first date of the season is a huge deal, though it can also be a double-edged sword. On the one hand, getting to jump right in and develop a connection with Emily is a great advantage. On the other hand, if you start to develop feelings really early, it can make each passing week in the house harder and harder as you watch a woman you have feelings for date other men.

When the first date went to Ryan, you could tell immediately that a lot of the guys were concerned. Ryan has a certain soft-spoken confidence that can be a little intimidating to some guys. Let me tell you, when Emily walked in that day, the guys couldn’t believe how gorgeous she looked. One thing the guys kept saying about Emily is that they were blown away by how she looked in casual clothes. I mentioned last week that things were going to be a little different this time around and I think that was pretty apparent starting with this first date. Emily is a mother first and she wanted to make sure that the guys took that into consideration before going too far. Thankfully, Ryan stepped up and made it into a pretty fun day for the both of them. Other guys, though, may not have taken Emily’s motherhood too seriously and you’ll see a bit of that as the season unfolds.

To be honest with you, I think the Muppets group date was one of the greatest dates we’ve ever done. Personally, I’d like to thank Statler for letting me join him. We heckled and had a blast. It was a childhood dream come true for Emily, Ricki, all the guys, and every single member of our crew. Beyond that, the entire city of Charlotte came out to enjoy the show and raise money for Levine’s Children Hospital (click here to learn more and donate). Before the show I enjoyed going out in the lobby and walking the line and talking with fans. One of the best parts about shooting in Charlotte — other than the BBQ — was getting to meet so many people who support our show.

After an amazing day, though, tensions were high as Kalon again ruffled some feathers. I think we’re seeing a trend here. Is Kalon right to be so singularly minded or should he let the other guys have their fair shots as well? I’ll let you be the judge of that. I think reality really started to set in that night when Jef got the rose. The guys started to see that they really needed to take advantage of that time. You’ll see a lot of guys really step up their game in the coming weeks. On a side note, whoever sent me the tweet that there’s something a little “of” about “Jef,” you got a good laugh.

The last date of the week with Joe was at The Greenbriar. Emily was really excited about this date because this was a place she went a lot as a child. She was so thrilled to share that with Joe, but for some reason, she just didn’t feel a long term connection with him and sent him home at the end of the night. Things don’t always go as planned, so Emily had to watch the fireworks show alone. It was a sad moment, but I think it really showed how seriously Emily is taking everything. If she doesn’t see a future with you, hit the road, Jack. Or in this case, Joe.

Next week, we’ll be back in Charlotte for even more over the top dates. There’s even a very special guest who has always been a huge part of Emily’s life. You’re going to love it. It was definitely one of the highlights of the entire season for her. In the meantime, you can always find me on Twitter @chrisbharrison check out tons of deleted scenes, see more videos of the guys from before the show and check out our Bachelor Nation blog at www.thebachelor.tv.

PS: The ostrich egg is alive and well. Travis has been taking excellent care of it.

The Bachelorette's Emily Maynard is already hitting it off with some of the guys (ahem, Ryan), but viewers will have to wait just a little longer to witness her first kiss on the show.

"You're not going to see the early, wild, hot tub make-out on Date 1," host Chris Harrison tells us. "The fact that she's a mom ... they didn't want to be that guy that takes it too far and makes her feel uncomfortable."

Read our recap of this week's episode

In this week's chat with Harrison, he tells us that Ryan's date was a huge reality check for him and the guys, why Emily gets angry next episode and how her tears are only just getting started.

Emily's first one-on-one date was baking cookies. Do you think Ryan was disappointed in the lack of adventure or glam?
Chris Harrison: Sure. There's no way that he would've thought the first date was going to be baking cookies and taking them to Ricki's soccer practice. That was the biggest reality check ever and sets the tone for the season. But he enjoyed the date and loved spending time with her and then there was the nighttime part. That's the whole thing with Emily, she can be a mom and then she puts on a red dress and you're like, "Holy cow."

I think this is the first season where neither first one-on-one date ended with a kiss!
Harrison: That's another theme throughout the season. When do you make that move and do you make that move? The fact that she's in a mom plays a huge part in that — you're not going to see the early wild hot tub make-out on Date 1. Everyone puts her on this pedestal, but she's a normal 26-year-old woman who wants to be wined and dined and wants to be kissed and the guys are very wary of that. They didn't want to be that guy that takes it too far and makes her feel uncomfortable. There are times throughout the season when she'll get back from a date and she'll tell me in deliberation, "I could not have thrown out more signals and clues for him to kiss me, hug me, touch me."

The Bachelorette's Chris Harrison: One Guy Crosses Emily and Enrages Her

How excited were you and the guys for the Muppets group date?
Harrison: All of a sudden we were 8-years-old again. We were doing Statler and Waldorf and I joined in as was one of the grumpy guys, which was like a dream come true. Those are my favorite characters and to actually get to be one and act alongside them, I was grinning ear to ear!

Emily was adorable during her skit with Kermie.
Harrison: With Emily I thought no way does she have the chops, but I think because Ricki was there she really wanted to show her she was having fun with the Muppets. She really got into it and was being coy and flirty with Kermit, it was really funny.

Were you surprised she axed Joe on her first week of one-on-ones?
Harrison: It definitely sent an early message to the guys because no one thought he was going home on the first date — that just doesn't happen. So that sent ripple effects throughout the house like, "Wow, she's really serious about it!" and now they're like, "I might just settle for the group date."

The Bachelorette's Chris Harrison: Emily's Season Is Drastically Different

Emily cried while dumping him. If she's crying already, she's in trouble.
Harrison: I know we had this talk and I told her, "You realize if you cry now, we are in for a long road. It's not going to get any easier, and you're not even feeling anything yet." All of the Bachelors and Bachelorettes hate the goodbyes and breakups, but it's so hard [for viewers] to understand how tough it is.

In the promo for next week, it looks like Emily's sassiness starts to come out.
Harrison: If she doesn't see a potential father figure or love, etc. she sends people home. She knows how hard the rose ceremonies are so in lieu of waiting for the rose ceremony, she just lets people go, which made it a little difficult for us because we're like, "OK we need enough guys to have a rose ceremony." But she did what she wanted, and we went along with it.

I call this week’s episode “Open Mouth, Insert Bachelor.” Over the last ten years I’ve seen all sorts of things, but for some reason, this week, a few of the guys said and did things that you just shouldn’t do when courting a woman.

Chris got the first date this week, and fortunately for him, he wasn’t one of the guys who shot himself in the foot. There aren’t a lot of extreme dates this season but Chris and Emily got a great one. Emily told me later she thought Chris looked a lot like Gerard Butler. I found it amusing how much she gushed over how good-looking she thought he was. It was entertaining to see how uncomfortable it made Chris because he obviously felt the same about her.

Once again I loved how public this date was, right there in the middle of downtown Charlotte. Emily and Chris hit it off immediately and had great chemistry. By the time they got to the Luke Bryan concert (which was awesome, by the way) it was like they had been dating for months. Chris got the first real, legitimate kiss from Emily, but how it happened is very interesting and brings up a recurring theme this season. The guys are so thoughtful of Emily and the fact that she’s a single mom that they’re almost too respectful, if that’s possible. Emily was sending signal after signal for Chris to go for it but he ended up waiting ’til the end of the concert and at that point he still asked her for permission. In the end he got the kiss and definitely got Emily’s interest. The date couldn’t have gone much better.

The group date was next and this turned out to be a very pivotal date, especially considering how early we are in the season. This was due in part to the fact that Emily’s friends are around to help her out and in large part to how insanely bad some of these guys are at the whole “speaking out loud” thing. I absolutely loved Emily’s friends and how they basically used and abused the guys for their own personal enjoyment, making them dance, do pushups and undress. It was hysterical to watch these poor men jump through the hoops trying to impress them.

Ryan was the first to make a couple of major mistakes this week. First he thought it was a good idea to go over and interrupt Emily talking with her girlfriends. It wasn’t. Then he took this bad move to a whole other level when he laid some stunning knowledge on the ladies: He told them that if Emily gained weight after they married things would change, and that he would love her but he wouldn’t love on her as much. You know, it’s one thing to think like that, but he took it to a whole other level by actually saying it to her and her friends. Ryan, you have some digging out to do! Alessandro also made some interesting comments to Emily’s friends; I’ll cover those a little later.

That night at the group date party, Tony was mentally and emotionally done. I thought it was cool how Doug tried to reach him as a dad and Emily tried as well, but his heart just wasn’t in this and she saw that. The funny thing was that Emily was being so kind to him and so careful of his feelings you almost couldn’t tell that she was sending him home. I was worried he wasn’t going to get the message, but in the end he did, and rightfully went home to his son. Speaking of Doug, you got a glimpse into his story and saw a little bit more of what makes him the man he is. Sean got the rose on this group date and probably deserved it after Emily’s friends sexually harassed him all afternoon.

Emily’s date with Arie was incredible from start to finish. First of all, Emily had a crush on Arie from the moment she met him. Secondly, Dolly Parton and Dollywood hold a very special place in Emily’s heart. She’s a fan and really looks up to the type of person Dolly is. As you could see, Emily was completely caught by surprise that Dolly had agreed to appear on our show. She was amazing. Everybody on our entire crew that met her loved her. It was incredibly sweet of her to sit Emily down and talk to her like she did. If I ever give up my deliberation room duties I might have to call Dolly to fill my spot. As good as Chris’ date went, this one went even better. Part of that was Emily getting to meet Dolly, but it had much more to do with her getting to be with Arie.

The cocktail party leading up to the rose ceremony brought us more priceless moments from the guys this week. And by “priceless” I mean “incredibly rude and thoughtless.” I was happy for Travis that he finally got to say goodbye “Shelly,” the egg. My favorite part of the goodbye to Shelly was the other guys going pouring out some of their high-end vodka for a fallen ostrich.

Kalon has been a lightning rod for attention from the start but up to this point he’s been stirring it up with the guys and never with Emily. Tonight, though, Kalon was talking a mile a minute and not listening at all to Emily. He started out with this little gem, telling Emily “I’ve never had to share much in my life.” Then, when Emily had the audacity to try and speak during this conversation he told her, “I love it when you talk but I wish you’d let me finish.” Emily put it best when she said later, “I like tall, skinny, and funny. I don’t like tall, skinny, and condescending.”

As if Emily hadn’t endured enough this week, she then sat down with Alessandro. He immediately shot himself in the foot when he told Emily that he would consider a life with Emily and her daughter a “compromise.” This is something every woman longs to hear, by the way. But what you hadn’t seen until the end of the show was how bizarre Alessandro acted in front of Emily’s friends. The golden tidbits started with him admitting to have dated his cousin (third cousin), followed by other great admissions like cheating and having one-night stands. And the bizarre behavior didn’t stop there. Alessandro had also used some of his down time at the house to build some sort of psychic refuge, complete with homemade crosses and candles. (I’m not kidding.) After Emily picked her jaw up off the ground she kicked Alessandro’s butt to the curb so fast it made his third cousin’s head spin. By the time we got to the rose ceremony Emily had already dismissed so many guys, only Stevie was sent home.

There was one more incident that didn’t seem like much that will be talked about later. That moment where Emily ran into Arie in the hall and they shared a kiss will have a ripple effect through the house, especially for Ryan. We had to cover a lot this week and it’s only getting better as we move forward and the stakes are raised. I hope you enjoy the earlier start time. We’re going to stay with that the rest of the season. Have a great short week and I’ll see you next Monday night in beautiful Bermuda as the travel begins. For more insight and news on the “Bachelorette” go to our website and as always you can find me on Twitter @chrisbharrison.

The Bachelorette's Chris Harrison: I'm Amazed at How Idiotic Alessandro and Ryan Were

This week's episode of The Bachelorette proved how easy it is for guys to stick their feet in their mouths. Between Alessandro calling Emily's daughter a "compromise" and Ryan telling Emily he wouldn't "love on her" if she got fat, host Chris Harrison says he's amazed at how dumb the men acted. Keep reading for more from our weekly chat.

What were you thinking when Alessandro told Emily her daughter would be a "compromise" for him?
Chris Harrison: I'm just shocked that at this point, with the classes we took in kindergarten, that guys are still saying idiotic things like that out loud. I was in the control room and we're watching this going, "What are you doing? Just say you made a mistake. She's giving you the out!" It was so bizarre to watch this guy hang himself tighter and tighter. I don't think Emily wanted to send him home, but he kept going and finally she was like, "You're too dumb for your own good." Everything he could've said wrong, he did.

Sean seemed to be the standout this week.
Harrison: Emily's friends are really the ones who put Sean on Emily's radar. What makes him great is that you won't see him doing handstands in front of the crowd, yelling, "Hey look at me." That was the start of the rise of Sean and he'll continue to get better and better in Emily's eyes.

Why didn't Chris just kiss Emily after they climbed to the top of the building?
Harrison: You'll see these overly respectful guys walk right through these perfectly good signs coming from a woman, and it's totally because she's a single mom and they don't quite know what the rules are. This is a good microcosm of her life — she deals with this all the time — where she's out and likes a guy, throws out signals and they walk right through it and give her a high-five at the top of a building. They're not quite sure what the protocol is and Emily's like, "Protocol is: I'm a cute 26-year-old woman who wants to be kissed. Stop thinking so hard."

She was shocked by his age. Will that be a problem moving forward?
Harrison: It's definitely a thing. You could hear the record skip a beat. I think she's going to have to give him the same benefit of the doubt someone would give her because she's not your average 26-year-old. It made her take pause and it's something she'll continue to have to deal with.

I loved Arie's date. How surprised Emily was by Dolly Parton showing up?
Harrison: That was a huge date for her. Emily meeting Dolly Parton was like she was meeting the president. Even at the end [of filming the season], she still talked about that moment as one of her favorite. Dolly was so sweet and knew Emily's story, so to meet one of your heroes — Emily loved it.

I had to save Ryan for last. Why would he ever tell Emily not to get fat!
Harrison: Why even enter the gray area? You know better to ever say anything remotely controversial about a woman's weight, especially when you're starting to date her. What's wrong with you? And in front of her friends! All it matters is Emily's opinion and she was offended and was flabbergasted. She played it off well with her friends, but it got to her.

It looks like he starts to get cocky next week and make people mad.
Harrison: He starts to get a little arrogant and it gets the better of him. What really does it is that innocent little kiss with Arie and Emily at the end last night's episode — it sends ripple effect through the house. She was in a bad mood with the whole Alessandro thing and then ran into Arie and they happened to have this moment, but unbeknownst to them, the guys could see from the other room.

Next week, the group heads to Bermuda. What can you preview?
Harrison: These relationships are definitely taking off and the guys know Arie and her have something special, which ratchets up the competitiveness. That regatta on the group date gets rough. Those guys fight for their lives to get some time with her.

nd4reality wrote:Love_Me - could you paste the links to the previous Bachelorette season's CH blogs and interviews for me please ?
(Jillian / Ali/ Ashley ?) Or I guess you only have a thread of Ashley's season right ?
OR PM them to me if it will crowd out this thread too much ? TIA

nd4reality wrote:tks Archer23!

nd4reality wrote:Ch did not seem to be referencing JP much. He didn't even talk about their 1st 1on1 date. Weird.
Are his blogs any sort of clue to the ending normally ?