Former Bachelor host Chris Harrison addresses “toxic” relationship with television show
Harrison called his departure from the series "something that I pray to God my worse enemy never goes through"
Aux News Chris Harrison
It’s been two years now since Chris Harrison—whose grinning countenance was once almost totally synonymous with the world of manufactured TV love—departed his role as host for the Bachelor franchise of shows. Harrison left the series in 2021, amid controversy over his vocal support for Rachel Kirkconnell, a contestant on The Bachelor who’d been facing accusations of racist behavior; Harrison’s defense of her coincided with widespread conversations about both America’s generally dismal track record with race, and, more specifically, The Bachelor’s own well-documented struggles with the issue. Harrison has since been replaced by former NFL player Jesse Palmer in the role, who recently served as host of the franchise’s latest break-out project, The Golden Bachelor. (Which, of course, has its own host of attendant issues, because The Bachelor is an inherently issue-heavy premise.)
And you know who couldn’t be happier about this arrangement? Chris Harrison, who gave an interview this week in which he basically talked about his former gig as though it were one of those toxic relationships that people on The Bachelor are always fleeing, telling the Trading Secrets podcast this week that “I don’t wish it on anybody. It was horrifying on a lot of levels and something that I pray to God my worst enemy never goes through. But, with that said, I knew I had to remove myself from what became a very toxic situation.”
While acknowledging the financial impact the show had on his (and his kids’) lives, and expressing some gratitude toward the gig as a shole, Harrison ultimately made it clear that he was simply feeling blessed to have moved on from this chapter in his life, in a spirit of growth and mindfulness. “I can also be grateful that I’m gone. That’s a relationship I don’t need to be in anymore,” Harrison asserted as part of the conversation. “Because it wasn’t healthy.”
Namaste!
26 Comments
“because The Bachelor is an inherently issue-heavy premise”But it sure generates a lot of views and publicity and clicks, eh?Also, “shole”? Seems like something that even the crappiest writing software should’ve flagged for attention.
Fortunately, “Namaste!” made it through just fine.
That’s an accidental copy-paste from Hughes’ article about Sean Connery’s favourite fish.
I try not to expend too much energy on “why is X show not getting coverage here” arguments – we live in a SEO optimization hellscape so what’s the point? – but it does depress me a little that the AV Club keeps recapping things like ‘The Golden Bachelor’ while ignoring other shows, even ones that it will elsewhere heap praise on.
… and/or lament for low viewership… That’s another least-favorite trope around here: Complaining about the cancellation of a critical favorite that not enough people watched, while ignoring that they did nothing to report on it.
Only took one rambling run-on sentence to get from “Chris Harrison’s grinning countenance” to “America’s generally dismal track record with race”. Go AV Club! Don’t let a paragraph go by without smugly reminding us all that we all suck.
A shole is a plank placed underneath a structure to give extra load bearing surface. So while I am sure he meant to type “whole,” shole actually works in that sentence if you consider that he is grateful the job gave him a lot of money to support his family:)https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/shole
I was thinking that the voice-to-text program (that I’m convinced they use heavily) misheard show as shole. But given the proximity of S to W on the keyboard, your idea works better.Even so, do these guys have so much work to do that spending 60 seconds to read over the piece before posting is too much to ask?
I can tell you from experience it is very hard to proofread your own stuff if you read it immediately after writing it. Especially if you use voice recognition. You KNOW what you typed/said so you tend to just read right over the errors.
I don’t mind giving the writers the grace to miss their own errors, since they most likely don’t have editors that would normally do that. It’s the unwillingness to go back and fix them that bewilders me. I regularly rue the 15-minute edit window Kinja imposes on comments, because I don’t always catch my typos in time. I can’t imagine being a professional writer and being okay with dozens of articles that contain typos, grammatical errors, and misinformation, and yet Sam Barsanti still works at the AV Club.
To me, correcting errors, either before or after posting, is just a matter of pride.
To me, correcting errors, either before or after posting, is just a matter of pride.
I love that the unpaid AVC editor commenter account finally imploded under the weight.
Are there any Bachelor and Bachelorette shows that AREN’T toxic at some level?
The entire concept is pathetic on its face, but damn if it’s hard to look away. What kind of even remotely stable person is going to go on a show and agree to marry a stranger a few weeks later, or (more likely) be publicly humiliated? I mean I know the answer but it probably took the producers no more than one season to realize it was just a big influencer-fest. I do admire the guys who basically confess they’re there to hook up with as many hot chicks in as short a period of time as possible, and not take any shit for it.
That “Namaste!” bit seems a little unnecessarily snide for what comes across as one guy quite honestly grappling with a difficult but lucrative chapter of his life.
True, but there’s no reason to make a shole big thing about it.
“…whose grinning countenance was once almost totally synonymous with the world of manufactured TV love…”Kids, this is why writers need editors.
At least there’s no spelling or grammar mistakes that I can see.
It’s close to being a good clause, and for the AV Club, that’s pretty good!
Tell me more about this “manufactured TV love.”
Another millionaire crying about being unemployed… for due cause
Another cunt idly tapping out shit on the internet ^
Chris will never love you, wet wipe.
Why doncha settle on down by the fire, pick up that groovy guitar and sing us a song about it? Who signed it? Was it Taylor Swift? Oh, say that it was!
Trash person makes money from trash TV show, backs a racist, leaves show, feels bad about show.