‘The Bachelor Winter Games’: A Major Twist Changes This International Game Of Love Before It Even Starts
The Bachelor Winter Games is set for its opening ceremony. The latest installment of ABC’s rose-filled reality franchise will feature 26 singles—14 international bachelors and bachelorettes and 12 alums from the U.S. Bachelor series—as they go head to head in Olympic-themed challenges. But this is a Bachelor show, so instead of a gold medal, a love connection is the prize.
In a major twist to the usual Bachelor format, the first rose ceremony will include a mass elimination as five contestants are sent home right off the bat. People magazine posted a preview clip of The Bachelor Winter Games premiere in which host Chris Harrison tells the cast that five people are going home after they take place in a surprise vote-off.
The Bachelor Winter Games host went on to explain that the men will write down the name of the woman they think should go home, and the women will write down the name of a man they think needs to go. The cast is instructed to vote for someone who does not seem like they are looking for love.
“You’re going to decide: who’s not serious about this? Who’s not here for love? Who’s not here for a relationship?” Harrison says.
“Once you’ve made up your mind who that is, you’ll go into a voting room and you’ll write that name down and cast your vote. The three women, the two men who get the most votes at the end of the night will be going home.”
Luckily, the contestants are given time to chat with one another before making the game-changing vote.
The Bachelor Winter Games will star U.S. Bachelor franchise favorites like Ben Higgins, Dean Unglert, Eric Bigger, Luke Pell, Ashley Iaconetti, and Lesley Murphy as well as more than a dozen international Bachelor alums. One contestant who clearly makes the first-night cut is Lesley Murphy, a contestant from The Bachelor Season 17. While she didn’t find love with that season’s star, Sean Lowe, Murphy recently told the Huffington Post things worked out for her on the ABC spinoff.
“It’s a good balance of competition, winter games, falling down hills, bad athletes on your TV screens, but also finding love,” Murphy told HuffPo. “I think there’s some love to be found on Winter Games… I went into it with a really open mind and came out with… with a boyfriend!”
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Murphy explained that the competitions will feature both a women’s heat and a men’s heat and whoever wins each will get a date card.
“International couples are a thing,” Murphy said. “And that was really awkward/hard at the end of it because there are a few couples that leave the show together and a lot of hard conversations have to take place. Because it’s like, ‘OK, we live so far away from each other. How are we going to make this work?'”
You can see The Bachelor Winter Games preview clip below.
The Bachelor Winter Games premieres Tuesday, February 13 at 8 p.m. on ABC.
