Who Was Almost the Next Bachelorette? The Lead ABC Nearly Chose…
Jason Pham
With Grant’s Bachelor season almost over and done with, it’s time to look forward to the next Bachelorette. But here’s where the sad news comes in: There won’t be a new Bachelorette for 2025, and there’s no confirmation on when the show will come back.
Deadline reported in February 2025 that The Bachelorette — which had aired on ABC each year since its premiere in 2003 — was canceled for its usual time slot in 2025. Per the magazine, The Bachelorette typically starts production in March, with the past three seasons premiering in July. This year, however, will be different with the show on a hiatus.
While The Bachelorette was canceled from its usual time slot, Deadline reported that it will likely return to ABC in the future and that the network hasn’t ruled out a return later this year. The Bachelorette also isn’t the first Bachelor Nation show ABC has put on pause. Bachelor in Paradise was also paused in 2024, with its usual time slot taken by The Golden Bachelorette, before ABC’s announcement that BIP would return in the summer of 2025.
With The Bachelorette‘s future in the air, fans can’t help but ask why the show was canceled and who was almost the next Bachelorette before the show was put on hiatus. Well, the two answers could be related.
Who was almost the next Bachelorette for 2025?
Maria Georgas, the fourth-place finalist on The Bachelor Season 28 with Joey Graziadei, was rumored to be the frontrunner to lead The Bachelorette Season 22 before the show was canceled for 2025. Bachelor Nation alums Ashley Iaconetti and Ben Higgins reported on an episode of their podcast, “Almost Famous,” in February 2025 that Maria was almost the Season 22 Bachelorette, however, due to unknown conflicts, ABC and Maria couldn’t make Season 22 work, which is why The Bachelorette was canceled for 2025.
“We’re pretty certain Maria was a frontrunner to be the Bachelorette as she was a frontrunner to be the Bachelorette during Jenn’s season. The source says that they don’t know exactly what happened, but they couldn’t make Maria happen and that’s why the show didn’t get picked up because I’m assuming they didn’t have a strong enough lead to get enough ratings,” Ashley I. said.
Ashley I. also revealed that two contestants from The Bachelor Season 29 with Grant Ellis were also considered to be the next Bachelorette, however, she didn’t name which ones. Another Bachelorette ABC reportedly considered was Rachel Recchia, the lead of The Bachelorette Season 19 with Gabby Windey who was cheated on by her winner, Tino Franco. (Rachel was later a contestant on Bachelor in Paradise Season 9.) “Our sources are saying that they were also thinking of giving Rachel Recchia a redo. They said her name was floated around, but they said there’s a reason she couldn’t do it and we can’t reveal that reason in real time, but production and fans love Rachel and I personally would’ve loved to see Rachel’s own season. She’s so likable. I really, really love that girl, but there’s something else exciting for her,” Ashley I. said.
Despite the four options — Maria, Rachel and two contestants from Grant’s Bachelor season — Ben maintained that Maria was, by far, the frontrunner to be the next Bachelorette. “It sounds like from our source that Maria was the frontrunner,” he said. “The powers that be really wanted to be the lead of this season. It really sounds to me that they couldn’t make it work with Maria for whatever reason that was, and because of that, they had to pull the plug on the show because somebody who had a lot of influence on the show was fairly stuck on that storyline saying, ‘If we don’t do Maria, it’s not worth doing.'”
He continued, “This seems like the reason this season isn’t happening. The ratings haven’t been good enough. Even though I think there have been great seasons, but I go back to I think the show took a massive hit with the men that were cast for Jenn’s season. Jenn did a great job. I think we’ve seen Jenn thrive after her role as the Bachelorette, but I think the men on her season really hurt the show,” Ben said. “And because the show did the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ strategy, I think the show is in a really tough place.”
As Bachelor Nation fans know, Maria also claimed she received the offer to be the Season 21 Bachelorette and even did dress fittings for the show, however, she turned it down close to the last minute. (Jenn Tran, another contestant from The Bachelor Season 28 with Joey, was later announced as the Season 21 Bachelorette instead.)
“I was offered the role. It was mine until I said it wasn’t,” Maria said on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast in May 2024. “It became very overwhelming to the point where I had to decline.” She continued, “I just was not ready.”
Jenn, for her part, denied that Maria was ever officially chosen to be the Bachelorette before her in her own interview on “Call Her Daddy” in July 2024. “Obviously I didn’t have my phone at the time all of this was going down because we had went right into filming right after it was all announced,” Jenn said of Maria’s interview. “Coming back to all of that, yeah, obviously I was really disappointed to see all of that because, I mean, the truth of the matter is, there’s a lot of narratives out there and they’re not necessarily the truth.”
She continued, “Multiple people are being interviewed, or doing meetings about it all, doing fittings or filming intro packages, and it’s never really you until it’s you.” Jenn also claimed that she was not approached to be the Bachelorette at the last minute and had meetings with producers for months before she received a phone call with the official offer. “They asked me and I had the choice and I chose to do it. I said yes,” she said. “The thing with the narrative sets out right now is it was disappointing to come back from this incredible journey for myself and then to see all the speculation around it and to almost have these things kind of take away from what my journey was.”
Why was The Bachelorette canceled for 2025?
Ashley I. and Ben claimed on their podcast that 75 percent of the filming dates for The Bachelorette Season 22, including in European locations like Greece and Portugal, were set before ABC decided to cancel the show for 2025. The hosts also alleged that an iHeartRadio podcast-themed date was also in the works with Ben and Ashley I., as well as other iHeartRadio podcast hosts like Jana Kramer, Jennie Garth, Kevin McHale, and Jenna Ushkowitz set to take part. The date allegedly was a competition-themed date with the winner receiving an invite to the iHeartRadio Music Awards.
Because The Bachelorette was reportedly planning to film in Europe instead of mainly staying in Los Angeles to save costs — like ABC did with The Golden Bachelor and The Golden Bachelorette — Ben stated on the podcast that he didn’t believe The Bachelorette was canceled in 2025 due to money. Ben and Ashley I. claimed that the main reason they heard The Bachelorette was canceled for 2025 was because ABC couldn’t find as strong of a lead as Maria. Another reason is that ABC reportedly believed that the network could fill The Bachelorette‘s usual time slot with Hulu’s The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, which has a similar demographic.
While The Bachelorette won’t air a new season in 2025, Ben maintained that he believed the show would come back in the future. “I don’t think the show is going away forever,” he said. Ashley I. added, “And neither do the people at ABC. They skipped [Bachelor in] Paradise last year and now it’s back. And maybe they’re going to do the same thing for The Bachelorette. It’s a little reboot time.”
The Bachelorette streams on Hulu.
