The next Bachelor has finally been announced and it's not Mike Johnson (sorry, Mike fans), but if you're hoping there's still time to apply for Peter Weber's Bachelor season, you may be out of luck.
Pilot Pete's Bachelor announcement came way later than some past Bachelor announcements (an emerging pattern now that late-summer snack Bachelor in Paradise has cemented itself as a Bachelor Nation mainstay). That means the time between you finding out who's handing out roses and the roses actually being handed out is much, much shorter this year. Filming for Peter's Bachelor season is likely to start in just a few days, so the show pretty much has it's cast set already. In fact, hours before the finale, the full "potential" Bachelor cast for Peter's season was released with photos and names, directly from ABC. So we are saying there's a chance. But it's a small one.
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Of course, only a few hours later, Peter was announced as the show's next leading man during the Bachelor in Paradise season 6 reunion. Usually, Bachelors are announced at the end of August or early September, and filming begins in the third week of September. Looking at the past few seasons as examples, Ben Higgins was announced on Aug. 24, 2015 and his season began filming on Sept. 24 of that year. In 2016, Nick Viall was announced on Aug. 30 and also began filming a few weeks later on Sept. 24. Arie Luyendyk Jr. was announced on Sept. 7, 2017 and started his filming journey on Sept. 20. The most recent Bachelor, Colton Underwood, was announced on Sept. 4 and met his season's women on Sept. 21. So Sept. 17 is cutting it really, really close.
If the show follows a similar filming schedule as the past few seasons, that means that Peter's season will commence this upcoming weekend. That's not a lot of time to get your application in, be approved by the show, get to LA, and start filming. Technically, the Bachelor application site is still up, so you could nominate yourself and hope for the best. But unless you have a really compelling reason as to why Peter absolutely has to be the one for you, you're probably out of luck unless you're one of Peter's exes (producers love to bring on ex).
According to ABC, most of the casting calls for this season were scheduled for June and July of 2019 to give the team plenty of time to review applications and make selections. The official Bachelor Facebook page then posted the photos and names of the 33 hopeful contestants before Peter had even been announced as the next Bachelor. "We are giving you an early look at the women who may be on #TheBachelor," the post read. And while it's not the final cast, it's more likely that some of these gals get booted before the show starts than it is that producers will scour the nation for one or two more new recruits. Especially if filming does actually start in a few days, in time with the usual Bachelor filming schedule.
But there is one glimmer of hope: The fact that most contestants are selected before the Bachelor or Bachelorette is officially chosen probably plays into why the lead is always so nervous about whether or not people are there for the Right Reasons™. None of the contestants who applied knew it was going to be Peter back in June and July, so who's to say that they really came on the show for him? With that teensy tiny issue in mind, it's possible producers will throw in a couple of die-hard Peter fans at the last minute to ensure someone is there for him.
If you want those possible add-ons to include you, the application is technically still live. But even if you do have the most compelling reason of all time, we'd just suggest one very important tactic when applying: Don't hold your breath.