Due To A Foreshortened Shooting Schedule, Bachelor In Paradise Will Air A Live Finale

Filming of this season of Bachelor In Paradise took place in a shorter span of time this year due to the highly-publicized temporary halt in production in early June. As such, Chris Harrison says Bachelor in Paradise will air a live finale, an unprecedented move for the summer reality show.

"One of the things that will be a little different is our time in Paradise was cut down and compacted, therefore the show will extend back into the real world," Harrison told Entertainment Weekly. "It's going to be a lot of finding out what's been happening, because things have been continuing back in the real world since the show wrapped up in Mexico."

Shooting for Bachelor In Paradise usually takes place over 18 days. (That's a generous amount of time to find love on a beach, no?) This year, though, production stopped after June 4 and didn't begin again until approximately June 23. This is according to the Twitter activity of the cast — contestants have been particularly loose on social media this year. Many of them even tweeted photos of themselves traveling to and from paradise, which is in Sayulita, Mexico. Contestants then returned to social media on July 12, a full 12 days after leaving for Mexico. If our calculations are correct, Bachelor In Paradise season 4 took place over less than two weeks.

That doesn't mean the drama ended, though. Contestants of the show — a group the media playfully calls "Bachelor Nation" — interact regularly. In fact, a pack of them just went to the Dominican Republic on a trip that might as well have been Bachelor In Paradise part 2. And they haven't really been trying to hide the drama from the press, either; various cast members have been photographed together, seemingly on dates, since filming completed. (In the interest of spoilers, we won't share who.)

Harrison does want to stress, though, that this live finale isn't the same as the "reunion special" that will reunite DeMario Jackson and Corinne Olympios.

"When I talk to Corinne and DeMario, that's not just going to be part of a sit down like the Women or Men Tell All special where there's 30 people on set," Harrison explained to EW. "I think people are misunderstanding how that's going to go. Those are going to be a lot more in-depth and a lot more intimate and a lot more personal and one-on-one than your tell-all special.'"

In short, neither of these specials are precedented — at this point, we have no idea what to expect from Bachelor In Paradise season 4.