October 9, 2025 • 36 mins
Ben is on a cruise around New York City with Wells Adams and Chris Harrison and they’re revealing all the secrets from the Bachelor Mansion and beyond!
Find out how the Bachelor remembers the names of all the contestants, what Wells and Chris REALLY think about Taylor Frankie Paul as the Bachelorette, and if Chris would ever return as the host!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the Ben and Ashley I almost famous podcast
with iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
It's the almost famous podcast. Been here and this past
weekend I had the best time with Chris Harrison and
Wells Adams. We were in New York with City Cruises
hanging out was some of the best fans from Bachelor Nation.
We had such a great time sharing behind the scenes stories,
answering fan questions, we wanted to share it here on
(00:26):
the pod.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
So let's dive into the night.
Speaker 4 (00:30):
Welcome to City Cruises. Apparently we're in the Big Apple.
That's a nickname for New York. I just found out backstage.
Thank you for being here, thank you for taking your
Sunday night to join us, and thanks for being a
part of Bachelor Nation, a show and a franchise that
really meant the world to me. My heart and soul
was in that show for almost twenty years and I
(00:52):
loved every bit of it.
Speaker 5 (00:52):
I truly did almost every bit of it.
Speaker 4 (00:59):
I brought some of my best friends and this has
been a great week.
Speaker 5 (01:02):
We were in Boston a couple of nights ago. Now
we're here in New York. We're gonna do another cruise
in San Diego.
Speaker 4 (01:07):
And when you get to spend time with, you know,
people on the show. You're like, oh, good other cast members. No, no,
these are my very dear friend some of my best
friends in the world, which is a kind of an
excellent byproduct of what I got to do for a
living for almost twenty years.
Speaker 5 (01:22):
So I want to bring them on.
Speaker 4 (01:24):
First up, People Magazines forty seventh Sexiest Man of the Year.
But he's the best damn bartender in the world. Ladies
and gentlemen give it up for wells Adams.
Speaker 6 (01:46):
Wait, is this how I find out that I'm the
forty seventh congratulations? Oh my god, I heard you backstage
and you said something to the effect of this the
most dramatic cruise ever ever.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
I don't think so.
Speaker 6 (01:57):
I watched a Netflix documentary about a cruise that broke
down and everyone had a poop in bags. So hey,
by the way, bad news, guys. The bathroom's broken, so
just kidding.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
And we've run out of fish. Coming up next, maybe,
with all due respect to Sean Lowe, the greatest bachelor
we have ever had.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
I agree America's bachelor.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
Although a bachelor no more. His heart has been taken,
his heart has been won.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Sorry's beautiful daughter, winning.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
People Magazines, forty seventh and a half Sexiest Man. You
beat him by point five. Ladies and gentlemen, Ben Higgins,
sorry about that.
Speaker 5 (02:47):
You almost you almost beat.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Well This has always been the more attractive.
Speaker 5 (02:52):
Guys. Thank you for being here.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
It's been an amazing week we have gotten to spind together.
I wish the crews could really just be hey out
with the three of us all week because it's a
bunch of nonsense and a lot of great golf. And
we are gonna talk a lot about our just golf
game tonight because what we found our research shows.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Yeah, you guys love golf.
Speaker 5 (03:12):
Golf stories.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
Yeah, now what I would what I would love to start.
Let's get into the nitty gritty and we're gonna come
to you in a little bit because the most fun
we have is taking questions from all of you.
Speaker 5 (03:23):
And we'll get to.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
That in a bit, but first give us a story
a moment if you will, I'll give you a chance
to wait. We'll start with Wells, something we don't know
that happened on the show. It could be while you
were bartending, hosting, or when you were about to get
dumped by Jojoe whatever.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
Thanks for bringing your sure is it too soon?
Speaker 7 (03:46):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (03:46):
You know in Argentina, I got my arm broken by.
Speaker 6 (03:52):
I have so many funny stories from the show, and
it's it's unfortunate because all my stuff gets cut.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
From the show.
Speaker 6 (03:59):
I'm hilarious, but you guys have no idea because it's
left in the cutting room floor.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
But I think that my favorite story that like people.
Speaker 6 (04:07):
Don't know about, that I thought was going to be
a storyline, but then like looking back, obviously it wasn't.
Was when we were filming Bachelorette. So you're traveling around
with twenty five just agro dudes all around the world.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
Right, you got.
Speaker 6 (04:24):
Chad who's eating meat and on way too many steroids,
a lot of protein, so much protein, and someone moved
his protein powder and that was a bad day. But
what ended up happening is we started traveling around the world.
We went to Nemicole in Pennsylvania, then we went down
to Uruguay, then we went to Argentina, and then I
(04:46):
got dumped there and then I think they went somewhere else.
But every time that we would go into the bath
we were sharing one bathroom for like twenty five guys
and We'd go into the bathroom and there would be
a log still in there every day, and we started
(05:08):
calling this person the poop bandit, and we filmed an
entire scene of us trying to figure out who the
poop bandit was. I think it was Jordan Rogers. I
am almost one hundred percent.
Speaker 5 (05:25):
Let's just go with that, but but.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
I think it.
Speaker 6 (05:28):
I think Chad started it, but then we kicked him off,
and then Jordan was like, the poop bandit must live.
Speaker 5 (05:34):
Enjoy your desserts.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
Yes, I've had two poop jokes tonight.
Speaker 4 (05:39):
Now I regret that question altogether. You know what, It's
not lost on me that I am sitting between two
guys that both made out with Jojo. One got dumped
by her, the other broke up with her.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Yeah, whoa, Ben, what were you thinking?
Speaker 5 (05:59):
She's amazing?
Speaker 3 (06:00):
She's a great girl. Man.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
My story was going to be not similar, but I'll
try to yeah something, let's.
Speaker 5 (06:08):
Try to move off. Yeah, the toilet.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
So here's a crazy story about my time as the Bachelor. Okay,
the week before he started filming, my best friend in
the world me Chris Harrison. No, he gets married in
Honduras and I go down there go to this wedding.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
They let me go. I come back and I'm sick
in multiple ways. I'm sick.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
I lose thirty pounds on The Bachelor, I get. If
you watch the season from start to finish, you'll see it.
I ended the show at like one hundred and seventy
five pounds, and I'm not like a short person. They
had to keep tailoring my suits down to me because
they do that. And we have this guy on the show,
carry Fetman. He's an amazing guy, and he just kept
(06:53):
tailoring these suits down to me. I get on the
flight home from the show and my stomach just locks up.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
On the flight.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
I go to the hospital. They send me to the hospital.
I have a parasite in my gut. I go two
weeks of like almost like chemo type medication to get
rid of this parasite that has eaten through my stomach.
Lining still to this day, I have issues from this
still to this day. If you watch the show from
(07:23):
start to finish, so imagine being a software salesman from Denver, Colorado,
working in a cubicle, becoming the Bachelor with all the
cameras and being like sick, not feeling good.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
The whole time and still trying.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
To go through this show, and the show kept saying,
You're stressed, You're anxious, you're tired, And I get why
they were saying that.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
I was all of those things.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Yes, but we find out later I had a worm
growing in my gut for three months.
Speaker 5 (07:56):
This is not the show I thought we were going
to do tonight.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
Nobody knows that story. It's a good story, Yeah, it's
a good story.
Speaker 5 (08:04):
By the look on her face, I'm not sure that's
a good story.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
By the way, I don't know if anybody knows this.
Samantha just got engaged last night.
Speaker 6 (08:10):
Oh my god, Samantha, hold on, breaking news. Let's see
the Neil Lane ring.
Speaker 5 (08:18):
Break breaking news. This is in I'm being told from
What's that?
Speaker 4 (08:24):
Because of those stories, you are now the fifty six
sexiest man.
Speaker 5 (08:28):
You're not even on the list anymore.
Speaker 7 (08:29):
Dang it.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
The worm story, I will say, it's of hosting both
shows for so many years. When we would shoot in
the mansion, you would think that maybe the guys would
be worse, but both shows were kind of the same.
We shot in the mansion and they basically used the
main bathroom all of them, and when the when we
(08:54):
were shooting the bachelom it was all the bacherettes. It
took a hazmat crew to go in that bathroom when
you had twenty women all getting ready in that in
one bathroom. My god, it was horrifying in there. The
guys honestly weren't that bad.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
Well on by season there was a poop bandit.
Speaker 6 (09:14):
One of my favorite things about Paradise is, thank you
one person likes that show.
Speaker 5 (09:21):
That's kind of what it feels like. The ratings.
Speaker 4 (09:26):
We have one point two people, so we have tens
of fans.
Speaker 5 (09:33):
Oh, it used to be good, so too soon.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
I'm still employed by them and relax.
Speaker 6 (09:43):
So rose ceremonies are the meanest things in the world,
and especially when we film them in Mexico, it's so hot.
We decide to film the show in their monsoon season,
so it is it's June.
Speaker 8 (10:00):
It is always don't forget crab season and also crab
season not the STD kind that too. I mean, maybe
I don't know. Things got weird in the Fantasy Suite.
Speaker 6 (10:11):
But it's so hot there and all these girls put
on all this makeup because obviously they're gonna be on TV,
and they want to look their best, and you do
a roast ceremony. It takes you remember hours, right, you
have to stand there and you're doing all this stuff,
and I just remember I'm the bartender. So I'm like
(10:31):
looking like through the bar up into the thing and
all these girls make up it's just melching off their face.
And I remember thinking, this is so mean that they're
on national TV and they're melting.
Speaker 4 (10:50):
We By the way, since we're talking about ROAs ceremonies,
can we dispell some rumors you were the Bachelor? Can
we talk about how a rose ceremony works? Because everybody
wants to know because you're brilliant, But does the like
you can't remember seventeen girls' names in a row?
Speaker 5 (11:09):
So how do they do it?
Speaker 4 (11:10):
Are the names written on the roses? Do they tell
you in your ear? How do you do it?
Speaker 2 (11:15):
It's a good question and it's probably the most common question.
So every four people you kind of get to leave,
and so they'll give you a list of six. You
go back and you're like, Okay, here's my order, here's
who I want to pick, and they say, here's the
order you're going to give it in?
Speaker 3 (11:33):
Or what order do you want to give it in.
Here's your next six.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
So you go back, especially on night one, you don't
nobody's names, like these are all strangers to you. So
you go back to this room, you remember six people's names,
go back out, say it, and then you say, I
just need a break.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
I just need a break, and you leave again. The
show doesn't tell you do this. If you want to.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
Name all of them on your own, you could. There's
just no human in the world that would remember twenty
people's names all in one night. So you go back,
you remember them, you go back out, and then you
step back again, and you do it about four times
until you get through the night. There's no names on
your hand, there's no names on the roses. It makes
(12:15):
sense that you can't remember everybody's name.
Speaker 4 (12:19):
But we always felt and they said why did you
do that? The reason was we always felt there was
this line we never wanted to cross, even if Ben said,
this is who we wanted to keep. And the reason
we decide the order is it's just TV stuff. You
want to bounce from side to side so you don't
notice it, but to your eye it looks better on
TV when we're bouncing side to side. And so Ben
(12:39):
would say, this is who I want to keep, and
then we decide the order. The director a lot of
times will decide the order depending on where they're lined up.
And the reason we didn't ever put a bug in
their ear or bride it on the roses or whatever.
We always wanted that freedom of thought. We always wanted
Ben to have that freedom to say in the middle
of a roase ceremony, what's your name? Yeah, or call
(13:03):
out the wrong name hopefully, but no, to have the
to have a change of heart and say, you know what,
that's not what I want to do. And we always
felt if we were telling you Kelly A, Kelly B,
Kelly C a lot of Kelly's, uh, you know that
you could change your mind. And so we just never
crossed that line.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
I remember the second Rose ceremony, standing up there and
blanking because you're nervous.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
Yeah, you're not a.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Trained professional, You're coming off of a cubicle job. You're
nervous in front of these beautiful people. And I remember
in the morning, it's four in the morning. I blanked
on names and I got lucky, but I remember got lucky.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
I remember having this like anxiety insidey came out there.
Speaker 5 (13:45):
If you just say Lauren.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
If you say Lauren, you're probably gonna do Okay.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
I want Kelly and Lauren. And that's how he got engaged.
Speaker 5 (13:55):
Is there a Laura.
Speaker 6 (13:57):
I believe there's a Lauren here one.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
This is true. I mean I was so nervous.
Speaker 6 (14:05):
I was thinking about rose ceremonies, and I remember being
in that moment of waiting to get a rose, and
I remember figuring out if I was going to get
a rose or I wasn't going to get a rose
by what the cameras are doing. And I'll be like, man,
no cameras being pointed at me, I'm screwed. And then
all of a sudden it.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
Would be like right on me, like yes, it's my time.
Speaker 6 (14:31):
Or it's like someone I didn't like so that they
knew that I would be upset that they got the
rose and I didn't. And it's a weird thing that
you can see, like the camera's pointing at you mean,
like this is my time.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
I get question obviously somebody like how scripted is it?
I would say it was never scripted. I I have
no memories of being told, hey, this is what you're
gonna do, and this is what you're gonna say. It
was a lot of let's talk this through.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
What do you want to do?
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Okay, here's probably the best way to do it. I
love this person, Caitlin Bristow.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
I think one of the best bachelorettes of all time.
Speaker 5 (15:04):
She gets good TV.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
She was wild, absolutely wild, and she's one of my
I just think the world of her.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
But I was roommates. Here's a story.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
I was roommates with Sean Booth, who ended up, you know,
getting engaged with Caitlin, and it was a very real
and serious relationship. So we're in San Antonio, like week four,
and it's two in the morning and our hotel door
opens up and this cute little girl comes skipping in
and it's Caitlyn, who had snuck out of her room
(15:34):
away from the producers, into our shared bedroom and we're
both I just production loved this.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
By the way, Yeah, they had no clue. I was
so excited.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Sean was so excited, and we're like, hey, Kaitlyn, and
she just like hops into Sean's bed and I'm laying
in this cot At this time, we would rotate beds,
like at one location he would get the queen like
the main bed, I would get the sidebed. This one
I had the side bed, and so it made sense,
and I thought we were all going to stip in chat.
(16:07):
Very quickly I realized I was not invited to this party.
Speaker 5 (16:10):
You weren't even the.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
Third one was.
Speaker 5 (16:12):
I was like, you're in the fifth wheel.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
So here's how the night plays out, and I'll tell
it quickly. Nobody knows she's there. I realize I'm not invited.
I go to the bathroom with a pillow and a
blanket and I lay on the floor in this bathroom.
If you listen to her podcast, I share this story.
She knows that I remember very clearly, and they spend
(16:36):
the night, or we all spend the night, whatever you
want to call it.
Speaker 5 (16:40):
Gensus.
Speaker 8 (16:41):
This is a weird threesome story, worst threesome ever.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
In the morning, the production comes to wake us up,
and she's still in our room. She jumps on the
floor and Sean takes his comforter and throws it off
the bed and covers her up, and they come in
and they're like, hey, it's time to get up.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
She's on the floor next to her bed.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Then she goes back to her room, nobody knows about this.
For a week and a half, nobody says a word,
and then she tells her handler. I snuck into Ben
and Shawn's room, and they knew that I was not
that important, and so they come to me and they say, hey, Ben,
how are you feeling about all this?
Speaker 5 (17:20):
That's awesome?
Speaker 3 (17:20):
Yeah, not great. I have a bear of site. I
don't think I have belong here any longer.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
And so Caitlyn I have this beautiful conversation that reconnected us.
But that's something that was never shown. That was a
huge part of the story, especially my story, and I
think the show's story that I knew early on I
had a lot of work to do to catch up
to the person in the bed next to me.
Speaker 5 (17:55):
Shall we open it up to questions?
Speaker 4 (17:57):
I think so this is our favorite part, because what
do we really love to talk about?
Speaker 5 (18:01):
It is whatever y'all would mean.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
As much as I want to talk about the poop band,
it's some pore.
Speaker 4 (18:04):
Please help us get away from that. So there's a
microphone in the back. If you have a question, jump
in line. Hi, you're there, give us your name and
fire away.
Speaker 9 (18:12):
Hi.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
I'm Laurie, not Lauren.
Speaker 5 (18:16):
I want to say hi to Ben and to Wells.
Speaker 7 (18:19):
I think Bachelor is a great show and I love it.
Speaker 10 (18:23):
So I want a contest to be here tonight.
Speaker 5 (18:27):
Thank you very supportive.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
I love it girl relations.
Speaker 5 (18:32):
But I did not get a meet and greet, so
I'm begging.
Speaker 7 (18:39):
Is there any way I could get a picture fantasy
sweet with Ben?
Speaker 6 (18:42):
Yes? Yes, yes, well the show ends with Ben taking
his shirt off.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
Just so you guys know, I'm asking.
Speaker 10 (18:48):
For just a picture, not anything else.
Speaker 5 (18:51):
We will make sure, we will make sure that happens.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
Yes, yes, all right, thank you.
Speaker 5 (18:59):
Rough first question didn't give us a lot of room
to go.
Speaker 11 (19:02):
Hello.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
Hello, Mine's Grace.
Speaker 5 (19:04):
Hey, Grace, so excited to be here. Everybody say Grace,
you get it?
Speaker 11 (19:09):
Thank you.
Speaker 10 (19:10):
Okay, So I know you guys all have a lot
of podcasts hosted guests.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
I've listened to him. We love him.
Speaker 10 (19:17):
If you could pick a dream guest to interview on
a podcast, Bachelor or not, who would you pick?
Speaker 3 (19:23):
Oo?
Speaker 2 (19:25):
I mean, mine has unfortunately passed away, but Anthony Bourdain
is like my he's my dude.
Speaker 3 (19:33):
And I great memoir.
Speaker 10 (19:34):
I read it.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Yeah, it's all the stuff about him is incredible. Like
I still watch no reservations like weekly to go to bed,
so like I would, he would always come to the
top of my list. I just wish there was a
moment I could meet him because I think he just
was like a rock star.
Speaker 5 (19:50):
Yeah, good answer, good answered, one good one.
Speaker 4 (19:54):
Great show too. No one everybody's tried. It's like often imitated,
never equaled. Everybody's tried to do it. Show like that,
I'm gonna go around the world and nobody does it
like him. No one's a storyteller and honestly, no one's
a tortured soul like him. Because that went into it
that you could feel that through the show.
Speaker 5 (20:11):
It was brilliant.
Speaker 4 (20:12):
I would say, I'm a Texas boy, and so I
am a diehard Willie fan, and I think just sitting
down with Willie Nelson not a big smoker, but on
that night, I would be yeah, because I think when
in Rome, yes, smoke weed with Willie, that would be
that would be top.
Speaker 5 (20:31):
Of my list.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
And then shaking the corner, you know.
Speaker 6 (20:37):
Before I was on The Bachelor or Bachelor in Paradise,
I was a radio host for twelve years in Nashville,
so I interviewed everybody. So I have a lot of
like really cool stories of getting to meet my heroes.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
Willy wasn't one of them, unfortunately, but I did get
to smoke weed with never Mind.
Speaker 5 (21:02):
That's an example of why we don't do drugs.
Speaker 6 (21:04):
Yes, to be honest with you, I've done this one
and I stick by it. I've had my wife on
my shows multiple times and shut cheating such up.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
Yeah, never mind interview my wife. It was kid rock. Okay,
it was at a karaoke bar whatever.
Speaker 6 (21:27):
No, but yeah, like having my wife on is very fun,
and like hearing I was there at the end of
her run at Modern Family, and so I got to
experience everyone and meet everyone. But hearing the old stories
of like the beginning of that show is always very special.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
He's a good huss You know what's bizarre is.
Speaker 4 (21:46):
I was at ABC obviously for a long time.
Speaker 5 (21:50):
I met Wells's wife.
Speaker 4 (21:52):
Yeah, probably like twelve years before they met.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
You both met her before I.
Speaker 4 (21:56):
Did, and so yeah, so I was on the first
time I think was on the view and i'd taken
my daughter. I have this amazing picture of my young
daughter at the time. She's now twenty one. She's probably
like nine or ten at the time, and a very
young Sarah Hyland on the set of the View with
Barbara Walters. It's I always like once a year. I
always send it to Sarah.
Speaker 5 (22:16):
Yeah, but the.
Speaker 6 (22:18):
You know, the the question I get asked a lot
about my wife is like, how did we meet? And honestly,
it was because of Twitter, because she's part of vaccination
and her and her mom used to like watch the
show obsessively, and so her mom liked me, and weirdly enough,
I went on the after the final Rows and we
(22:38):
were talking about bad Chad, the guy who ate a
lot of protein and was on steroids, and I said
something to the effect of like, I don't want to
piggy him, because I was referencing Lord of the Flies.
I was like, I don't want to kind of gang
up on him. But then I was like, but I
do think we should talk about him. He's Valdemorre, like
he who cannot be named, And she tweeted out, I
(23:02):
like this guy. I didn't know people from The Bachelor
could read. And I was like, that's a really funny tweet.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
I like that.
Speaker 6 (23:10):
Also, those are both books for like teenagers, So.
Speaker 5 (23:16):
Thank you, Grace. What's your question?
Speaker 11 (23:19):
Hi, I'm Jackie. Question is for Chris Harrison. If ABC
called you up and said we really want you, We'll
give you whatever you want.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
I want to ask for sol would you.
Speaker 11 (23:31):
Do it and what would your demands be?
Speaker 4 (23:35):
That Ben and Wells would be with me? Who should
have been the host in the first place?
Speaker 5 (23:41):
But I digress.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
They should they should have been the host.
Speaker 5 (23:48):
The answer is no, but the very good reason.
Speaker 4 (23:52):
Look, it was an amazing love affair for a long time,
and as someone who's now married for the second time,
I think you are with people, and people come into
your life for a.
Speaker 5 (24:01):
Season for a reason, and that show was.
Speaker 4 (24:04):
Wonderful to me and my family, I think for a season,
and I think to go back would be to try
to rekindle an old romance. That's that's gone. That season
in my life is gone. And so the answer would
be no, you know, for for no bitter reasons. Again,
I adore the show. I will always have fondness and
(24:26):
love in my heart for it, for the friendships I made,
for the people in front of the camera, behind the camera,
so many wonder I traveled the world, you know, I
had never really traveled much in my life. The way
I grew up and I had, you know, no business
being in Hollywood, but this show gave me the ability
to travel the world and see every corner of it
ten times over. So a lot of blessings came from it.
(24:46):
But to try to get back into that relationship, you know,
I wouldn't be there for the right.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
Reasons, thank you.
Speaker 5 (24:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
Well, let's be clear.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
The best host in a America, right.
Speaker 4 (25:06):
But also how wells isn't hosting Paradise is beyond mea
has there ever been a bigger layup in television.
Speaker 5 (25:15):
History at this He's made for the beach exactly.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
Someone's got to get him drunk.
Speaker 5 (25:20):
I mean the chest hair just carefully coming out.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
Of the top of the shirt.
Speaker 5 (25:26):
That's no accident, ladies.
Speaker 6 (25:28):
I'll tell it behind the scenes story. There was a
season after your chest hair, Yes, and it is glorious.
There was a season that you were gone and we
were trying to figure out who was going to host it,
and I was. I was supposed to host the entire season,
but then at the end they brought in like David
Spade and a bunch of people. But what was supposed
(25:50):
to happen? It was supposed to be me and my
wife hosting the show. That would have been great, And
to me, that was the easiest home run and we
were and it like fell through, like didn't work. And
I'm so bummed because how fun would that have been
to get to work.
Speaker 4 (26:09):
Slowly, just keep bringing people on from modern Family like
that O'Neil's Sophia.
Speaker 10 (26:28):
Hi, I'm Samantha, Sam.
Speaker 5 (26:30):
I want your you know know where? You can't call
her Sam? I can Sam and I go away with Sam?
Speaker 6 (26:35):
Is it okay if I called you Sam, It's okay.
Speaker 11 (26:36):
Thank you?
Speaker 10 (26:38):
I want your real honest opinions on Taylor Frankie Paul
as the next bachelorette.
Speaker 4 (26:44):
We'll defer, we will kick Wells has the guy who
still works for Disney.
Speaker 6 (26:50):
I think it's a I think it's gonna be a
really good season. I do think that, Like if you
look at what Paradise was this last season, it was
a season of change and things the things needed to
change up. I think we rested on our laurels for
too long, and so I like the direction of where
Paradise is going, and I like the idea of bringing
(27:12):
in the really big star to inject that show with
a lot of star power. I'm interested to see the
guys that come on the show. I think that's gonna
be fun to watch. And then in turn, I'm very
excited to see the guys that she doesn't like come
(27:33):
to Paradise because I think that will be very fun.
Speaker 11 (27:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:38):
I don't work for Disney, so I have nothing to lose.
Speaker 5 (27:42):
You know.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
I think the most interesting thing with this announcement of
her being the Bachelor is the fans response, and it
is split, right. I mean, there are some things that
we know about her past that were like, Hey, you're
still deserving of love. I still want you to find love,
but is this the best place to do it? Like,
is the Bachelorette really going to fit this narrative? And
(28:05):
how do we make it make sense that, like you
are authentically looking for your partner. We don't know that yet,
so I don't have a judgment on that, but I
think it's my question, it's a lot of people's questions,
is where do you go from here? And I think
it's the biggest question for the show, and it has
been for the last five years, is how do you
move forward with a fan base with this announcement. So
(28:29):
I'm intrigued at how they make this something successful and
sustainable because at this point, I don't know how you
make it sustainable when you when you announce her as
your bachelorette, when for years you've had your relatable common
human coming in with the pursuit of love and love,
only now you have a celebrity with a platform and
(28:51):
a following coming in. And I think, I honestly think
it could be a home run, but it could also
be a very very bad.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
Season for the show following it.
Speaker 5 (29:03):
We will see, thank you.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
I think it's a question, though, do you think it
was a good move? Like, I mean, it's a it's
an exciting move. My wife is going to watch it
and she's never watched the show because she's like, I'm
intrigued to see the mess. But is it going to
be something long term as Bachelor Nation fans that you support?
Speaker 3 (29:24):
I mean, I think that's a big question for the
fan base.
Speaker 6 (29:28):
You Know something that I think is interesting about it
is you guys say it, and we say it on
the show a lot, and it's like being there for
the right reasons and.
Speaker 9 (29:35):
Obviously yeah it's okay, And like, obviously she has a
huge platform because she has another television show.
Speaker 6 (29:48):
So then I wonder if it's going to be a
thing amongst the guys. I don't know if this is
going to happen, but I could see it happening where
guys are going to be like, you're just here because
you want to be on another reality TV show with her,
You're not here for.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
The right reasons.
Speaker 6 (30:01):
I can see that being an issue already, and I
think that'll be fun TV to watch.
Speaker 5 (30:07):
Thanks Sam, Thank you.
Speaker 11 (30:13):
Hi.
Speaker 5 (30:13):
I'm Pam.
Speaker 7 (30:15):
So I've always wanted to know why on the first
night when everybody comes to the mansion, right, why is
it that there's always a bunch of girls who say
to each other, did you get any time with him?
Did you get time with them?
Speaker 3 (30:30):
Now?
Speaker 7 (30:30):
I guess you are shooting all night long? Is it
because the producers just pick and choose who they want
to talk to the bachelor or bachelorette or these girls
are just not brave enough to go and interrupt and
get time.
Speaker 5 (30:42):
It's good questions that part.
Speaker 3 (30:47):
The Italian sisters like that one.
Speaker 4 (30:53):
We are hanging out with them tonight, so that night
is It's not scripted, but it's very produced because it
has to be, because it's absolute mayhem. When we started
the show with twenty women. Then you got to twenty
five manageable and we could even finish it by sun up.
Then all of a sudden, we're like, well, let's go
(31:14):
to thirty let's go to thirty five. And all of
a sudden, we had no It was like, sky's a limit.
Whoever showed up off the street, you're on the show.
And so there were so many people and it takes
just logistically production wise, it takes a long time to
set those things up and to have those moments and
to prep everybody and to shoot those and.
Speaker 5 (31:34):
So it just goes quickly. And then we got to
pull Ben and you got to sit Ben down and
have a post interview, and then you put them back
in and so it's just a long night and you
just don't have enough time to talk to everybody.
Speaker 4 (31:48):
Which is a big bummer. When you get to bigger numbers,
you get less time. And it's just math at that point.
And even though we started going till eight, nine, ten
in the morning, the sun's up, you know, all of
a sudden, the roster it's like, well, screw it, suns up,
We're just doing it. And so we just got to
the point where you got to pull the plug.
Speaker 5 (32:08):
And you got to move on. And not everybody's gonna
have that moment.
Speaker 4 (32:11):
Sometimes you would do it with if he had even
a brief good in, if you had a good entrance,
and we knew Ben might keep this girl like that's enough, she's.
Speaker 5 (32:19):
Gonna go on. We'll we'll figure it out week two.
Speaker 4 (32:22):
And so those nights are difficult because you do have
to make some tough calls, and those are it's more producers.
You really don't have the opportunity to just come in
and steal them on your own. That's set up, and
they'll tell you, okay, wells, you're gonna get Jojo. You're
gonna pull her by the fireside, you're gonna sit over there, and.
Speaker 5 (32:40):
That's when you go POLLR. There's not a lot of
spontaneity that night.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
And I mean I remember too, there isn't down time,
and so it really is like action packed, as Chris
was saying, there's it's not like I'm sitting out waiting
for an hour in a room and.
Speaker 3 (32:57):
Nobody's getting to talk to me.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
That night is just conversation after conversation after conversation, as
much as you can get in and I do think
it doesn't lend well for the shire person who's maybe
more nervous because they won't get a chance because they
haven't jumped on it early or put their name in
the line. But he's completely right. It doesn't feel. It
(33:21):
didn't feel like to me like hey, somebody was getting
pushed aside. It was just some people don't get a chance.
And it's ten in the morning. But and I don't
know if this is rare or not. I know for
a fact, I talked to every single person that came
in off the.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
Limo in night one on my night.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
I think if you watch it back, nobody would say
I didn't get any time.
Speaker 4 (33:42):
Some batchels are adamant about it, like you. I mean, honestly,
you're a good guy, and so some batchers are just
better than going.
Speaker 5 (33:48):
I'm not going.
Speaker 3 (33:50):
She loves sleeping, you love it.
Speaker 4 (33:52):
It's like every fifteen minutes, she's just gonna yell one
bottle of.
Speaker 3 (33:58):
Yeah, no, you're right.
Speaker 4 (34:00):
Bizarre Heckler ever, the Wan Pablo Heckler. This is Wan
Pablo's niece and nephew. But so it's it's a weird night,
and honestly it's it's the one night. To me, that
felt the most produced, because it has to be. I
always relished the next So back in the olden times
when I used to do the show and it was
(34:20):
in black and white and it was on film, So
first of all, we never had a day off. We
would do night one and we never had a dark
and what's called a dark day. We would finish at
I don't know, four, five, six in the morning, and
the next date started at ten am. So I remember
(34:41):
I would go in and be like, all right, welcome
to the mansion.
Speaker 5 (34:44):
Move in. We would do the move in.
Speaker 4 (34:45):
Shoot, everyone's like, oh, jumping on the bed, popping champagne
and they had not slept at all, and I was like, okay,
group date, and we would read out the names. I
just everybody was like, please Jesus, please do not pick me,
do not pick me.
Speaker 5 (34:58):
I do not want to go to Vegas today. I
just want to go to bed.
Speaker 4 (35:01):
So finally, honestly, because of union rules, we had to
start taking a dark day and everybody would sleep the
next day. Then the following day I would say, okay,
let's move into the mansion.
Speaker 5 (35:12):
And it got a lot better.
Speaker 4 (35:13):
But early days we never had that break and you
would just roll right into it. But I was relish
getting into the dates because then it was a lot
more genuine and even if it was a group date,
all of a sudden, the backtor would start getting a
lot more genuine time with the ladies.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
People ask me this, and I'm trying to think. When
he's talking of questions, I could ask the hours, and
it is. It is a crazy gig. You start at
seven am with interviews and you're not done back to
your hotel room alone until one thirty two am in
the morning, and you're getting like six hours of sleep
at the most, and then you're waking up on camera again.
Speaker 3 (35:49):
And I'm a big introvert, so by the time I
was done with this show, I was depleted.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
Like everything inside of me was like, stop having some
handler follow me around, stop having this talking.
Speaker 6 (36:00):
Hey, everyone feel bad for Ben for having thirty of
the most beautiful women lusting after him.
Speaker 3 (36:07):
I know, so tough.
Speaker 5 (36:09):
So many Lawrens, Oh, so many Lawrens.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
It's been here jumping back in. This is a perfect
place for us to take a pause. I want to
let you know we have another cruise coming up in
San Diego on December sixth, If you want to go,
we want you to come. Grab tickets. Check out city
experiences dot Com again, that's city experiences dot com.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
Follow the Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous podcast on iHeartRadio,
or subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.
This is the Ben and Ashley I almost famous podcast
with iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
It's the almost famous podcast. Been here and this past
weekend I had the best time with Chris Harrison and
Wells Adams. We were in New York with City Cruises
hanging out was some of the best fans from Bachelor Nation.
We had such a great time sharing behind the scenes stories,
answering fan questions, we wanted to share it here on
(00:26):
the pod.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
So let's dive into the night.
Speaker 4 (00:30):
Welcome to City Cruises. Apparently we're in the Big Apple.
That's a nickname for New York. I just found out backstage.
Thank you for being here, thank you for taking your
Sunday night to join us, and thanks for being a
part of Bachelor Nation, a show and a franchise that
really meant the world to me. My heart and soul
was in that show for almost twenty years and I
(00:52):
loved every bit of it.
Speaker 5 (00:52):
I truly did almost every bit of it.
Speaker 4 (00:59):
I brought some of my best friends and this has
been a great week.
Speaker 5 (01:02):
We were in Boston a couple of nights ago. Now
we're here in New York. We're gonna do another cruise
in San Diego.
Speaker 4 (01:07):
And when you get to spend time with, you know,
people on the show. You're like, oh, good other cast members. No, no,
these are my very dear friend some of my best
friends in the world, which is a kind of an
excellent byproduct of what I got to do for a
living for almost twenty years.
Speaker 5 (01:22):
So I want to bring them on.
Speaker 4 (01:24):
First up, People Magazines forty seventh Sexiest Man of the Year.
But he's the best damn bartender in the world. Ladies
and gentlemen give it up for wells Adams.
Speaker 6 (01:46):
Wait, is this how I find out that I'm the
forty seventh congratulations? Oh my god, I heard you backstage
and you said something to the effect of this the
most dramatic cruise ever ever.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
I don't think so.
Speaker 6 (01:57):
I watched a Netflix documentary about a cruise that broke
down and everyone had a poop in bags. So hey,
by the way, bad news, guys. The bathroom's broken, so
just kidding.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
And we've run out of fish. Coming up next, maybe,
with all due respect to Sean Lowe, the greatest bachelor
we have ever had.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
I agree America's bachelor.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
Although a bachelor no more. His heart has been taken,
his heart has been won.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Sorry's beautiful daughter, winning.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
People Magazines, forty seventh and a half Sexiest Man. You
beat him by point five. Ladies and gentlemen, Ben Higgins,
sorry about that.
Speaker 5 (02:47):
You almost you almost beat.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Well This has always been the more attractive.
Speaker 5 (02:52):
Guys. Thank you for being here.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
It's been an amazing week we have gotten to spind together.
I wish the crews could really just be hey out
with the three of us all week because it's a
bunch of nonsense and a lot of great golf. And
we are gonna talk a lot about our just golf
game tonight because what we found our research shows.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Yeah, you guys love golf.
Speaker 5 (03:12):
Golf stories.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
Yeah, now what I would what I would love to start.
Let's get into the nitty gritty and we're gonna come
to you in a little bit because the most fun
we have is taking questions from all of you.
Speaker 5 (03:23):
And we'll get to.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
That in a bit, but first give us a story
a moment if you will, I'll give you a chance
to wait. We'll start with Wells, something we don't know
that happened on the show. It could be while you
were bartending, hosting, or when you were about to get
dumped by Jojoe whatever.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
Thanks for bringing your sure is it too soon?
Speaker 7 (03:46):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (03:46):
You know in Argentina, I got my arm broken by.
Speaker 6 (03:52):
I have so many funny stories from the show, and
it's it's unfortunate because all my stuff gets cut.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
From the show.
Speaker 6 (03:59):
I'm hilarious, but you guys have no idea because it's
left in the cutting room floor.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
But I think that my favorite story that like people.
Speaker 6 (04:07):
Don't know about, that I thought was going to be
a storyline, but then like looking back, obviously it wasn't.
Was when we were filming Bachelorette. So you're traveling around
with twenty five just agro dudes all around the world.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
Right, you got.
Speaker 6 (04:24):
Chad who's eating meat and on way too many steroids,
a lot of protein, so much protein, and someone moved
his protein powder and that was a bad day. But
what ended up happening is we started traveling around the world.
We went to Nemicole in Pennsylvania, then we went down
to Uruguay, then we went to Argentina, and then I
(04:46):
got dumped there and then I think they went somewhere else.
But every time that we would go into the bath
we were sharing one bathroom for like twenty five guys
and We'd go into the bathroom and there would be
a log still in there every day, and we started
(05:08):
calling this person the poop bandit, and we filmed an
entire scene of us trying to figure out who the
poop bandit was. I think it was Jordan Rogers. I
am almost one hundred percent.
Speaker 5 (05:25):
Let's just go with that, but but.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
I think it.
Speaker 6 (05:28):
I think Chad started it, but then we kicked him off,
and then Jordan was like, the poop bandit must live.
Speaker 5 (05:34):
Enjoy your desserts.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
Yes, I've had two poop jokes tonight.
Speaker 4 (05:39):
Now I regret that question altogether. You know what, It's
not lost on me that I am sitting between two
guys that both made out with Jojo. One got dumped
by her, the other broke up with her.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Yeah, whoa, Ben, what were you thinking?
Speaker 5 (05:59):
She's amazing?
Speaker 3 (06:00):
She's a great girl. Man.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
My story was going to be not similar, but I'll
try to yeah something, let's.
Speaker 5 (06:08):
Try to move off. Yeah, the toilet.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
So here's a crazy story about my time as the Bachelor. Okay,
the week before he started filming, my best friend in
the world me Chris Harrison. No, he gets married in
Honduras and I go down there go to this wedding.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
They let me go. I come back and I'm sick
in multiple ways. I'm sick.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
I lose thirty pounds on The Bachelor, I get. If
you watch the season from start to finish, you'll see it.
I ended the show at like one hundred and seventy
five pounds, and I'm not like a short person. They
had to keep tailoring my suits down to me because
they do that. And we have this guy on the show,
carry Fetman. He's an amazing guy, and he just kept
(06:53):
tailoring these suits down to me. I get on the
flight home from the show and my stomach just locks up.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
On the flight.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
I go to the hospital. They send me to the hospital.
I have a parasite in my gut. I go two
weeks of like almost like chemo type medication to get
rid of this parasite that has eaten through my stomach.
Lining still to this day, I have issues from this
still to this day. If you watch the show from
(07:23):
start to finish, so imagine being a software salesman from Denver, Colorado,
working in a cubicle, becoming the Bachelor with all the
cameras and being like sick, not feeling good.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
The whole time and still trying.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
To go through this show, and the show kept saying,
You're stressed, You're anxious, you're tired, And I get why
they were saying that.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
I was all of those things.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Yes, but we find out later I had a worm
growing in my gut for three months.
Speaker 5 (07:56):
This is not the show I thought we were going
to do tonight.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
Nobody knows that story. It's a good story, Yeah, it's
a good story.
Speaker 5 (08:04):
By the look on her face, I'm not sure that's
a good story.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
By the way, I don't know if anybody knows this.
Samantha just got engaged last night.
Speaker 6 (08:10):
Oh my god, Samantha, hold on, breaking news. Let's see
the Neil Lane ring.
Speaker 5 (08:18):
Break breaking news. This is in I'm being told from
What's that?
Speaker 4 (08:24):
Because of those stories, you are now the fifty six
sexiest man.
Speaker 5 (08:28):
You're not even on the list anymore.
Speaker 7 (08:29):
Dang it.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
The worm story, I will say, it's of hosting both
shows for so many years. When we would shoot in
the mansion, you would think that maybe the guys would
be worse, but both shows were kind of the same.
We shot in the mansion and they basically used the
main bathroom all of them, and when the when we
(08:54):
were shooting the bachelom it was all the bacherettes. It
took a hazmat crew to go in that bathroom when
you had twenty women all getting ready in that in
one bathroom. My god, it was horrifying in there. The
guys honestly weren't that bad.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
Well on by season there was a poop bandit.
Speaker 6 (09:14):
One of my favorite things about Paradise is, thank you
one person likes that show.
Speaker 5 (09:21):
That's kind of what it feels like. The ratings.
Speaker 4 (09:26):
We have one point two people, so we have tens
of fans.
Speaker 5 (09:33):
Oh, it used to be good, so too soon.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
I'm still employed by them and relax.
Speaker 6 (09:43):
So rose ceremonies are the meanest things in the world,
and especially when we film them in Mexico, it's so hot.
We decide to film the show in their monsoon season,
so it is it's June.
Speaker 8 (10:00):
It is always don't forget crab season and also crab
season not the STD kind that too. I mean, maybe
I don't know. Things got weird in the Fantasy Suite.
Speaker 6 (10:11):
But it's so hot there and all these girls put
on all this makeup because obviously they're gonna be on TV,
and they want to look their best, and you do
a roast ceremony. It takes you remember hours, right, you
have to stand there and you're doing all this stuff,
and I just remember I'm the bartender. So I'm like
(10:31):
looking like through the bar up into the thing and
all these girls make up it's just melching off their face.
And I remember thinking, this is so mean that they're
on national TV and they're melting.
Speaker 4 (10:50):
We By the way, since we're talking about ROAs ceremonies,
can we dispell some rumors you were the Bachelor? Can
we talk about how a rose ceremony works? Because everybody
wants to know because you're brilliant, But does the like
you can't remember seventeen girls' names in a row?
Speaker 5 (11:09):
So how do they do it?
Speaker 4 (11:10):
Are the names written on the roses? Do they tell
you in your ear? How do you do it?
Speaker 2 (11:15):
It's a good question and it's probably the most common question.
So every four people you kind of get to leave,
and so they'll give you a list of six. You
go back and you're like, Okay, here's my order, here's
who I want to pick, and they say, here's the
order you're going to give it in?
Speaker 3 (11:33):
Or what order do you want to give it in.
Here's your next six.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
So you go back, especially on night one, you don't
nobody's names, like these are all strangers to you. So
you go back to this room, you remember six people's names,
go back out, say it, and then you say, I
just need a break.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
I just need a break, and you leave again. The
show doesn't tell you do this. If you want to.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
Name all of them on your own, you could. There's
just no human in the world that would remember twenty
people's names all in one night. So you go back,
you remember them, you go back out, and then you
step back again, and you do it about four times
until you get through the night. There's no names on
your hand, there's no names on the roses. It makes
(12:15):
sense that you can't remember everybody's name.
Speaker 4 (12:19):
But we always felt and they said why did you
do that? The reason was we always felt there was
this line we never wanted to cross, even if Ben said,
this is who we wanted to keep. And the reason
we decide the order is it's just TV stuff. You
want to bounce from side to side so you don't
notice it, but to your eye it looks better on
TV when we're bouncing side to side. And so Ben
(12:39):
would say, this is who I want to keep, and
then we decide the order. The director a lot of
times will decide the order depending on where they're lined up.
And the reason we didn't ever put a bug in
their ear or bride it on the roses or whatever.
We always wanted that freedom of thought. We always wanted
Ben to have that freedom to say in the middle
of a roase ceremony, what's your name? Yeah, or call
(13:03):
out the wrong name hopefully, but no, to have the
to have a change of heart and say, you know what,
that's not what I want to do. And we always
felt if we were telling you Kelly A, Kelly B,
Kelly C a lot of Kelly's, uh, you know that
you could change your mind. And so we just never
crossed that line.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
I remember the second Rose ceremony, standing up there and
blanking because you're nervous.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
Yeah, you're not a.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Trained professional, You're coming off of a cubicle job. You're
nervous in front of these beautiful people. And I remember
in the morning, it's four in the morning. I blanked
on names and I got lucky, but I remember got lucky.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
I remember having this like anxiety insidey came out there.
Speaker 5 (13:45):
If you just say Lauren.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
If you say Lauren, you're probably gonna do Okay.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
I want Kelly and Lauren. And that's how he got engaged.
Speaker 5 (13:55):
Is there a Laura.
Speaker 6 (13:57):
I believe there's a Lauren here one.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
This is true. I mean I was so nervous.
Speaker 6 (14:05):
I was thinking about rose ceremonies, and I remember being
in that moment of waiting to get a rose, and
I remember figuring out if I was going to get
a rose or I wasn't going to get a rose
by what the cameras are doing. And I'll be like, man,
no cameras being pointed at me, I'm screwed. And then
all of a sudden it.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
Would be like right on me, like yes, it's my time.
Speaker 6 (14:31):
Or it's like someone I didn't like so that they
knew that I would be upset that they got the
rose and I didn't. And it's a weird thing that
you can see, like the camera's pointing at you mean,
like this is my time.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
I get question obviously somebody like how scripted is it?
I would say it was never scripted. I I have
no memories of being told, hey, this is what you're
gonna do, and this is what you're gonna say. It
was a lot of let's talk this through.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
What do you want to do?
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Okay, here's probably the best way to do it. I
love this person, Caitlin Bristow.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
I think one of the best bachelorettes of all time.
Speaker 5 (15:04):
She gets good TV.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
She was wild, absolutely wild, and she's one of my
I just think the world of her.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
But I was roommates. Here's a story.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
I was roommates with Sean Booth, who ended up, you know,
getting engaged with Caitlin, and it was a very real
and serious relationship. So we're in San Antonio, like week four,
and it's two in the morning and our hotel door
opens up and this cute little girl comes skipping in
and it's Caitlyn, who had snuck out of her room
(15:34):
away from the producers, into our shared bedroom and we're
both I just production loved this.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
By the way, Yeah, they had no clue. I was
so excited.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Sean was so excited, and we're like, hey, Kaitlyn, and
she just like hops into Sean's bed and I'm laying
in this cot At this time, we would rotate beds,
like at one location he would get the queen like
the main bed, I would get the sidebed. This one
I had the side bed, and so it made sense,
and I thought we were all going to stip in chat.
(16:07):
Very quickly I realized I was not invited to this party.
Speaker 5 (16:10):
You weren't even the.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
Third one was.
Speaker 5 (16:12):
I was like, you're in the fifth wheel.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
So here's how the night plays out, and I'll tell
it quickly. Nobody knows she's there. I realize I'm not invited.
I go to the bathroom with a pillow and a
blanket and I lay on the floor in this bathroom.
If you listen to her podcast, I share this story.
She knows that I remember very clearly, and they spend
(16:36):
the night, or we all spend the night, whatever you
want to call it.
Speaker 5 (16:40):
Gensus.
Speaker 8 (16:41):
This is a weird threesome story, worst threesome ever.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
In the morning, the production comes to wake us up,
and she's still in our room. She jumps on the
floor and Sean takes his comforter and throws it off
the bed and covers her up, and they come in
and they're like, hey, it's time to get up.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
She's on the floor next to her bed.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Then she goes back to her room, nobody knows about this.
For a week and a half, nobody says a word,
and then she tells her handler. I snuck into Ben
and Shawn's room, and they knew that I was not
that important, and so they come to me and they say, hey, Ben,
how are you feeling about all this?
Speaker 5 (17:20):
That's awesome?
Speaker 3 (17:20):
Yeah, not great. I have a bear of site. I
don't think I have belong here any longer.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
And so Caitlyn I have this beautiful conversation that reconnected us.
But that's something that was never shown. That was a
huge part of the story, especially my story, and I
think the show's story that I knew early on I
had a lot of work to do to catch up
to the person in the bed next to me.
Speaker 5 (17:55):
Shall we open it up to questions?
Speaker 4 (17:57):
I think so this is our favorite part, because what
do we really love to talk about?
Speaker 5 (18:01):
It is whatever y'all would mean.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
As much as I want to talk about the poop band,
it's some pore.
Speaker 4 (18:04):
Please help us get away from that. So there's a
microphone in the back. If you have a question, jump
in line. Hi, you're there, give us your name and
fire away.
Speaker 9 (18:12):
Hi.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
I'm Laurie, not Lauren.
Speaker 5 (18:16):
I want to say hi to Ben and to Wells.
Speaker 7 (18:19):
I think Bachelor is a great show and I love it.
Speaker 10 (18:23):
So I want a contest to be here tonight.
Speaker 5 (18:27):
Thank you very supportive.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
I love it girl relations.
Speaker 5 (18:32):
But I did not get a meet and greet, so
I'm begging.
Speaker 7 (18:39):
Is there any way I could get a picture fantasy
sweet with Ben?
Speaker 6 (18:42):
Yes? Yes, yes, well the show ends with Ben taking
his shirt off.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
Just so you guys know, I'm asking.
Speaker 10 (18:48):
For just a picture, not anything else.
Speaker 5 (18:51):
We will make sure, we will make sure that happens.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
Yes, yes, all right, thank you.
Speaker 5 (18:59):
Rough first question didn't give us a lot of room
to go.
Speaker 11 (19:02):
Hello.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
Hello, Mine's Grace.
Speaker 5 (19:04):
Hey, Grace, so excited to be here. Everybody say Grace,
you get it?
Speaker 11 (19:09):
Thank you.
Speaker 10 (19:10):
Okay, So I know you guys all have a lot
of podcasts hosted guests.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
I've listened to him. We love him.
Speaker 10 (19:17):
If you could pick a dream guest to interview on
a podcast, Bachelor or not, who would you pick?
Speaker 3 (19:23):
Oo?
Speaker 2 (19:25):
I mean, mine has unfortunately passed away, but Anthony Bourdain
is like my he's my dude.
Speaker 3 (19:33):
And I great memoir.
Speaker 10 (19:34):
I read it.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Yeah, it's all the stuff about him is incredible. Like
I still watch no reservations like weekly to go to bed,
so like I would, he would always come to the
top of my list. I just wish there was a
moment I could meet him because I think he just
was like a rock star.
Speaker 5 (19:50):
Yeah, good answer, good answered, one good one.
Speaker 4 (19:54):
Great show too. No one everybody's tried. It's like often imitated,
never equaled. Everybody's tried to do it. Show like that,
I'm gonna go around the world and nobody does it
like him. No one's a storyteller and honestly, no one's
a tortured soul like him. Because that went into it
that you could feel that through the show.
Speaker 5 (20:11):
It was brilliant.
Speaker 4 (20:12):
I would say, I'm a Texas boy, and so I
am a diehard Willie fan, and I think just sitting
down with Willie Nelson not a big smoker, but on
that night, I would be yeah, because I think when
in Rome, yes, smoke weed with Willie, that would be
that would be top.
Speaker 5 (20:31):
Of my list.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
And then shaking the corner, you know.
Speaker 6 (20:37):
Before I was on The Bachelor or Bachelor in Paradise,
I was a radio host for twelve years in Nashville,
so I interviewed everybody. So I have a lot of
like really cool stories of getting to meet my heroes.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
Willy wasn't one of them, unfortunately, but I did get
to smoke weed with never Mind.
Speaker 5 (21:02):
That's an example of why we don't do drugs.
Speaker 6 (21:04):
Yes, to be honest with you, I've done this one
and I stick by it. I've had my wife on
my shows multiple times and shut cheating such up.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
Yeah, never mind interview my wife. It was kid rock. Okay,
it was at a karaoke bar whatever.
Speaker 6 (21:27):
No, but yeah, like having my wife on is very fun,
and like hearing I was there at the end of
her run at Modern Family, and so I got to
experience everyone and meet everyone. But hearing the old stories
of like the beginning of that show is always very special.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
He's a good huss You know what's bizarre is.
Speaker 4 (21:46):
I was at ABC obviously for a long time.
Speaker 5 (21:50):
I met Wells's wife.
Speaker 4 (21:52):
Yeah, probably like twelve years before they met.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
You both met her before I.
Speaker 4 (21:56):
Did, and so yeah, so I was on the first
time I think was on the view and i'd taken
my daughter. I have this amazing picture of my young
daughter at the time. She's now twenty one. She's probably
like nine or ten at the time, and a very
young Sarah Hyland on the set of the View with
Barbara Walters. It's I always like once a year. I
always send it to Sarah.
Speaker 5 (22:16):
Yeah, but the.
Speaker 6 (22:18):
You know, the the question I get asked a lot
about my wife is like, how did we meet? And honestly,
it was because of Twitter, because she's part of vaccination
and her and her mom used to like watch the
show obsessively, and so her mom liked me, and weirdly enough,
I went on the after the final Rows and we
(22:38):
were talking about bad Chad, the guy who ate a
lot of protein and was on steroids, and I said
something to the effect of like, I don't want to
piggy him, because I was referencing Lord of the Flies.
I was like, I don't want to kind of gang
up on him. But then I was like, but I
do think we should talk about him. He's Valdemorre, like
he who cannot be named, And she tweeted out, I
(23:02):
like this guy. I didn't know people from The Bachelor
could read. And I was like, that's a really funny tweet.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
I like that.
Speaker 6 (23:10):
Also, those are both books for like teenagers, So.
Speaker 5 (23:16):
Thank you, Grace. What's your question?
Speaker 11 (23:19):
Hi, I'm Jackie. Question is for Chris Harrison. If ABC
called you up and said we really want you, We'll
give you whatever you want.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
I want to ask for sol would you.
Speaker 11 (23:31):
Do it and what would your demands be?
Speaker 4 (23:35):
That Ben and Wells would be with me? Who should
have been the host in the first place?
Speaker 5 (23:41):
But I digress.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
They should they should have been the host.
Speaker 5 (23:48):
The answer is no, but the very good reason.
Speaker 4 (23:52):
Look, it was an amazing love affair for a long time,
and as someone who's now married for the second time,
I think you are with people, and people come into
your life for a.
Speaker 5 (24:01):
Season for a reason, and that show was.
Speaker 4 (24:04):
Wonderful to me and my family, I think for a season,
and I think to go back would be to try
to rekindle an old romance. That's that's gone. That season
in my life is gone. And so the answer would
be no, you know, for for no bitter reasons. Again,
I adore the show. I will always have fondness and
(24:26):
love in my heart for it, for the friendships I made,
for the people in front of the camera, behind the camera,
so many wonder I traveled the world, you know, I
had never really traveled much in my life. The way
I grew up and I had, you know, no business
being in Hollywood, but this show gave me the ability
to travel the world and see every corner of it
ten times over. So a lot of blessings came from it.
(24:46):
But to try to get back into that relationship, you know,
I wouldn't be there for the right.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
Reasons, thank you.
Speaker 5 (24:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
Well, let's be clear.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
The best host in a America, right.
Speaker 4 (25:06):
But also how wells isn't hosting Paradise is beyond mea
has there ever been a bigger layup in television.
Speaker 5 (25:15):
History at this He's made for the beach exactly.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
Someone's got to get him drunk.
Speaker 5 (25:20):
I mean the chest hair just carefully coming out.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
Of the top of the shirt.
Speaker 5 (25:26):
That's no accident, ladies.
Speaker 6 (25:28):
I'll tell it behind the scenes story. There was a
season after your chest hair, Yes, and it is glorious.
There was a season that you were gone and we
were trying to figure out who was going to host it,
and I was. I was supposed to host the entire season,
but then at the end they brought in like David
Spade and a bunch of people. But what was supposed
(25:50):
to happen? It was supposed to be me and my
wife hosting the show. That would have been great, And
to me, that was the easiest home run and we
were and it like fell through, like didn't work. And
I'm so bummed because how fun would that have been
to get to work.
Speaker 4 (26:09):
Slowly, just keep bringing people on from modern Family like
that O'Neil's Sophia.
Speaker 10 (26:28):
Hi, I'm Samantha, Sam.
Speaker 5 (26:30):
I want your you know know where? You can't call
her Sam? I can Sam and I go away with Sam?
Speaker 6 (26:35):
Is it okay if I called you Sam, It's okay.
Speaker 11 (26:36):
Thank you?
Speaker 10 (26:38):
I want your real honest opinions on Taylor Frankie Paul
as the next bachelorette.
Speaker 4 (26:44):
We'll defer, we will kick Wells has the guy who
still works for Disney.
Speaker 6 (26:50):
I think it's a I think it's gonna be a
really good season. I do think that, Like if you
look at what Paradise was this last season, it was
a season of change and things the things needed to
change up. I think we rested on our laurels for
too long, and so I like the direction of where
Paradise is going, and I like the idea of bringing
(27:12):
in the really big star to inject that show with
a lot of star power. I'm interested to see the
guys that come on the show. I think that's gonna
be fun to watch. And then in turn, I'm very
excited to see the guys that she doesn't like come
(27:33):
to Paradise because I think that will be very fun.
Speaker 11 (27:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:38):
I don't work for Disney, so I have nothing to lose.
Speaker 5 (27:42):
You know.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
I think the most interesting thing with this announcement of
her being the Bachelor is the fans response, and it
is split, right. I mean, there are some things that
we know about her past that were like, Hey, you're
still deserving of love. I still want you to find love,
but is this the best place to do it? Like,
is the Bachelorette really going to fit this narrative? And
(28:05):
how do we make it make sense that, like you
are authentically looking for your partner. We don't know that yet,
so I don't have a judgment on that, but I
think it's my question, it's a lot of people's questions,
is where do you go from here? And I think
it's the biggest question for the show, and it has
been for the last five years, is how do you
move forward with a fan base with this announcement. So
(28:29):
I'm intrigued at how they make this something successful and
sustainable because at this point, I don't know how you
make it sustainable when you when you announce her as
your bachelorette, when for years you've had your relatable common
human coming in with the pursuit of love and love,
only now you have a celebrity with a platform and
(28:51):
a following coming in. And I think, I honestly think
it could be a home run, but it could also
be a very very bad.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
Season for the show following it.
Speaker 5 (29:03):
We will see, thank you.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
I think it's a question, though, do you think it
was a good move? Like, I mean, it's a it's
an exciting move. My wife is going to watch it
and she's never watched the show because she's like, I'm
intrigued to see the mess. But is it going to
be something long term as Bachelor Nation fans that you support?
Speaker 3 (29:24):
I mean, I think that's a big question for the
fan base.
Speaker 6 (29:28):
You Know something that I think is interesting about it
is you guys say it, and we say it on
the show a lot, and it's like being there for
the right reasons and.
Speaker 9 (29:35):
Obviously yeah it's okay, And like, obviously she has a
huge platform because she has another television show.
Speaker 6 (29:48):
So then I wonder if it's going to be a
thing amongst the guys. I don't know if this is
going to happen, but I could see it happening where
guys are going to be like, you're just here because
you want to be on another reality TV show with her,
You're not here for.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
The right reasons.
Speaker 6 (30:01):
I can see that being an issue already, and I
think that'll be fun TV to watch.
Speaker 5 (30:07):
Thanks Sam, Thank you.
Speaker 11 (30:13):
Hi.
Speaker 5 (30:13):
I'm Pam.
Speaker 7 (30:15):
So I've always wanted to know why on the first
night when everybody comes to the mansion, right, why is
it that there's always a bunch of girls who say
to each other, did you get any time with him?
Did you get time with them?
Speaker 3 (30:30):
Now?
Speaker 7 (30:30):
I guess you are shooting all night long? Is it
because the producers just pick and choose who they want
to talk to the bachelor or bachelorette or these girls
are just not brave enough to go and interrupt and
get time.
Speaker 5 (30:42):
It's good questions that part.
Speaker 3 (30:47):
The Italian sisters like that one.
Speaker 4 (30:53):
We are hanging out with them tonight, so that night
is It's not scripted, but it's very produced because it
has to be, because it's absolute mayhem. When we started
the show with twenty women. Then you got to twenty
five manageable and we could even finish it by sun up.
Then all of a sudden, we're like, well, let's go
(31:14):
to thirty let's go to thirty five. And all of
a sudden, we had no It was like, sky's a limit.
Whoever showed up off the street, you're on the show.
And so there were so many people and it takes
just logistically production wise, it takes a long time to
set those things up and to have those moments and
to prep everybody and to shoot those and.
Speaker 5 (31:34):
So it just goes quickly. And then we got to
pull Ben and you got to sit Ben down and
have a post interview, and then you put them back
in and so it's just a long night and you
just don't have enough time to talk to everybody.
Speaker 4 (31:48):
Which is a big bummer. When you get to bigger numbers,
you get less time. And it's just math at that point.
And even though we started going till eight, nine, ten
in the morning, the sun's up, you know, all of
a sudden, the roster it's like, well, screw it, suns up,
We're just doing it. And so we just got to
the point where you got to pull the plug.
Speaker 5 (32:08):
And you got to move on. And not everybody's gonna
have that moment.
Speaker 4 (32:11):
Sometimes you would do it with if he had even
a brief good in, if you had a good entrance,
and we knew Ben might keep this girl like that's enough, she's.
Speaker 5 (32:19):
Gonna go on. We'll we'll figure it out week two.
Speaker 4 (32:22):
And so those nights are difficult because you do have
to make some tough calls, and those are it's more producers.
You really don't have the opportunity to just come in
and steal them on your own. That's set up, and
they'll tell you, okay, wells, you're gonna get Jojo. You're
gonna pull her by the fireside, you're gonna sit over there, and.
Speaker 5 (32:40):
That's when you go POLLR. There's not a lot of
spontaneity that night.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
And I mean I remember too, there isn't down time,
and so it really is like action packed, as Chris
was saying, there's it's not like I'm sitting out waiting
for an hour in a room and.
Speaker 3 (32:57):
Nobody's getting to talk to me.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
That night is just conversation after conversation after conversation, as
much as you can get in and I do think
it doesn't lend well for the shire person who's maybe
more nervous because they won't get a chance because they
haven't jumped on it early or put their name in
the line. But he's completely right. It doesn't feel. It
(33:21):
didn't feel like to me like hey, somebody was getting
pushed aside. It was just some people don't get a chance.
And it's ten in the morning. But and I don't
know if this is rare or not. I know for
a fact, I talked to every single person that came
in off the.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
Limo in night one on my night.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
I think if you watch it back, nobody would say
I didn't get any time.
Speaker 4 (33:42):
Some batchels are adamant about it, like you. I mean, honestly,
you're a good guy, and so some batchers are just
better than going.
Speaker 5 (33:48):
I'm not going.
Speaker 3 (33:50):
She loves sleeping, you love it.
Speaker 4 (33:52):
It's like every fifteen minutes, she's just gonna yell one
bottle of.
Speaker 3 (33:58):
Yeah, no, you're right.
Speaker 4 (34:00):
Bizarre Heckler ever, the Wan Pablo Heckler. This is Wan
Pablo's niece and nephew. But so it's it's a weird night,
and honestly it's it's the one night. To me, that
felt the most produced, because it has to be. I
always relished the next So back in the olden times
when I used to do the show and it was
(34:20):
in black and white and it was on film, So
first of all, we never had a day off. We
would do night one and we never had a dark
and what's called a dark day. We would finish at
I don't know, four, five, six in the morning, and
the next date started at ten am. So I remember
(34:41):
I would go in and be like, all right, welcome
to the mansion.
Speaker 5 (34:44):
Move in. We would do the move in.
Speaker 4 (34:45):
Shoot, everyone's like, oh, jumping on the bed, popping champagne
and they had not slept at all, and I was like, okay,
group date, and we would read out the names. I
just everybody was like, please Jesus, please do not pick me,
do not pick me.
Speaker 5 (34:58):
I do not want to go to Vegas today. I
just want to go to bed.
Speaker 4 (35:01):
So finally, honestly, because of union rules, we had to
start taking a dark day and everybody would sleep the
next day. Then the following day I would say, okay,
let's move into the mansion.
Speaker 5 (35:12):
And it got a lot better.
Speaker 4 (35:13):
But early days we never had that break and you
would just roll right into it. But I was relish
getting into the dates because then it was a lot
more genuine and even if it was a group date,
all of a sudden, the backtor would start getting a
lot more genuine time with the ladies.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
People ask me this, and I'm trying to think. When
he's talking of questions, I could ask the hours, and
it is. It is a crazy gig. You start at
seven am with interviews and you're not done back to
your hotel room alone until one thirty two am in
the morning, and you're getting like six hours of sleep
at the most, and then you're waking up on camera again.
Speaker 3 (35:49):
And I'm a big introvert, so by the time I
was done with this show, I was depleted.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
Like everything inside of me was like, stop having some
handler follow me around, stop having this talking.
Speaker 6 (36:00):
Hey, everyone feel bad for Ben for having thirty of
the most beautiful women lusting after him.
Speaker 3 (36:07):
I know, so tough.
Speaker 5 (36:09):
So many Lawrens, Oh, so many Lawrens.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
It's been here jumping back in. This is a perfect
place for us to take a pause. I want to
let you know we have another cruise coming up in
San Diego on December sixth, If you want to go,
we want you to come. Grab tickets. Check out city
experiences dot Com again, that's city experiences dot com.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
Follow the Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous podcast on iHeartRadio,
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Hosts And Creators
Ben Higgins
Ashley Iaconetti
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Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.