ABC Exec Is Confident Bachelor in Paradise Will Return This Summer

Published on January 14, 2021.

Good news, Bachelor in Paradise fans! The hit reality show is likely returning this summer according to ABC.

Rob Mills, the senior vice president of alternative series, specials, and late-night programming at ABC shared in an interview with Variety that ABC is “hell bent on figuring out how to make Paradise work.”

“Unless something horrendous happens, I feel very confident that Paradise is coming back on this summer — how and where it’s going to be, it’s still too early to tell,” he added.

Bachelor in Paradise last aired in the summer of 2019 with the finale in September 2019. ABC decided to skip filming for season 7 last summer due to filming constraints related to the global health crisis.

Mills continued to share that the biggest challenge with filming Bachelor In Paradise this summer will be choosing the contestants. “The biggest problem we’re going to have is that we have probably about 150 potential people we can have in the cast between the four seasons that haven’t been able to be on Paradise, and then other people who have been on previous seasons,” he said. “How do you make that into 15 to 18 cast members? It’s going to be really tough.”

“We’re looking at different permutations and scenarios,” Mills added. “Will the vaccine be widely available? Obviously, we don’t want producers and cast members to be getting vaccinated early just for the show, but if people can get vaccinated, then maybe we’re back in Mexico. If not, maybe there is a bubble situation in Mexico.”

No cast members have been finalized for the upcoming season of Bachelor In Paradise just yet, but Mills did hint at a few possible contenders, including Ben Smith and Bennett Jordan from Tayshia’s season. “I think right now, everybody is in consideration for Bachelor in Paradise, and certainly Bennett is on that list,” Mills told Variety.

He added a note about Smith as well sharing, “I can see him being one of the massive success of Bachelor in Paradise, like he will meet his wife there. If Ben would do us the privilege of being on Paradise, it would be fantastic.”