Why There’s Less Alcohol on This Season of ‘The Bachelor’

The Bachelor season 22 premiered on Monday, January 1, and fans of the ABC dating series noticed that contestants weren’t indulging in copious amounts of champagne, as they have in previous seasons.

After the sexual misconduct allegations that arose during the filming of Bachelor in Paradise season 3 in June 2017, Warner Brothers implemented new rules on set of Bachelor Nation shows, including limiting alcohol consumption and enforcing more rules about sexual activity, according to TMZ. Us Weekly caught up with Arie Luyendyk Jr., who confirmed that he and contestants consumed less alcohol while shooting his season.

“I wasn’t really aware of any new rules. I do believe there was a little bit less alcohol involved, but that’s OK,” the 36-year-old real estate agent previously told Us Weekly and other reporters via a conference call. “That’s great because with that comes some ramifications. So yeah, I don’t know if there was anything [on my season] done differently except for the limited us of alcohol and drinking alcohol.”

Jessica Carroll, a contestant who was eliminated night one corroborated his sentiments, exclusively telling Us on Tuesday, January 2, that “there were no girls that were getting drunk” during the first night of filming. “To be honest, I feel like more people were drinking coffee and hot water because we were so cold,” she added. “I don’t even think I finished one drink the whole night, and also, we were warned that [filming] really does last all night and you want to make sure to stay awake. So they were not forcing us with drinks. If anything, it was definitely coffee and water.”

Michael Garofola, who competed on Desiree Hartstock’s Bachelorette season, weighed in on the show’s drinking policies during an exclusive interview with Us in June. “Despite what people think, producers are not holding your hair back and dumping bottles of tequila down your thrown,” he explained, noting that the producers are respectful of all contestants’ drink of choices, whether it be coffee, water, tequila or the likes.

Host Chris Harrison echoed Garofola’s remarks while speaking to The Hollywood Reporter in July. “As far as alcohol goes, that’s never been a big thing for us. That’s a big misconception of the show — that we push it and that we need it and we want it,” he said. “But that really doesn’t help us. Someone being sloppy drunk and being out of it does not give us good television.”

The Bachelor airs Mondays on ABC at 8 p.m. ET.

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