‘The Bachelor’: Meet the Reported Top 3 Frontrunners for Season 24

The Bachelorette runner-up Tyler Cameron is reportedly no longer one of the frontrunners for the next season of The Bachelor, forcing ABC to find a new face for the upcoming season. There are three men in the running now, according to Variety, but fans will not know who the final choice will be until after Bachelor in Paradise finishes up next month.

The three names ABC and Warner Bros. Television, which produces the franchise, have in mind are Peter Weber, Derek Peth and Mike Johnson.

Johnson was one of the fan-favorites from Hannah Brown’s season. He would become the first African-American Bachelor star. Weber was the second runner-up from Brown’s season, and famously spent a very special night with Brown in a windmill. Peth is on the current season of Bachelor in Paradise and also appeared in Paradise Season 4 and The Bachelorette Season 12 with JoJo Fletcher.

Cameron is thought to be out of the running thanks to his headline-grabbing dates with supermodel Gigi Hadid. Cameron is “completely out of the running, given his relationship with Gigi,” a source told Variety.

Back in July, Bachelor franchise host Chris Harrison told The Hollywood Reporter that Johnson was “definitely in the mix” to star in The Bachelor Season 24. The show has long been criticized for its lack of diversity, and even Harrison admitted it is “100 percent time to have a black Bachelor.”

“Everyone’s excited about Mike here tonight,” Harrison told THR. “I love him. The smile, the charm, the sincerity, the maturity. He’s a great man and I feel like he’s a dear friend of mine already, so he’s a great candidate and he’s definitely going to be in the mix.”

Harrison added, “I know that, having been doing this a while, when we get to After the Final Rose and have two nights of that, people are going to be clamoring for those guys as well. So we have to let the dust settle a little bit and then go back to the board and debate this whole thing.”

Peth has become one of the frontrunners thanks to his role in one of the main Bachelor in Paradise storylines. Peth was dating Demi Burnett, but she broke up with him to start a relationship with a woman she dated before joining the show. It is the first same-sex relationship shown on the franchise.

Burnett told Entertainment Tonight she would support Peth as the next Bachelor.

“I will support him whatever he wants to do. I just want him to be happy,” she said. “[But] I wouldn’t want to campaign [for him], because what if some of my other friends want the gig too?”

Burnett also praised Peth for his reaction to the breakup, calling him “mature and he obviously knows how to have good conversations, and even tough conversations… He makes people feel good, and he really is a good guy.”

Bachelor in Paradise airs Mondays and Tuesdays on ABC at 8 p.m. ET. The Bachelor will be back in January 2020.

Photo credit: ABC/John Fleenor