‘The Bachelorette’: How Coronavirus Is Changing Clare Crawley’s Season

Over the past several years, The Bachelor and The Bachelorette have taken on a formula — the lead and contestants meet each other at Bachelor Mansion in Agoura Hills, California and spend some time there before traveling around the world, but because of the coronavirus, things are going to be a little different during Clare Crawley’s upcoming season of The Bachelorette, which is set to begin filming next week.

The Hollywood Reporter shares that international travel plans for Crawley’s season are currently on hold, and as of March 2, the show had decided to cancel overseas travel and stick to domestic travel only.

“As the health and safety of our talent and employees are always our primary concerns, production travel is being evaluated on a case-by-case basis, factoring in the latest information from a variety of organizations, including the CDC, WHO, U.S. State Department and in-territory local health agencies,” a spokesperson for Warner Bros. said on Tuesday.

During Monday and Tuesday night’s finale of Peter Weber‘s season of The Bachelor, studio audience members had to sign a coronavirus disclosure form stating whether they had recently traveled to a majorly impacted area including China, South Korea, Italy, Iran or Venezuela, TMZ reports.

“In response to the impact of the COVID-19 (coronavirus), we are asking all guests to confirm they nor any member of their household have not traveled within the past three weeks to or through a location that has been deemed ‘Level 3’ by the CDC,” Warner Bros. said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. “These new and temporary precautionary measures have been put in place out of an abundance of caution and out of concern for the health and safety of our guests and staff.”

The virus, which currently has over 1,000 cases in the United States, has impacted a number of events and organizations including music festivals, concerts, colleges, schools and television shows, several of which are now filming without live studio audiences. Some cities are also discouraging large gatherings and a 1-mile containment area was ordered in New Rochelle, New York by Gov. Andrew Cuomo this week.

Movies are also being pushed back due to fears that audiences won’t want to go to the theater — the upcoming James Bond sequel No Time to Die has been moved from an April release to November — and there is talk of the Summer Olympics in Tokyo being postponed.

Crawley’s season of The Bachelorette will premiere on May 18.

Photo Credit: Getty / Jesse Grant