Former ‘Bachelorette’ Lead Joins ‘FBoy Island’ Season 3

Katie Thurston is trying to find love outside of her typical Bachelor Nation crew. The former Bachelorette lead (Season 17) is joining the cast of The CW’s FBoy Island Season 3. A short teaser released on July 10 confirmed the news by showing a glimpse at Thurston getting ready for a confessional. On the series, Thurston will be one of three women who are joined by 24 men – half of whom promise they are “Nice Guys” looking for love and 12 self-proclaimed “FBoys,” there to compete for cold, hard cash. Throughout the series, the women navigate the dating pool together with the hope of finding a lasting love connection, with the real Nice Guy and FBoy revealed by the finale. The show is pegged as a dating social experiment that poses question: “Can FBoys truly reform, or do Nice Guys always finish last?”

Thurston first competed on the 25th season of The Bachelor featuring Matt James as the lead, finishing in 11th place. She later had men vying for her attention on her season of The Bachelorette. By the end of the season, Thurston accepted a proposal from 30-year-old wildlife manager, Blake Moynes. They ended their engagement later that Fall. 

At the time of their split, they released a joint statement. Thurston later elaborated, explaining, “Obviously a public relationship ending is a really s**ty thing to have to navigate, but you guys have been very kind and supportive and I just wanted to say thank you for being that way to me and to Blake, and for being understanding. I think a lot of people hold too much weight to things that don’t matter. I’m a big believer in your happiness. Your happiness is the most important thing, and that being said why would you not pursue that? I think a lot of people stay in relationships because they put so much time and effort into it and they keep waiting for new results thinking, ‘Once this happens it’ll change. Once we get engaged, once we get married, once we have kids, things’ll change, they’ll get better. Sometimes you don’t have to wait for a big thing.”

FBoy Island was formerly one of HBO Max’s most-watched original reality programs that was ultimately cut amid the parent company’s merger with Warner Bros. The CW picked up the series earlier this year, as well as a spinoff. 

Nikki Glaser serves as host and exec producer of FBoy Island. The series were created by Elan Gale who is executive producing for TheYearOfElan Productions alongside Jason Goldberg for STXtelevision, Noah Fogelson and Bob Simonds. The new season will air this Fall.