Entertainment

When Does 'The Bachelorette' Start?

This crop-sharing season of The Bachelor is old news, my friends. Soon enough, Chris Soules will scoop up his farm-ready fiancée (whomever that may be — young Becca Tilley or Chicago fertility nurse Whitney Bischoff) and take her back to Arlington, Iowa, where no one can hear you scream (but the corn have ears). What is new and exciting is the 2015 season of The Bachelorette which premieres pretty soon, if you think about it. We can expect to see Season 11’s chosen lady find a new man sometime in May, according to ABC, though no exact date has been announced quite yet. That means, Bachelor fans, you’ll have to wait almost two months for your Chris Harrison fix. I know — sometimes life is hard, but we’ll make it through this together, I promise. At least after The Bachelorette is over, Bachelor in Paradise starts, so we have Harrison for the whole summer.

But first things first: The voices that be on the Internet have narrowed down our Season 11 Bachelorette choices to two ladies from Chris’ Bachelor season: sunny California girl Britt Nilssen and Canadian dance instructor Kaitlyn Bristowe. Both women did fairly well on this season of The Bachelor, coming close, but not quite capturing Chris’ heart. They’re both bubbly, vivacious, and just free-spirited enough to be America’s next sweetheart. But comparing these two is sort of like comparing oranges and tangerines — it'll be great either way. The decision of the next Bachelorette is apparently so difficult to make that not even ABC has done it yet. Mike Fleiss, the creator of The Bachelor, tweeted just the other day that they haven’t made any commitments yet. Fleiss also tweeted that the winner would be announced on The Bachelor’s “After The Final Rose Ceremony” (aka the third hour of the series finale) special on ABC.

It’s been a very interesting journey in trying to pin this one down. Britt was a frontrunner for Chris’ heart from the start, and when it became pretty obvious that he wasn’t going to take her all the way to the end, Britt became an obvious choice for The Bachelorette, but the producers had something different in mind.

Look, this is reality television: Everyone gets an edit on this show. Kelsey was the "crazy" one, Ashley I. was the princess, Becca was the virgin, and Carly was the goofball. If you don’t recognize that this happens every season, I have a condo in Boca to sell you, too. The way Britt was treated, story-wise, changed at the drop of a hat. She was suddenly the “fake” girl, the one who would say anything to make Chris choose her. She became jealous and combative when he would take out other girls, yadda yadda yadda. Britt’s “story” on the show did a 180. Britt was also pretty vilified on the "Women Tell All" special. That's not generally how ABC treats its future Bachelorettes.

Personally, I was always a Kaitlyn fan from the beginning — she’s sweet without being cloying, a little vulgar, a little sarcastic, and completely relatable, which are all things that no one on The Bachelor is. With Britt’s sudden villainy, the well-liked Kaitlyn became the obvious next choice for the Bachelorette title, especially after she was crushed when Chris dumped her.

Sorry, Britt, but right now it looks like Kaitlyn is a lock. Ex-Bachelorette and TV show host Jillian Harris posted a picture on her Instagram last week of her and Kaitlyn with the caption “Just a few things in common.” Hmm, they’re both brunette, gray-eyed, Canadian, and… Bachelorettes?

Kaitlyn has also been spotted with a film crew walking around L.A.

I'm just calling ‘em like I see ‘em, but of course we'll find out for sure Monday night.

Image: David Moir/ABC; giphy