“The Bachelor” begins its 19th season tonight with a three-hour episode from 8-11 p.m. on ABC with four women from Los Angeles County and one from San Clemente among the record field of 30 bachelorettes vying for Chris Soules’ affection.
Reegan Cornwell, a 28-year-old cadaver tissue saleswoman from Manhattan Beach, said she loves it when her date “opens the car door and tells you that you like nice, right away” and hates it “when my date gets too touchy-feely too soon.”
Britt Nilsson, a 27-year-old waitress from Hollywood, said her biggest date fear is “being into someone who isn’t into me” and she couldn’t live without her Bible, journal, makeup, snacks or cellphone.
Jade Roper, a 28-year-old cosmetics developer from Los Angeles, called her greatest achievement moving to Los Angeles on her own and starting her business.
Samantha Steffen, a 27-year-old fashion designer from Los Angeles, said she enjoys romantic situations “like candlelit dinners, sunsets, holding hands” and considers herself “neat to a fault.”
Trina Scherenberg, a 33-year-old special education teacher from San Clemente who at 33 is the oldest bachelorette in the field, said if she could be any fruit or vegetable, she would be a coconut.
“I love how they grow in such beautiful, exotic, yet uninhabited places,” Scherenberg said. “No one would every eat me. I would smell and taste delicious too and I’d have lots of health benefits to offer.”
Portions of tonight’s episode will air live in the Eastern and Central time zones, a first for the series. It will include two groups of 15 bachelorettes seeking roses for Soules to remain on the show.
Soules, a 32-year-old farmer from Arlington, Iowa, was third on this summer’s season of “The Bachelorette.” He said his experience on “The Bachelorette” made him realize that love is really out there and is confident he will find it on “The Bachelor.”
The season will include six women competing in a tractor race in their bikinis; an episode hosted by talk show host Jimmy Kimmel; an episode inspired by the upcoming Disney film “Cinderella,” where Soules’ sisters help choose which woman is most deserving of a fairy godmother and a night at a ball; and a private concert by the country duo Big and Rich in Deadwood, South Dakota, for Soules and one woman.
The 2013 season of “The Bachelor” was its most-watched since 2011. It won its Monday 8-10 p.m. time slot for its season among its core demographic of women ages 18-34.
The 2013 season resulted in the only time a bachelor has married the woman to whom he presented the final rose, Sean Lowe and Catherine Giudici. Jason Mesnick, the bachelor in the 2009 season, married runner-up Molly Malaney.
