ABC Clare Crawley and host Chris Harrison during a group date on The Bachelorette.
The Bachelorette host Chris Harrison usually stays out of the way for one-on-one dates, but he made an awkward appearance during one in episode three. After a confusing kiss mishap and interaction that made Clare Crawley uncomfortable, Harrison was the one who showed up to dinner that night and told Zach Jackson that it was time for him to go home.
Many viewers were furious about the moment. It appeared as though Crawley leaned in for a kiss only to change her mind at the last second and leave Jackson confused and panicked about the mix up. But Jackson did himself no favors by repeatedly grabbing Crawley behind the neck and trying to force the kiss he didn’t receive moments earlier.
Should Crawley have shown up to the dinner and told Jackson in person about her discomfort with the moment? Harrison doesn’t think so.
“There was no coming back from that,” Harrison told Entertainment Tonight. “Clare clearly saw Zach was not the man for her, that was not gonna happen. He was not gonna go further than that. There was no reason to go through with that dinner, there’s no reason to put anybody through that dinner.
“For her to go and fake it, and just not give him a rose, and for Zach to try and put himself out there and try and fix it — the damage had been done at that point. He wasn’t getting that rose, so we thought, ‘Why do this? Why take advantage of this scene and drag it all out when this guy’s just going home?’ So I just stepped in and said, let’s just be done with this and go on our separate ways.”
Zach J. Appears to Think He Did Nothing Wrong
ABC/Craig SjodinZach Jackson is a contestant on season 16 of The Bachelorette.
Prior to the episode airing, Jackson warned his followers on Instagram that he was going to appear villainous on the show.
“A little uh public service announcement, I am pretty well aware by now that I’m going to be looking very uncool in the very near future,” Jackson said. “I just wanted to let you know that yeah, that’s fair enough. That’s a pretty accurate representation of what’s going on over here.”
But when swarms of viewers jumped to his defense, Jackson seemed to change his tune. He even replied to spoilers expert Reality Steve, who said the contestant’s action were “absolutely not acceptable.”
@RealitySteve Was my hand on her? Absolutely. Did I “pull” her? Absolutely not. I’m 5’11” 200lbs and if I pulled her, she would have moved. I was simply trying to let her know that I didn’t pull away. Also, it’s a show and you missed lots of our other interactions but we can’t talk about those
Jackson also liked several tweets defending his actions and reposted posts of support to his Instagram story.
Chris Harrison Says Clare ‘Has Complete Control’ And Wasn’t Forced Out
ABCClare Crawley and Chris Harrison in the season premiere of The Bachelorette.
In the same Entertainment Tonight interview, Harrison addressed speculation that Crawley was “forced out” as lead of The Bachelorette — a theory that even Crawley fueled.
“I would just say she has complete control,” Harrison said. “This season of The Bachelorette was completely about Clare. It’s all about Clare, and she will decide where we go from here. It’s totally, completely up to her.”
That probably doesn’t come to much surprise to viewers who have seen Crawley calling all the shots this season. Perhaps producers are pulling the strings a little more than people realize, but it doesn’t appear as though ABC twisted Crawley’s arm too much about anything.
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