Reality Steve Teases Major ‘Bachelor’ Announcement Ahead: Report

Heavy Reality Steve teases an imminent announcement about "The Bachelor" lead for 2025.

Ahead of episode 6 of “The Bachelorette,” news emerged that fans were about to get big franchise news. Podcaster and blogger Reality Steve frequently gets the scoop regarding “The Bachelor” franchise before anyone else. On August 12, he teased that ABC is about to announce the lead for the next season of “The Bachelor.”

Update: People revealed that Grant Ellis will be the next “Bachelor” lead!

Reality Steve Doesn’t Know ABC’s Pick for ‘The Bachelor’ Yet

A few hours before the next episode of Jenn Tran’s “The Bachelorette” was slated to air, Reality Steve took to social media to share his big teaser.

“(ANNOUNCEMENT): The next Bachelor is being revealed tonight after show airs on East Coast,” he posted on X, formerly Twitter.

Reality Steve added, “I’m assuming it’s gonna be online since there’s no live portion of the show tonight.”

Who did ABC pick? Why are they announcing it so early? Even Reality Steve doesn’t know the answers yet.

He noted, “I have no idea who it is. I’ll see if I can find out before tonight. This is all news to me today.”

Update: As episode 6 of “The Bachelorette” aired, Reality Steve tweeted an update. “The name I’m hearing for next Bachelor is Jonathon from this season.” He noted, “This is not solid confirmation of anything…but that’s the name I’ve heard at this point so I figured I’d pass it along.”

Several of Reality Steve’s followers speculated in response to his tweet.

“Gotta be Johnathan I feel like,” one fan tweeted. That Redditor’s reference to “Johnathan” would be Jonathon Johnson, one of Tran’s remaining suitors.

“I’d have to imagine it’ll be somebody from a different season but there isn’t a guy on Jenn’s cast that should be the headliner,” suggested someone else.

Another social media user wondered, “Maybe someone who goes home tonight???”

Going into episode 6 of “The Bachelorette,” Tran still has seven men remaining. The next rose ceremony may not air at the end of the episode, but before the hometown dates begin, three more men will be eliminated.

Fans Are Curious About the Potential Early Announcement

Fans discussed their theories in “The Bachelor” subreddit, too.

One Redditor wrote, “Strange time to announce it and how? Just a post? But I’m excited by the chance for someone old school. I hope it’s someone good I’ve always been wanting!”

“Have they done something like put a ‘live’ segment where Jesse [Palmer] talks to the camera after the shows (sic) end? Cause they have to put it on the episode right. They have never announced it like that, right? Just online. Seems strange,” another Redditor shared.

As that poster speculated, it may be that ABC edited episode 6 of “The Bachelorette” to add a short additional segment at the end. The segment could show Palmer making the announcement and explaining why it’s coming now.

“Calling it now: Pilot Pete’s back for round 2,” quipped another poster, referring to former “The Bachelor” lead Peter Weber.

“Announcing it online instead of doing a ‘tune in to GMA tomorrow to meet the new Bachelor’ is an interesting choice. Especially because I feel like this season is not generating much online buzz,” suggested someone else.

That same Redditor added, “I would bet it’s a past season contestant but I honestly wouldn’t be totally shocked if it’s Night One Brett or a totally random hot professional man that they found on the street. This gives them a month to promote the guy before filming starts.”

ABC has made early lead announcements a few times in the past. One Redditor noted that happened with both Matt James and Clare Crawley. Another Redditor mentioned Rachel Lindsay and Clayton Echard being announced earlier than expected, too.

“Just no reason to do all this if you’re picking a guy from this season. Guess we’ll see soon enough,” read someone else’s comment.

No clear favorites seem to have immediately emerged as fans discuss Reality Steve’s tease. However, if indeed ABC is about to make the announcement, everybody will know very soon.