Zach Shallcross’ ‘The Bachelor’ Season 27 Premiere Date Set at ABC

Kelli Boyle November 7, 2022, 2:04 pm

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Zach Shallcross‘s journey to find love will kick off in 2023. ABC announced The Bachelor Season 27 premiere date on Monday, November 7, and it will leave just a two-month gap between the Bachelor In Paradise Season 8 finale on November 22 and the return of the flagship show.

The Bachelor Season 27 premieres Monday, January 23 on ABC. Shallcross first appeared in the Rachel Recchia and Gabby Windey-led Bachelorette Season 19. After connecting with Rachel and lasting a long while on the season, Zach shockingly decided to leave the show ahead of a Rose Ceremony after the Fantasy Suite dates. Fans were surprised by the development, seeing as Rachel and Zach’s hometown date went quite well. But the couple had a tense conversation in the Fantasy Suite that Zach later called “the most inauthentic conversation I’ve ever had.”

“I was more than ready to get on one knee,” he said in a confessional. “The Rachel that I was falling in love with, I trusted her enough at least to show me her real self and I don’t think I got that. And I still don’t know why or how. What was that Rachel I was getting? That’s the biggest concern to me.” Zach pulled Rachel aside ahead of the rose ceremony to say, “That Fantasy Suite felt a little off,” adding, “Since day one I’ve always been honest with you… I thought what I was seeing wasn’t the real Rachel, what I was seeing was Bachelorette Rachel.”

ABC/Craig Sjodin

He said he was “upset and disappointed that I wasn’t able to get” the feel of “absolute love” from her during that date. Rachel admitted that the Fantasy Suite did give her “clarity” about her feelings for Zach, saying there was something missing in their relationship for her, but she was willing try and figure out what that was. “I was trying to find that missing piece for me. I did think if we spent the night talking I could find it,” she said.

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“I did really love you. I saw a future with you. But I need to go,” Zach finally confessed. To which the understanding Rachel replied, “I wish I could’ve gotten there.”

As he drove away from what he thought was forever, Shallcross told the cameras, “It’s over just like that. I could just see in her eyes that it really meant something different to her than it meant to me. I don’t know what I missed… This still doesn’t feel real, because she was, in my mind, the future Mrs. Shallcross.” He added that Rachel was “cold,” but that’s to be expected from a recently rejected lover.

Rachel got engaged to Tino Franco in the end (and Gabby to Erich Schwer, who have since split), but they broke up after Tino kissed another woman after filming wrapped. The intense relationship fallout was aired lived during the After the Final Rose special on Tuesday, September 20, and then runner-up Aven Jones appeared and Rachel left with him. Viewers and former Bachelor/ette cast members alike thought the whole ordeal to be cruel and manipulative.

Shallcross was announced as the next Bachelor during the same After the Final Rose special.

“I’m obviously very nervous but this is obviously a once-in-a-lifetime, incredible opportunity,” he told host Jesse Palmer during the live special. “I’ll be ready, I’m ready.”

He continued, “I’m more ready, that’s almost fuel to the fire. I’m ready to find my person, my best friend, and that breakup didn’t deter it.”

Will Zach find the love he’s looking for in The Bachelor Season 27? Is true love ever really found on this show nowadays….? Time will tell.

The Bachelor, Season 27 Premiere, Monday, January 23, 8/7c, ABC