‘The Bachelor’ spoilers: Arie Luyendyk Jr. will not star … says Arie himself

Well, it looks like you can almost write Chris Soules in as the next “Bachelor” with permanent marker now. The only person believed to be an alternate contender for the role has formally announced he is no longer in the race. Not only that, but he seemed to infer in the process that Chris has it.

Arie Luyendyk Jr. has to be tired at this point of being tied to this gig without getting it (this is not the first time), but he wrote in a post on Twitter the following about it not working out for him:

“I’m not the Bachelor, have fun on the farm people … Thanks for the kind words everyone. It wasn’t meant to be, and I’m okay with it. Happy I can move forward.”

We’re not even going to sit here and pretend like we’re shocked by this development. Maybe Arie was a somewhat-serious contender, but it never felt like he had the edge over Chris, even for one second. As we said earlier when we heard that the announcement is imminent, Chris has the recency bias coming off of Andi Dorfman’s season, and he is also more of the prototype the show looks for: An All-American guy with a memorable, humble job who they can rip a shirt off of at any given moment. This is a stark contrast to the early days of the show, where producers looked for lavish means of employment. They are now trying harder to make the lead into everymen that are easier to root for.

We’re sure that Arie will be just fine in the end. There are tens of thousands who have a crush on him out there, and there’s always “Bachelor in Paradise” next year if he wants to do that.

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Photo: ABC