Is Peter Kraus the next Bachelor? When announcement could come

Is Peter Kraus the next Bachelor? Well, we know that this is a question many people have entering the Bachelorette finale tonight.

The only thing that we can say in response to that is the following: It’s not 100% official. Yet, it may as well be. Provided that Peter wants the gig, it’s his almost without any debate at all. He is clearly the most popular guy on this season, he has support from all over the show community, and he fits perfectly with the sort of person ABC and Warner Bros. like to have for the role. He’s even got a built-in narrative with the whole “I only want to propose if it’s absolutely right” story, which we’re sure we will hear about a million ways to Sunday in the event he’s chosen. The only thing stopping this from happening is in the event Rachel Lindsay chooses him in the end, and that seems unlikely at this point.

The larger question we are here to take on is the one regarding when the official announcement could be made. Given that the next Bachelorette is always revealed during the After the Final Rose special (with the exception of Rachel, who was announced early to catch a wider net), it’s fair to hope that the same sort of thing could happen tonight. Yet, it almost never does. Typically, the next Bachelor is announced a little later during the summer. In recent years, it’s happened during Bachelor in Paradise. Last year, the show announced that Nick Viall would be the Bachelor while he was technically still a part of the show, effectively giving away that he and Jen Saviano were not going to be a couple after the fact. This time, there are no fears of some chaos since Peter is not on this season of Paradise. Our feeling is that within the weeks of Peter being done on the show, he probably at that point started to get some inquiries as to whether or not he wanted the job.

It also makes sense for ABC to wait until later in the summer to announce the news just for the sake of ratings. They already know that there are going to be viewers who are around to check out The Bachelorette tonight, but Paradise is a little bit more of a toss-up. The idea situation would be for them to make the news official during the reunion special for that show, which could use a pick-me-up given the talk that is likely going to go down there in relation to the DeMario Jackson – Corinne Olympios scandal.

If you do want hope that the next Bachelor could be announced tonight, ABC did announce pretty early that Juan Pablo Galavis would be getting the gig — remember when everyone was really happy about that? Yea, that feels pretty far in the past now.

Do you think that Peter Kraus should be the next Bachelor star? Share in the comments! Also, head over here for some other news related to The Bachelorette leading up to the finale. (Photo: ABC.)