The Bachelor filming begins with Arie Luyendyk Jr. (photo)

Only a matter of a couple of weeks after Arie Luyendyk Jr.’s official selection, The Bachelor filming is officially underway! In a new post on Twitter, show executive producer Mike Fleiss confirmed the news by tweeting an image featuring Arie alongside show host Chris Harrison. Filming just started earlier this week at the famed mansion, and moving forward we’re going to more than likely stick around Los Angeles for a couple of days. There will be a date in there with (more than likely) a racing component, just as there will be some sort of gratuitous date where most of the contestants / Arie all strip down. We’re so far into the show’s run at this point that things are starting to become rather predictable.

One of the things that remains the most interesting to us about Arie’s season at the moment are the flock of contenders, given that most of these women probably first joined the show thinking that he was probably not going to be the lead at the end of the day. They were probably thinking that Peter Kraus or Wells Adams was going to be the lead; if not one of them, they may have even looked at someone like Eric Bigger or Ben Zorn as a possibility. Seeing Arie is a total shock, but it really shouldn’t be given that The Bachelor always loved him and approached him about this role in the past.

We do think that the show does have its work cut out for it trying to promote this season and get people to jump on board and cheer for Arie; there are a lot of angry Peter fans out there, and we’re not sure this is one of those seasons where the viewers will just come back. We have always said that the contestants are the selling point more so than the lead, but the lead does have to be at least moderately likable … and we’re not altogether sure that Arie qualifies for that in the slightest based on some of the internet reaction and some of the tabloid rumors. Even if some of them aren’t good, it doesn’t do a whole lot for the guy’s likability at the end of the day.

New episodes of The Bachelor will start airing at some point in January on ABC. By that point, the entirety of this season will have filmed and been in the can for a good span of more than a month. Filming tends to end right before we make it to the Thanksgiving holiday.

What do you want to see on Arie Luyendyk Jr.’s season of The Bachelor, or are you still bitter over Peter getting the gig? Be sure to share in the comments!

Meanwhile, head over to the link here in the event you want to get some more news on The Bachelorette through the lens of one question: Are we going to see Kristina Schulman in that role in the future?