Bachelor Winter Games cast, premiere date finally official at ABC

Arie Luyendyk Jr.

After weeks of questions and/or confusion, some information is finally coming in about ABC’s attempt at counter-programming against the upcoming Winter Olympics.

ABC today has unveiled both the Bachelor Winter Games cast and premiere date. Let’s start with this. The reality show, which was recently filmed in Vermont, will be airing on Tuesday, February 13. New episodes will air on February 15, 20, the 22nd, and then that’s it. There are only four episodes of this show.

Basically, here’s how this series will work. Romantic hopefuls from all over the world will head towards Vermont, where they will compete in a US vs. the World style competition. There will be a parade grand marshaled by Trista and Ryan Sutter, and there will also be a competition of Olympic-style events and dates. Given that this is such a short show we have a hard time believing that anything substantial is going to come out of this at all.

As for the Bachelor Winter Games cast, there are nine confirmed participants from the US version of the show: Former Bachelor Ben Higgins, Ashley Iaconetti, Clare Crawley, Michael Garofola, Eric Bigger, Josiah Graham, Jamey Kocan, Luke Pell, Dean Unglert, and Lesley Murphy. It feels pretty clear that there are some other women from Arie Luyendyk Jr.’s current season who be announced at a later date.

Meanwhile, the international contestants are as follows, per Entertainment Weekly:

Benoit, 31, “The Bachelorette” Season 1 – Canada

Christian, 34, “The Bachelorette” Season 1 – Switzerland and Germany

Courtney, 31, “The Bachelorette” Season 2 – Australia

Jordan, 34, “The Bachelor” Season 2 – New Zealand

Kevin, 33, “The Bachelorette” Season 1 – Canada

Ally, 24, “The Bachelor” Season 3 – New Zealand

Jenny, 34, “The Bachelor” Season 1 – Finland

Laura, 29, “The Bachelor” Season 1 – United Kingdom

Lily, 21, “The Bachelor” Season 3 – New Zealand

Nastassia, 26, “The Bachelor” Season 3 – Sweden

Rebecca, 26, “The Bachelor” Season 3 – Sweden

Tiffany, 31, “The Bachelor” Season 4 – Australia

Yuki, 21, “The Bachelor” Season 1 – Japan

Zoe, 25, “The Bachelor” Season 1 – China

There’s not a whole lot about this list that is surprising — they’re mostly familiar countries and there are some Canadians out there who are probably familiar with both the US and Canadian contestants. One prediction we were right now — producers finding a way to get either Megan Marx or Tiffany Scanlon, women from the Australian version of the show who ended up falling for each other rather than the man at the center of their season. They’re no longer together, but we figured the ABC producers would be interested in that story.

What do you think about both the Bachelor Winter Games cast and the upcoming premiere date? Do you think that this could actually be an interesting show? Share some of your thoughts on that subject in the comments!

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