The Bachelorette: Clayton Echard eliminated by Michelle Young — early!
Odds are, you heard the reports out there that Clayton is the next Bachelor; because of that, we assumed early on that we were going to get some sort of explanation as to why he was picked. Did that happen? Well, in a word, no. We saw him exit with a decent(?) farewell amidst Michelle spending time with her students. There wasn’t anything in here that was super-splashy and incredibly memorable. Clayton himself was pretty vanilla personality-wise for most of the season.
From our vantage point, it feels as though Clayton was chosen to be the next Bachelor because of what producers were looking for: An archetype that they have had on the show a number of times in the past. They like these sort of muscled-up dudes from Middle America, and he comes from the same school as Sean Lowe, Jake Pavelka, Brad Womack, and Chris Soules. Given that Sean is one of the biggest success stories that the franchise has ever had, they are clearly trying to replicate that in some way.
Do we think there are flashier choices out there for the next lead of the series? Sure, but at the same time producers clearly don’t think that personality matters all that much. That’s not a slight against Clayton; instead, it’s the reality of what we’ve seen from this franchise over the years. They’ll cast a lot of incredibly dramatic personalities as contestants and let them drive the majority of the story.
Clayton’s season of The Bachelor will premiere early next year.
Related – Be sure to get some more news when it comes to The Bachelorette and where things could go from here
What do you think about Michelle Young eliminating Clayton Echard on The Bachelorette tonight?
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This article was written by Jess Carter. Be sure to follow her on Twitter.