The Bachelor may not be Peter Kraus, after all, per latest Mike Fleiss tweet

It’s very hard sometimes to get inside the brain of The Bachelor creator Mike Fleiss. This is a man that does have a knack for intentionally riling people up with teases that amount effectively to a hill of beans. He also does intentionally mislead from time to time or make up possible contenders out of nowhere just for fun.

Yet, there is something rather matter-of-fact about the latest tease from Fleiss, almost as though he feels like he’s letting everyone down with the announcement that the new Bachelor is probably not “the guy everyone thought was the logical choice.” Obviously, that was Peter Kraus — he was the most-recent runner-up and the subject of many rumors that he was going to be picked for the job by ABC and producers. Even with so many people on Peter’s side, there could be some problems that could’ve kept the gig from happening. Maybe there is something in the negotiation process that fell through, or the producers didn’t want to build a story around him. The last thing that we think is that the show didn’t want him for the job because he didn’t want to propose to Rachel Lindsay. Even if they sell it like that, we have a hard time buying it since there’s no better way to promote a season than by saying “this guy didn’t want to propose this time … but will he this time?”. That’s the sort of marketing gold ABC embraces with open arms.

If Peter is out, once again (this has been going on for a while now), this could open the door for other contenders. Wells Adams at the moment seems to be the next logical choice, and beyond that things get a little muddy. Do you go with another Bachelor in Paradise contender in Ben Zorn, or find a way to convince another Ben in Ben Higgins to come back — even if he already said that he wouldn’t want the gig. We don’t see Nick Viall coming back again so soon after his engagement, and Dean Unglert seems like a no-go after this Bachelor in Paradise drama.

When will Mike Fleiss, or the show as a whole, have a name? Probably not until after Labor Day Weekend at this point. Remember, Fleiss isn’t going to announce the choice on his Twitter feed — Good Morning America was apparently going to announce it this morning, but something apparently changed and the plans fell through. GMA will probably still get the announcement, but odds now are that you’ll see it at some point next week. The producers don’t exactly have a whole lot of time in order to make the pick, so they have to figure out who they want and then prepare to ride with that person for a whole season.

Is it possible that Fleiss is punking us yet again, and he’s just gotten better at it? All options have to be considered…

Once there is more to report on here with this whole mess of a situation, we’ll let you know. (Photo: ABC.)

https://twitter.com/fleissmeister/status/903817499136860160