Here's All The Tea On Matt James' First Night On 'The Bachelor'

Clare Crawley's season of The Bachelorette is already proving to be too stressful, so why not get a pulse check on Matt James' first night on The Bachelor? Per Variety, James reportedly first met his contestants on Sept. 10 and it apparently went great. “It was so interesting because Matt is not on the season of The Bachelorette, and the reason why we take leads from a previous season is because you know them so well and we can predict which person he might like or not, but we just didn’t know at all, so it was really fun to watch him interact with everyone,” ABC Entertainment executive Rob Mills told Variety during an Oct. 21 interview. “And the women were so fantastic. It couldn’t have gone better.”

Mills also went into detail on the extra precautions they've been taking to make sure James' season is extra safe amid the coronavirus pandemic. In addition to renting out the entirety of Pennsylvania resort Nemacolin for production and requiring all cast and crew quarantine there upon arrival, they also brought in extra female contestants in case anyone tested positive. No, really. “We brought all these women out just in case any of them tested positive,” Mills told Variety. “You just never know, so we always have alternates. Maybe next time, we don’t have to bring in as many people.”

Obvi traveling is off the docket for James' season, but Mills assured fans that "the resort in Pennsylvania is absolutely stunning" and that "it’s conducive for all different types of dates at multiple locations."

Needless to say, it will be a different vibe from literally every other season of the show, which has historically been filmed in Southern California. “The look of it will be completely different. It was nice to have a change of scenery, but beyond that, the protocols and everything are the same — we have a good system in place for as long as we’re in pandemic mode,” Mills noted. “There was a ton of learning from the season of Bachelorette that we were able to take and make this season of Bachelor even better. It is impressive — the bubble that they’ve devised is so fantastic. It really is the one way you can do it safely.”

Well, this all sounds very... interesting. Can't wait to tune in and see how it all goes down!