Selling Sunset's Chrishell Stause Was in Talks To Be 'The Bachelorette'Over 10 Years Ago, Says ABC Executive
This week, former Bachelor star, Nick Viall, spoke with Robert Mills, ABC's Senior Vice President of Alternative Series, Specials, and Late Night Programming, on his podcast The Viall Files. During this episode, Mills revealed that Selling Sunset star and Dancing with the Stars contestant Chrishell Stause was actually a candidate for The Bachelorette over a decade ago.
"I actually have had lunch with Chrishell—this was about 10 or 11 years ago—to talk about being the Bachelorette," he told Viall during the episode. He explained that while ABC currently alternates between seasons of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, the latter title was not bringing in as much of an audience as The Bachelor was. Because of that inconsistency in ratings between the shows, the network only greenlit a season of The Bachelorette "every so often." He noted "there was, like, four Bachelors for every one Bachelorette."
However, he recalled that one year ABC was looking to do something different for its summer programming and decided to give a new season of The Bachelorette a go. At the time, a casting director recommended Stause, an actress on All My Children, as the leading lady.
"We had this incredible lunch, I think it was at the Beverly Hills Hotel, and she was awesome." Mills told Viall. "And I was convinced. I'm like, 'This is the Bachelorette.'"
Following the podcast's release, Stause took to her Instagram Stories to share more details about her almost Bachelorette experience—and how her season would have had a different story arc.
She explained that at the time, she was an actress on All My Children, as well as a model for a makeup company called Infusion. "[The network was] going to do a "win a date with our model" storyline and then they were going to cross-promote ABC daytime and primetime," she explained.
However, things didn't go as planned. After the season 11 finale of The Bachelor, fans were rooting for DeAnna Pappas, who had gotten eliminated in the final round, to be cast as ABC’s next Bachelorette. "I remember Ellen DeGeneres actually calling the president of ABC at the time saying, 'This woman needs to be the Bachelorette,'" Mills said. "This was before we even said we were going to do a Bachelorette. And, at that point, it's like, 'Well how do we not do that?'"
As it turned out, Pappas did end up getting the gig for season four in 2008. However, if you ask us, Stause is doing pretty well for herself. Although, now that she’s single and "ready to mingle," it does make one wonder if ABC would ever reconsider her for the show.
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