bachelor nation

Bachelorette Producer Pinpoints the Exact Moment Clare Crawley Had to Be Replaced

Photo: Craig Sjodin/ABC

Following three pandemic episodes of the Dale and Clare Smooch Show, the time has finally come for Tayshia Adams to emerge from a pool, Fast Times style, and make her grand Bachelorette debut. And to borrow a few words from Adams herself, she wants a damn husband. During a new interview on The Viall Files podcast, ABC executive Robert Mills recalled the precise moment when he and his team realized Crawley wasn’t making for good television anymore, which occurred at the end of Tuesday’s episode. “When she didn’t give out that rose and she just gave it to herself, that was it,” Mills explained, referring to Crawley’s second group date. “That was really it, when we started making the call.” Mills acknowledged that the contestants were starting to turn against Crawley and Moss’s strong connection by that point, but insisted that the couple didn’t have an against-the-rules advantage going into the season. “She swears on her dad’s grave,” he said, “that they didn’t speak before.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Mills revealed that The Bachelorette cast Crawley not solely because of her “older” (our gal is 39) age, but rather she has eschewed an influencer-centric life that franchise alums usually flock to. For instance, she currently works full-time as a hairdresser (and, given the Yelp reviews, a highly sought after hairdresser) in Sacramento and only rarely hawks mattresses. “I think that Clare was exactly what we thought she’d be, which is Clare — unpredictable,” he explained. “She sort of faded, and this is what really appealed to us when we met with her last February. She kind of faded out of the spotlight, she was just back in Sacramento, being a hairdresser and she really came into it like, ‘Look, if you guys want me, that’s totally great, I would be honored. I would love it. If not, I get it too.’” With Election Day as a programming conflict, ABC pushed Crawley’s departure episode to next Thursday. Start stockpiling the wine now. For both reasons.

Bachelorette Producer on the Moment Clare Had to Be Replaced