Bachelor Nation
Is ‘The Bachelorette’ Returning for Season 22? What We Know Amid 2025 Hiatus
News that The Bachelorette is being paused for 2025 has rocked Bachelor Nation. After Deadline reported that Season 22 of the dating show will likely not be airing this year, fans began wondering about the fate of the series.
ABC has not officially confirmed a Season 22 of The Bachelorette yet, although a new season of Bachelor in Paradise has been announced for 2025. BIP previously took a hiatus in 2024, so the programming shake-up is nothing new for the network. Scroll down for everything we know about the future of The Bachelorette and stay tuned for updates as more news is shared.
Is The Bachelorette canceled?
No, The Bachelorette has not been canceled. In the initial Deadline report, it was confirmed that the show “will likely come back to the Disney-owned network in the future” and that “insiders have not completely ruled out its return later this year.”
Meanwhile, host Jesse Palmer reiterated that the show is “not going away” while appearing on the Playing the Field podcast. “I know it’s definitely coming back,” he confirmed. “Without being able to get into too much of the creative decisions on it, I know that when it does, I just think it’s going to be absolutely tremendous.”
He added, “I can’t get too far in depth with a lot of the creative decisions that went into that [the pause]. I know it’s not unprecedented for The Bachelorette not to air in the summer.” Seasons 1-3 of the show aired in the winter, while Seasons 16 and 18 aired in the fall. However, the latter two seasons were special circumstances, as they were filmed amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Season 16 was delayed amid lockdown, while 2021 featured two seasons, with Season 17 taking the summer slot before Season 18 premiered in the fall.
The Bachelorette Season 22 premiere date
A premiere date for Season 22 has not been announced yet. Should things follow typical Bachelorette programming schedules, it would be expected that the series would come back during summer 2026 following the 2025 hiatus. However, the network has been shaking things up with its programming, so anything is possible.
For now, The Bachelor Season 29 is expected to conclude in March, with BIP hopefully airing in the second half of summer. The Golden Bachelor is expected to return for Season 2 this fall.
The Bachelorette Season 22 cast
A cast will not be announced until closer to the season airs. While the lead for The Bachelorette is generally one of the rejected women from the previous season of The Bachelor, former Bachelorette Rachel Recchia hinted that ABC was looking at someone not from Grant Ellis‘ cast before the production pause.
“I was shocked because I heard they picked the lead [already],” Recchia said on the Almost Famous podcast in February 2025. “I heard the lead was decided, and it made sense to me who they picked. Again, rumors.” She added that the rumor was told to her “like two months ago,” which would’ve been before Ellis’ season even started airing.
