While co-hosting ET on Wednesday, Harrison explained the precautions they're taking amid the worldwide spread of COVID-19.
As the world attempts to get a hold on the coronavirus, musical artists have canceled concerts, outdoor festivals like Coachella and Stagecoach have been rescheduled, TV projects like The Amazing Race have shut down production and stars like Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom have even gone so far to postpone their Japan wedding amid concerns over the epidemic.
It seems everybody is taking precautions to avoid any further spread of the flu-like COVID-19 virus, and ET has learned that Clare Crawley's upcoming season of The Bachelorette (which is supposed to start production this week) will be no exception. While guest co-hosting Entertainment Tonight on Wednesday, Chris Harrison explained that the cast will not be traveling internationally this season.
"We've had to already knock this down to North America. We're not going to be doing the elaborate all-around-the-world tour, because you just can't right now," Harrison told ET's Kevin Frazier and Lauren Zima. "So, we're going to stay obviously around the United States, and closer to home when we go on set. There are massive amounts of handwashing stations. We are having a part of a trailer where we will have a doctor. You can be checked out. So, there's a ton of precautions being taken."
"We had international travel set to begin very soon, in the next few weeks. Luckily, unlike Amazing Race or Survivor, which are already in production, we were weeks away from production," he continued. "So, it was a 180 for us. It was a quick turnaround, but luckily we had enough time to fix this. The good news is, once we're all on campus, it's a little bit of our own self-quarantine."
"Once you're there, you're really not leaving. We're taking other precautions about how we're going to fly this season, where we're going to," Harrison explained. "There's certain cities we're traveling to. We're staying away from the bigger cities, bigger metropolises where there is a bigger concentration of people."
"I'm honestly probably going to green screen everything and just read," he added. "I will take extra precautions as well. We joke about it, but in all seriousness, we're going to do the best we can to be as smart as we can, but still try to make this show."
In addition to precautions for The Bachelorette, Harrison told ET that The Bachelor Summer Games, which is supposed to have an international cast, could also be affected and possibly even called off.
"As far as Summer Games go, yes, that was on the docket. It was going to be counterprogramming to the actual Olympics, but first of all, I don't even know if the Olympics are going to happen this summer, much less our version of the Summer Games," he revealed. "Nothing official has been announced. But, a key component of that is getting foreigners in our country."
"All these people coming in, that's going to be much harder, and I'm not sure we're going to be able to do it," he continued. "So, nothing official, but it's probably highly unlikely at this point that we could pull this off."
For more on how the worldwide spread of coronavirus is affecting Hollywood, watch the video below.
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