ET spoke with the scandalized 'Bachelor in Paradise' star and other cast members ahead of his big interview special.
Tuesday night on ABC, DeMario Jackson will join Bachelor in Paradise host Chris Harrison for a special sit-down to discuss the show's much-talked-about summer scandal.
Jackson has already given multiple interviews, including to ET, about the June production shutdown, which resulted in him being sent home from the show. So, one might wonder: what's left to say?
"[It's] emotional," Jackson told ET. "I was a wreck. ... [Harrison] is great at what he does, and him and I, we've had our differences, but this was amazing. Halfway through he's like, 'You're killing this,' because it was just raw, uncut emotions."
That's a different side of Jackson than the one Harrison encountered at The Bachelorette: Men Tell All taping just a few weeks prior. That night, Jackson was never tearful but was very vocal, with Harrison saying he "didn't know" how the sit-down would go after the California native's Men Tell All behavior. "Just bad choices tonight," the longtime host told ET at the time. "He cussed a lot ... I didn't see him going in that direction. I was very surprised."
What viewers won't see Tuesday night is an interaction between Jackson and his former co-star, Corinne Olympios. Her sit-down with Harrison airs one week later, on Tuesday, Aug. 29. The two taped their interviews on the same day, but separately. Jackson told ET he didn't see Olympios at all that day, and hasn't spoken to her since both were sent home from Mexico for the shutdown. Still, he isn't angry with her over what happened this summer.
Some fellow BiP cast members were present as an audience of sorts for both conversations. Derek Peth told ET that he understands why producers didn't have Harrison interview Jackson and Olympios together.
"Having them separated just allows each of them to be comfortable and say whatever they feel they need to," he said. "They were pretty good, long conversations. An hour, hour-and-a-half long. ... Everybody kind of got to say their piece."
But Peth says the other cast members were there only to serve as an audience; that they didn't ask Jackson and Olympios questions of their own.
The cast did, however, speak its piece during the show's season four premiere. Harrison gathered the group when they returned to Paradise for a discussion on how they felt about the shutdown, as well as allow them to jointly define "consent."
"I guess Chris wanted to know what we thought consent was," cast member Vinny Ventiera told ET last week. "It's just awkward to talk about that, even still. He brought the stool out! It was a little awkward, but it just needed to happen. ... I guess because ... if something like that happened again, they wanted to make sure that everybody was on the same page, and save face."
BiP's Daniel Maguire agreed. "It was obvious what they were trying to, you know, cover their a**," he told ET. "But also show that everything was OK."
Ventiera wasn't at Jackson and Olympios' interviews with Harrison, but wondered if the sit-downs will shed more light on the events of that day.
"I think [the premiere still left] unanswered questions about what happened," he said. "Even being there, I still don't know what happened."
Bachelor in Paradise airs Monday and Tuesday nights on ABC. Find out what else to look forward to this season, from steamy hookups to plenty of tears, in the video below!
