Clayton Echard's season of 'The Bachelor' will premiere Jan. 3 on ABC.
Clayton Echard's journey for love is nearly here, and he's not letting any critics keep him from enjoying the ride.
During Tuesday's finale of Michelle Young's season of The Bachelorette, during the After the Final Rose special, Clayton joined host Kaitlyn Bristowe to tease his upcoming season. However, she decided that they needed to "address the elephant in the room."
"There's been a lot of mixed reactions to you being announced as the new Bachelor," Kaitlyn said. "And I thought there's nothing like facing your haters head on."
So, she "pulled a few of the more interesting comments" about Clayton and decided to "take a page out of Jimmy Kimmel's book" by having Clayton read the mean tweets. And the tweets she chose to highlight didn't hold back.
"They found 30 women desperate enough to date this guy? Where?!" one tweet asked, to which Clayton, laughing, responded, "I've got a great personality though!"
The next tweet read, "Roses are red, violets are blue, Clayton is the Bachelor and I just puked in my mouth." Another joked about Clayton needing to make sure he "uses protection in the fantasy suites. Otherwise, 9 months later there are gonna be a lot of baby Shreks running around."
"Listen, I read everything and see everything, so that was pretty PG compared to some of the things I've read," Clayton said of the tweets. And despite the negativity, he's still super excited to look for love.
Fans also got another look at the orthopedic sales rep's upcoming season of The Bachelor with an extended teaser.
Since Clayton was formally announced as the franchise's next leading man, previews for his season have teased lots of drama to come.
In one preview, Clayton's women spar back-and-forth, throwing around insults like "fake" and "two-faced," before one woman tells another to "keep my name out of your f**king mouth."
Lots of sobbing and hugs from Clayton ensues, leading the Bachelor to fume, "She f**ked it up for everybody. I’m done. It’s over. I’m just so broken."
Then, in another sneak peek, fans see Clayton ask newly minted Bachelor host Jesse Palmer, "Has anyone ever taken a rose back before?"
That wasn't even the most dramatic preview, though. Rather, in that one, Clayton admits to falling in love with each of his final three women. It all seems to come to a head at a rose ceremony, when Clayton confesses to two women, "I was intimate with both of you."
During an interview on GMA earlier this month, Clayton confirmed that he fell in love during his season of the show.
"I did find love. I was a little skeptical going into the whole journey, but I'm so pleasantly surprised that things worked out much different than I thought," he said. "... I was looking for somebody that was funny, intelligent, driven, put forth effort, and so I figured, 'OK, that's a good list and hopefully I'll find that.'"
"Well, what I found was very quickly the women blew my expectations out of the water," he continued. "They brought all of that and so much more, so the expectations continued to rise, and I realized that, ultimately, I was going to find everything that I wanted and so much more."
The Bachelor franchise will return on Jan. 3 with the premiere of Clayton's season of The Bachelor. ET will keep you up to date all season long, with all of our Bachelor coverage.
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