The 'Bachelorette' alum also revealed if any of Luyendyk's contestants have caught his eye.
Peter Kraus is not this season's Bachelor, but that hasn't stopped fans from wishing he were.
ET's Lauren Zima sat down with the Bachelor who almost was in New York City on Tuesday, where he opened up about Arie Luyendyk Jr.'s hilarious but unfortunate nickname: "Not Peter."
"It was funny, but it was also unfair," Kraus said. "This guy has got a world against him from the very start."
"He's got to go against people saying, 'Not Peter,' he's got people saying that the show is maybe pushing the idea of engagement too much, and then he had his own trials of an ex-girlfriend in his life saying something, so he was really trying to get up a mountain to get the show started," Kraus shared. "He really just does seem like a nice guy who is looking for love, and this is his opportunity to do it."
"If you are asked to be the Bachelor and you are single and looking for love, why not?" he added. "So I feel kind of bad for him."
Kraus, who says he still has not spoken to Luyendyk since he was announced as Bachelor No. 22 in September, famously turned down the gig, much to fans' chagrin. In an interview with ET after the announcement, he explained that he just wasn't ready -- and four months later, he couldn't be happier with his decision.
"I don't think there's anything I would have done different. I'm actually very happy with how everything turned out at this point.... A lot of things have changed in the last few months. Life is very different. I can't really go out in Madison without being noticed," Kraus said. "Even in the streets of New York, a huge city that I'm pretty much foreign to, I still get noticed, so it's been very different but good for the most part."
"The Bachelor was never something that I saw fitting into my life. And I'm still not sure if it's something I could ever see fitting into my life. Right now I'm very happy. I'm enjoying the life that I'm following right now," he explained. "[Fans will] get over it. There will be another guy. Dean will be the Bachelor in the next couple of years, I'm sure, and they'll be just fine."
As for the women who were hoping to date him on The Bachelor this season, it seems a few ladies have caught Kraus' attention -- but he said he's planning to "stay away from the show as much as possible."
"I didn't really get to see too much of them, because [I only watched the] first two episodes, but both [Becca and Bekah] actually seem like great people," he said, noting that he was jealous of Luyendyk. "[And] Caroline... someone said, 'Hey, you should watch out for this girl. She seems really great.'"
"I think Arie seems like a very genuine, nice person. He's quiet, he's kind of reserved, in parts of the show at least, from what we see. But I think he's there for, as they say, 'the right reasons.' He's really trying to get to know these people. He knows at the end of this period of time or show, there's an engagement, hopefully, and he needs to make the right decision," Kraus added.
For now, Kraus is promoting his new app, Hive Social, which he's using to make friends outside of the Bachelor bubble.
"It was something that speaks true to me, being in smaller town, because it's harder to meet people, especially when I'm a busy guy... You're able to meet people through your interests, as opposed to saying swipe right or left on someone's picture. So it's a really nice way to meet people who have a common interest and make new friends," Kraus explained.
"Right now I'm trying to talk to as many fans and people as possible, so if they really want to get to know me in a very intimate way, get onto this app where you can actually talk to me face to face," he added.
See more on Kraus in the video below.
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