The Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous Podcast - Love is in the Clare

Episode Date: November 6, 2020

Ben and Ashley bring in the BIG DADDY, Chris Harrison, to break it all down and explain when EVERYTHING changed for Clare.Chris clarifies exactly when Tayshia was chosen as Clare’s replacement.And you won’t believe what really happened during his conversation with Clare when she decided to leave with Dale.Plus, Chris gets honest and raw like we’ve never seen before about what Clare is experiencing with her engagement.Make sure to get your seat at the table for our Almost Famous Friendsgiving! Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. My boyfriend's professor is way too friendly, and now I'm seriously suspicious. Wait a minute, Sam. Maybe her boyfriend's just looking for extra credit. Well, Dakota, luckily, it's back to school week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon. This person writes, my boyfriend's been hanging out with his young professor a lot. He doesn't think it's a problem, but I don't trust her. Now he's insisting we get to know each other, but I just want her gone.

Hold up. Isn't that against school policy? That seems inappropriate. Maybe find out how it ends by listening to the OK Storytime podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, my name is Enya Umanzor. And I'm Drew Phillips. And we run a podcast called Emergency Intercom. If you're a crime junkie and you love crimes, we're not the podcast for you. But if you have unmedicated ADHD... Oh, my God, perfect.

And want to hear people with mental illness, psychobabble. Yes, yes. Then Emergency Intercom is the podcast for you. Open your free IHeartRadio app. Search Emergency Intercom and listen now. Everyone thinks they'd never join a cult. But it happens all the time to people just like you. And people just like us.

I'm Lola Blanc and I'm Megan Elizabeth. We're the hosts of Trust Me, a podcast about cults, manipulation, and the psychology of belief. Each week we talk to fellow survivors, former believers, and experts to understand why people get pulled in and how they get out. Trust me. New episodes every Wednesday on Exactly Right. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.

Every case that is a cold case that has DNA. Right now in a backlog will be identified in our lifetime. On the new podcast, America's Crime Lab, every case has a story to tell. And the DNA holds the truth. He never thought he was going to get caught. And I just looked at my computer screen. I was just like, ah, gotcha. This technology is already solving so many.

cases. Listen to America's Crime Lab on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I just normally do straight stand-up, but this is a bit different. What do you get when a true crime producer walks into a comedy club? Answer, a new podcast called Wisecrack, where a comedian finds himself at the center of a chilling true crime story. Does anyone know what show they've come to see? It's a story. It's about the scariest night of my life. This is Wisecrack. Available now. Listen to Wisecrack on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is the Ben and Ashley I, almost famous podcast with IHeart Radio.

Ashley, when we started this season out, we were just talking about how we made it through quarantine, we hung in there, we did a great job at it. I will give us a compliment and say I think we did a great job getting through quarantine. We were so pumped for a season of The Bachelorette. And to our, in a lot of ways, surprise, we now have two seasons of The Bachelor at to break down. Yeah. So why is Bachelor Nation complaining about this? I'm a little bit mind-boggled by people giving Claire so much flack. It's like, you guys had an issue last season because Peter was not decisive enough.

And now Claire is just too decisive and you're annoyed that she ended her part of the season early? now you get two bachelorets what's there to complain about two amazing women as leads well in fact last night i tweeted hey be nice to claire um i can get that like people are upset with how she handle it i can actually understand what people are like why please clarify for me i i just understand that people might not love the way she handled things that they uh wanted her to me be my more for uh an ode to the time we're in bipartisan more open uh less initially not Dale because it felt like the first three weeks were Clarendale, Clarendale. We didn't get to know any of these guys.

I can get where people are like, hey, I don't enjoy watching Claire for this. I personally did, but I can understand that. Now, what I can't understand then is why people are being mean to Claire. Like, you can dislike how she handled it, but you cannot criticize the fact that she pursued love. She went out of her way to make this love happen as soon as possible. never fake and when I tweeted this last night I got a reaction from somebody saying no we wanted a full season we only got three episodes to my response is not a good argument you're going to get

a whole season like you're going to get a full season now you just get two bacheloretts both incredible women and we get to see tasha on our screens which we've been waiting for for years are people annoyed that they're not getting more claire because I would have liked to see Clarendale a little bit more. I can see complaining about that. But to complain that you're not getting a full season, I feel like it's silly because Tasha's season is going, Tisha's part of the season is going to feel like a full season. You guys are going to get like eight episodes with her. Yeah. We're actually going to know the guy's names because I don't know any of these dudes names right now. Okay. So that's great. We're going to talk to Chris Harrison later and break down the episode further. Talk a lot about

Clarendale's connection. But right now I want to talk about Tasia and the guys that you see, Tasia being compatible with because I think it's super interesting that we, the audience now know the guys better than the lead going into it. So who do you, who do you see a match with? I don't know. I have some interesting theories, Ashley. I really do. And I am excited for Tasia. I'm excited that we get to watch her. I think she's great. What are your interesting theories? Yeah, I'll definitely tell you here. But, you know, my thought on this whole thing is if you're upset with Claire like you should be you should be celebrating the fact that like now we have a new bachelorette and so like yours should be happy all the way around right now and especially

with tachatia being uh the lead she is an incredible person and i think chris harrison said it best in fact um you know obviously i get to talk to chris away from all this and he has nothing but incredible things to say about tasha um just as a human and we've been around her we love her she's been great to us. She traveled so much to iHeart Fest with us in Las Vegas. We just, yeah, she's just great. So here's my theory, Ashley. I think Ben Bennett is the rising star of this season. Yeah. Yeah. I really think this whole like whispering rumor that, you know, I think Nick File tweeted it first, so I have to give him credit. But like you hear it more and more like Bennett is going to rise from the ashes and be incredibly

likable. I honestly think Tasia and Bennett might run off in this thing together. Okay. So yeah, I think that because we've seen a bit of, we've been teased Bennett so far, that means that he'll be more of a character along the way. He has shown glimmers of being a real gentleman. He's really made all the right moves when it comes to his one-on-one time with Claire, even though she was distracted by Dale. And then I think, he's super self-aware like he leans into the harvard thing in such a hilarious way like you know he's not taking himself too seriously which is a quality of somebody that i love um and then he looks like clarkin you know like he really pulls off the superman thing and he really is just seems like

an immortal among them he uh here's here's another thought i have here's my other theory i think it's gonna be really hard for these guys to be unlikable because we've seen them go through so much up to this point that I feel like at least for me and I want to hear what you think I'm just rooting for them like all of them at this point to have a fair shot so my question is to you actually will we see a lot of drama during tasha's run or is this going to be just like a love story of her getting to know people no I think like all the drama really happened in the first four episodes between dale and claire and then yosuf I think yosop's going to be the only villain of the season I don't think there's going to be

a guy who rises to become the new villain I think they're all pretty empathetic characters I think other people to watch out for would be Demar Ben Ben is his name right

Yeah I think it's Ben Yeah I think I know it's it's funny that we're like questioning the guy's names because like I really don't know them and we're four weeks in Yeah and when we watch the screen they don't have the name on the bottom, which is sometimes frustrating. So, Damar, Ben, I really loved Riley.

You know, Riley was the one that danced with Claire as if they were at prom. And then I think that Chason will also make like top eight, at least. Well, let's pause here, kind of wrap all this into some type of linear movement. So now we have Tasha as the Bachelorette. Ashley and I have just told you who we think is going to rise and shine. Oh, Ivan. Love Ivan, too. Sweetie.

I think we just named all of the guys, in fact, for the most time. Now, here's the big storylines that I thought we were going to get more from at the end of the episode. We didn't. And I'm glad we didn't. But there's Blake and Jason who really seem like they're the two that, and for lack of a term, like wear their hearts on their sleeves. they really invested into this whole experience they really wanted to see this work with claire they stuck around uh we got hints of this story kind of coming to the surface wondering if they're going to show up or not what happens with blake and and jason from this point forward that's a great question

i feel like one of i think i feel like one of them is going to leave they're going to give tasha the night one shot um they're going to see if there's any sort of instantaneous connection but I don't think these two are going to wait around for a connection that grows. And I don't really blame them because looking at it from a viewer's point, because it's been a few years since I've been in it, I'm like, oh, come on, you guys sleep fine. Look at how beautiful Tasia is. And she's so wonderful and glowing.

Like, she's got such a bright personality. Like, why would you have an issue with this? But then I think, and I put myself back in the house. And if some, if I say crystals and I were just really hitting it off in the bachelor, during my season of The Bachelor, if he was just plucked away, I can't really imagine being able to reset that fast. What about you? Well, it really brings up our eternal question that has lived on this podcast for three years now is how soon is too soon to move on. That really, this really is going to highlight if they can move on within 24 hours.

to hopefully find love again. Now, I don't know if they're in love with Claire. I don't know to the extent of that relationship and what they invested into it. But they will have to ask themselves the question, hey, I wasn't chosen. Claire, in a sense, broke up with me. That's what it is.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what they need to focus on. They're like, we're not going to get back with Claire. There's no way to get back together with Claire. She's gone. So if she's gone, as might as well just start the fresh page as fast as possible. But maybe easier said than done.

It might be. It's going to be interesting to see that play out. This is different than the Caitlin Britt situation because now, you know, I think the show did a great job by bringing Tation. And I think this was an incredible performance on the fact of this, on behalf of the show, just to make this happen in the way that did. And as we talked about, Chris Harrison is going to talk a little bit more, a lot more about that and what that process actually looked like behind the scenes.

here in just a little bit but I still think there's something to come we saw in the previews Ashley that everything is about the change which is a very common Chris Harrison line I think the big change is there there's new guys coming in I think we're back to 20 to 24 guys starting this next episode that would only be fair for her I mean what are they down to right now in that house like 19 maybe not even 16 that would be so unfair for her to be like okay pick somebody from these 16 guys it's like walk into a bar on a regular Friday night you'll meet you can meet 16 guys I highly doubt one of those 16 guys is going to be your husband here is going to be the interesting part to this whole thing you kind of saw at the end of this episode and I really enjoyed this part where the guys are sitting around in the circle and Jason walks in and they cheer for him now at this point you have to imagine that these guys have been locked together in a house for days, kind of waiting to see what happens,

waiting for Claire to come back, waiting to see what the next steps are. So they have a bond, and you see it when Jason walks in and the guys are like, hey, welcome. Like, we're so happy you're here. The interesting part of this whole show is they're really happy that Jason's there.

That's great because they obviously like him. But they're rooting for a guy to show up, to compete, to find the woman of their dreams. like that whole idea is weird to me like that doesn't I would do this I'd probably do the same thing because they're friends now but if we watch it on television like it makes no sense for them to be happy to anybody else's day that's so funny well there's a huge difference between like a guy a friend coming back to the group after a group date or after a one-on-one when you're in those teens you know when you when there are 16 guys left now when somebody walks back in

when there's eight people left then you're like I wish you didn't come home I would would have liked to hang out with you off the show. So will they be happy that other guys show up? Or is this going to be the same kind of vibe? And is there going to be like two different groups now? Oh, fantastic question. I feel like they're not going to like it initially. I'll tell you that.

They may come to the conclusion that it's like the right thing to do and they'll be okay with it. But like at first when Harrison like announces a limo coming forward, if this does, this theory of yours does hold true. They're not going to like that. They're not going to like it at all. I mean, they're friends at this point. Like, they've spent a lot of time together. Well, that's one interesting thing that could happen. The other is, you know, obviously, as we talked about who, you know, we think Tasha will pursue, we have no clue. There might be a new guy that shows up that she likes even more than all these guys. I'm excited to get to know their names.

Ashley, close off here before we bring Chris on because I know we have a lot to talk to him about. And I have a feeling he's going to be pretty vulnerable and honest Because he's just hanging out right now Can we just say like how much he's shown shown is that a word? Yeah Shined? No, it's shined. Like what do you mean?

How much he shined in this episode. Oh, he was shown a bunch too. He was shown and he shined. He was so amazing like he this is one of these episodes where he like really conducted it You know, step by step. And he's just so down to earth. and I think people loved seeing this Chris Harrison that isn't buttoned up at a rose ceremony. He's just like the friend that's coming in jeans and a little scruff to come and talk heart to

heart. It's funny last night on Twitter. He was trending many times last night. See? It's because he was shoning. He was shining. But one of the reasons was because we saw Chris Harrison swear on TV, which is not shown often. and people loved it.

They ate it up. Oh, because he's, what did he say? I think he said this is BS. Like, or something similar. I can't. I don't know. It was blurb. But like he just said something,

but like they had to bleep Chris Harrison, which is just a magical moment in Bachelor history is when Chris Harrison gets bleeped. Oh, love it, guys. If you only knew the Chris Harrison off screen and how less buttoned up he is, you'd love him even more. He's a great dude. Well, yeah, We're going to bring him on here in just a second.

We're going to have a lot of fun with Chris. Super excited to talk to him. Now, final question for you, Ashley. I know our listeners are probably anxious about this as well. What are you most looking forward to as this season progresses with Tasha as our bachelorette? I hope to just see Tasha for, okay, to overcompensate for Claire's lack of connection with multiple men, I hope that we have, and maybe you guys sound like a huge threat. A horrible friend saying this.

But I hope that at the end of this, Tasia has a lot of connections that she needs to weed through, and it's a difficult decision because she has feelings for so many guys. And, like, maybe her top three is just, it's heart wrenching. Is that horrible? But of course, in the end of the day, I hope that what we get out of this season is two engagements. That would be incredible.

And, yeah, I'm with you. No, I don't think it's horrible. I think we, I think the best of seasons are when there's, at the end, a little bit of heart pull. And heart pull in different directions, a little drama. You get to really relate with the leads and see their hearts in the line. And I think knowing Tasha and knowing kind of what she hopes for, I have a feeling that could happen as well. Well, Ashley, before we bring Chris on, we do have something to announce to all of you out there. We have a Friendsgiving virtual event.

Please join Ashley and I. a few others that I'll mention here in just a second for an almost famous friends giving. It's time to celebrate with appearances from other Bachelor Nation stars, special guest appearances by Chris Souls, Crystal Nielsen, Wells Adams, Jared Haybon, Ben Flannick, and many more. We're going to share some recipes. We're going to find out which of our bachelor friends are experts in the kitchen and which ones are a disaster. I mean, Chris Souls and Wells, we're both on worst cooks in America or like, what does that show on the Food Network?

We're cooked in America, right? Yeah, I think it is. I mean, like, I don't think you have to actually be a horrible cook to be in there because I think Wells is actually very much a pro in the kitchen. He does a lot on his Instagram with cooking. But you guys join us. We're going to be, of course, talking about Claire, Tasia, all the guys. We're going to be eating, drinking, laughing, possibly crying. There'll be prizes.

So if you want a little bit more Bachelor Nation for your Thanksgiving, make sure to get tickets. Tickets are available. it's on location live.com on location live.com and it's our friendsgiving. I'm going to pull out the bourbon for this. I'm going to pour a glass of bourbon. I'm going to have a great time. We're just going to celebrate. I mean, this is what this is. Let's celebrate this. This isn't something to be buttoned up and put together. We want to celebrate with all of you. So yes, please join us for our friends giving. That's November 19th at 5 p.m. Pacific. One last time on location, live.com for tickets.

I'm going to bring the bailies out. I'm going through a Bailey's face. I feel like a dad. Oh, Ashley. I know. I do little bailey's of the rocks. It's like so seasonal and delicious. You're like my dad.

My dad never drinks. And when it gets cold outside, he loves himself some peppermint schnops on ice. It's so ridiculous. It's so sugary. So thick. It's like syrup. And you're drinking straight, Cream. Hey, Ashley, let's take a break. When we come back, we are going to have the one

and only, the legend, the leader of this franchise giving us all, oh my, I can't believe I'm going to say this, all the tea. Chris Harrison will be here in just a second. All the coffee. My boyfriend's professor is way too friendly and now I'm seriously suspicious. Oh, wait a minute, Sam. Maybe her boyfriend's just looking for extra. credit. Well, Dakota, it's back to school week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon. This person writes, my boyfriend has been hanging out with his young professor a lot. He doesn't think it's a problem, but I don't trust her. Now, he's insisting we get to know each other, but I just want her gone. Now, hold up. Isn't that against school policy? That

sounds totally inappropriate. Well, according to this person, this is her boyfriend's former professor and they're the same age. It's even more likely that they're cheating. He insists there's nothing between them. I mean, do you believe him? Well, he's certainly trying to get this person to believe him because he now wants them both to meet. So, do we find out if this person's boyfriend really cheated with his professor or not? To hear the explosive finale, listen to the OK Storytime podcast on the

IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What would you do if one bad decision forced you to choose between a maximum security prison or the most brutal boot camp designed to be hell on earth? Unfortunately for Mark Lombardo, this was the choice

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My name is Ed. Everyone say, hello, Ed? Hello, Ed. I'm from a very rural background myself. My dad is a farmer and my mom is a cousin, so like, it's not... What do you get when a true crime producer walks into a comedy club? I know It sounds like the start of a bad joke, but that really was my reality nine years ago.

I just normally do straight stand-up, but this is a bit different. On stage stood a comedian with a story that no one expected to hear. The 22nd of July 2015, a 23-year-old man had killed his family. And then he came to my house. So what do you get when a true crime producer walks into a comedy comedy. Club, a new podcast called Wisecrack, where stand-up comedy and murder takes center stage. Available now. Listen to Wisecrack on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hi, I'm Janica Lopez, and in the new season of the Overcover podcast, I'm taking you on an exciting journey of self-reflection. Am I ready to enter this new part of my life? Like, am I ready to be in a relationship? Am I ready to have kids and to really just devote myself and my time? I wanted to be successful on my own, not just because of who my mom is. Like, I felt like I needed to be better or work twice as hard as she did. Join me for conversations about healing and growth. Life is freaking hard. And growth doesn't happen in comfort.

It happens in motion, even when you're hurting. All from one of my favorite spaces, The Kitchen. Honestly, these are going to come out so freaking amazing. Be a part of my new chapter and listen to the new season of the Overcumper podcast as part of the MyCultura podcast network on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. The Super Secret Festi Club podcast season four is here. And we're locked in. That means more juicy chisement.

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Today we have a very special guest with us. Our new super secret bestie is The Deepa of the People. The Deep of the People. I'm just like Text Your Ex. My theory is that if you need to figure out that the stove is hot, go and touch it. Go and figure it out for yourself. That's us. That's us.

My name is Curley. And I'm Maya. In each episode, we'll talk about love. friendship, heartbreaks, men, and, of course, our favorite secrets. Listen to the Super Secret Bestie Club as a part of the Michael Tura podcast network available on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Hey, Chris, how you doing? Hi, Ash.

Hi, Chris. We're pretending right now that we didn't just talk for five minutes before. But now we're going to dive into the episode. It should be the show before the show, the pre-show. This was such a fantastic episode. I was falling asleep and I was like, you cannot fall asleep because I was watching it at the morning. I'm not lying and I'm not just completely full of crap here. When I say the last two episodes, episode three and this was episode four, are two of the best episodes we've ever produced and created in the history of this show.

And I don't mean that like a hyperbolic dramatic way. I just mean the circumstances with which it happened in the middle of a pandemic, the fact that it's airing at all is a miracle. But the fact that we also created this and was able to pull it off, there's not a team in the world that could have done this and made it look like it did in the business. And I'm so proud of my crew and my family for doing it. And when I watch it back, I have honestly such pride in these two episodes especially. I completely agree with both of these weeks since we get the screeners.

I was telling my friends and family, be like, wait to see this episode. It's a really good one. I honestly don't, I don't always even watch the show back because I know what happens. I was there and helped create it. And then sometimes I'll watch it on TV or I'll see a screener. I usually look at the first edit when it's really raw, just to make sure it's heading in the right direction. But I've watched, I watched episode three, three times.

I watched episode four twice. And that's pretty rare for me to go back. I just enjoyed it so much and the nuance and the things we were pulling off to see how it all came together. I'm really, really proud of it. Let's start off at the top of the episode. Last week, Rob Mills said that you needed, you decided when she gave herself the rose at the group date that collectively as a production team, you thought that something was probably going to need to be done.

This was like the turning point where you called Tasha. Can you confirm this? No. I hate to disagree with Rob, but he's completely wrong. I mean, I love Rob. He's my boy, but that's just not the case at all. That just wouldn't even remotely work. There was an issue earlier than that. You know, is Rob right in that maybe it came to a head? But that was even late till, I think it had already come to a head. I think that was just something we, you know, that was kind of maybe the straw that broke the, the, the, the Camel's back maybe, I don't know, but obviously the rock was already rolling downhill by that point. So no, that's not exactly accurate as much as I hate to disagree with Rob. Can you let us in on when you guys had Tasia come to start quarantining at what point in the narrative? You know, I would love to say I really don't remember. It was when I tell you it was such a blur and we, you guys know our schedule. You know we don't sleep. You know, that's a normal life.

And that's a normal season. This was anything but normal. So we were trying to facilitate a show. And at the same time, trying to figure out how do we keep this show going? What do we do? I mean, we've never been faced with anything like this on a, you know, producers side, production side. And so, you know, again, there was never that aha moment. There was never that light bulb like, oh, my gosh, we're, you know, this is taking a turn.

We have to make a change. It really was this gradual, I say gradual. what happened quickly, but a gradual thing where we, you know, there were murmurs of like, hey, this might be going in a very interesting direction. Hey, we may have to do something about this. Hey, you know what? What are we going to do? What are our options? And so there wasn't just a, hey, let's have a meeting and let's figure this out. It was these things happened over time, a million conversations, spending all night together, throwing everything against the wall. So there really wasn't this light bulb moment of, oh my God, Tasia. You know, she gave herself

arose, we need Tasia. It really was more of a gradual moment where we had to stop and say, okay, first of all, what can we do to help Claire? How can we help Claire make the decision to find the love of her life? And that was our, honestly, that was our biggest priority. Take care of Claire, take care of Dale, but also what do we do with these guys and preserve that? And to us, for us to hit the pause button like you saw in that fourth episode last night and do what we did is so unprecedented, so weird, and so hard. I can't begin to tell you how difficult that was to try and keep the guys at bay to say, hey, guys, just give us a second.

We're going to go shoot another television show for a bit. It was truly bizarre. I've never been through anything. I was on a scooter going back and forth across the property 50 times. Talk to the guys. Talk to Dale. Talk to Claire. I just sweating my ass off in the desert.

At one point, it was funny, I actually noticed when I sat down with Claire, I was out of breath because I had just run across because I heard she was kind of melting down again and I wanted to talk to her. And I'm like sweating and like profusely like hyperventilating. It was a wild, wild ride for all of us. But I think it was handled very well. And at the end of the day, it was all about Claire leading us in the direction, making the choice and us facilitating that. That's the only thing we cared about. the uh you i love that you just said that because i noticed when we were watching the episode that moment with claire you get a few of those is one that felt unexpected because you are out of

breath like you're sitting down and you can hear it like a few times i'm literally moving chairs into the event there's no set up for this right now chris i think one of the things that we always talk about and this is a good moment for that is people who who watch the show oftentimes believe that the producers have some sinister plan they're sitting in this room and they have this all calculated and they're you know they they're this is going to happen no matter what can you give us a little bit more of a background you just mentioned it to what's going on as the story's unfolding everybody's trying to keep up with it like what does this look like for the producers who are trying to keep up and still make a show well i heard to your point um i i hear some crazy outlandish

ideas and conspiracies and considering you know what we've been through as a country maybe these aren't the craziest but i had heard i saw somebody or somebody mentioned that this whole thing was planned from the beginning and and i thought that might be the dumbest sentence ever uttered by any human being think about what what would have had to have happened that's crazier than the grassy knoll and the fake moon landing i mean think of what would have had to have gone in place to make that happened. We would have had to guarantee that Claire was going to fall in love in a certain amount of time and pull this off. By the way, and do it in a pandemic. Good luck. But anyway, beyond that being the dumbest thing I've ever heard in my life, you know, you're right. We

have learned to embrace, especially over the last three or four years, to really embrace and let this show be raw and let this show lead us into wherever it's going. And I sat down a number of occasions and you saw a lot of it with claire where she was really open about you know last episode episode three where she says you know can we move this along i don't really want to spend time with these guys essentially and you know and clearly her head was not there anymore and clearly she was not even remotely giving anybody else a chance which is not bad again i'm not mad at claire no one is mad at claire at least on the show side the producers we embraced it and i sat down with her and said, Claire, my only issue is this isn't fair anymore.

Let's just figure out what's going on between you and Dale. Let's stop the show. I mean, if you understand, you guys do, but I hope the people listening understand what it takes to push pause on a television production and not know where it's going and just say, you know what, Claire, we're going to give you a shot with Dale and Dale only. It might be the worst decision in television history, but we're going to give this a shot because that's what you're telling us to do. And then they end up together, they end up spending.

the night together they tell each other they love each other and then they get engaged i mean that is the ultimate dream and so i you know i just want to clear it up that at no point it was i disappointed and claire at no point were any of us disappointed in fact it was the contrary and we said babe we love you we're here for you this is your show do what you want we're going to let you lead the way and claire said it herself she's like i'm unconventional i've taken control of this from the start and this is what i'm going to do and so i was uh i was happy to go on that ride as well as it was. Talking to producers, so pretty much everybody said that they had never seen this kind of instantaneous connection, this kind of frontrunner situation like they have

with Claire and Dale. If there was another couple in Bachelor history that you can say you felt was pretty certain from week one, who would have been? Ben and Olivia. It all comes back around. But, I mean, and I hate to use Ben and beat on him, but that's a good example of how things usually go is night one. And you guys both know this intimately. Night one, you're really just getting a gut instinct. Sometimes that gut does pay off, whether it's, you know, Ryan and Trista or Jojo and Jordan. But if you ask them now, look, they're not dumb. They're trying to get married or they are married.

They're going to say, oh, baby, it was always you. Baby, you're the one. You know, baby, you're the best I've ever had. You know, but the truth is somewhere in between, which is if you really allow yourself, like Ben, you're going to go off and you're going to explore everything. This is the one time where you truly don't have to just stop. You can continue figuring it out. Look at Sean Lowe. He's a great example of somebody.

If we had stopped the show, he wouldn't be with Catherine. You know, I think this is not a detriment or throwing shade at Claire, but I think often you are doing yourself a disqual. service by not exploring all of these. This is the one time you get to step out of your comfort zone. Date people you wouldn't date, meet people you wouldn't meet, and really push yourself to be uncomfortable. That doesn't mean you're going to fall in love with this particular person, but now you know what you are looking for. And so, you know, there are times when someone might find someone night one, but do they really, you know, it ebbs and flows. And oftentimes they think they know and they don't. And so usually it's a journey you really do need to go on to be certain

of your love and really reaffirmed that love at first sight feeling you know for claire it was ballgame you know and so i i will stand by that comment no matter what revisionist history people would like to reimagine in their head that's never happened nobody has ever looked at me dead in the eye and said my husband just walked in this is over and hyperventilating and sweating well we were all sweating it was 20 degrees but you know what i mean the uh chris this is this i agree with what you said the beginning it was this is some of the best television ever produced considering there was a pandemic considering the situations that you're in uh i think it's a great point you always are good to do this but to pause here uh and say like the team behind the scenes uh did a tremendous job

making this season happen i mean absolutely incredible and that should never be be forgotten. But it points me to my next question. You make your job look really easy. I think one of the biggest maybe things that are, I find most offensive when somebody comes to you is like Chris Harrison has the easiest job in the world. I don't think any of us would ever say that that have been on the show, but you make it look easy. How do you personally stay calm, collected, like engaged in the midst of what's going on behind the scenes with 200 people who are like, you know, going, scootering back and forth to try to keep a show. going what what do you have to do to get in that mindset and make this look like okay everything's

okay we're going to move forward it is a it's juggling a lot of balls at once and that is you know the producer's side of me but then at the end of the day it's it's it's what would I you know do with my kids and I think being a dad of two teenagers and and and eight with age comes this wisdom and experience too and I'm a little older than everybody now is to come in and have this grace and empathy and you know tell me what you want and with claire was difficult she was difficult not in a bad way but just i know her well and i know that there's some serious insecurities and you saw that last conversation when i went back in because she was crying because she was still doubting what was happened even after dale had really like exposed himself and explained how much

he loved her and was ready to take that next step she just couldn't believe this was going to happen. And so that was just me being a loving father and stepping in and saying, you know, forget the show, forget being a producer. You got to compartmentalize, just like a bachelor, a bachelorette does. So I do the same where I stop producing. And I'm like, okay, I'm just going to be here for you. We're just going to talk this through. And if it turns out to be on television, great. If it doesn't, I don't care. But as you know, a lot of stuff happens that never ends up on TV that I do. Sometimes we're not, there's not even cameras around where, you know, someone might be spinning out of control or just struggling and I just sit down and have a drink with them and we just shoot the shit and I have a very bizarre job because it's not just sitting in front of a television camera and hosting like I'm doing who wants to be a millionaire.

A lot of stuff happens behind the scenes where it may never be on TV but the effect will be on TV if that makes sense. Now I question all the times that we sat and had a cocktail together if I was actually spinning out of control and didn't realize it myself. But it also helps me, too. Like, I like to know what's going on. And so that's a weird thing. It's a weird job. You know, it's a strange career to have where I am, like, I'm talking to two people that I dearly love and are very good friends of mine.

And I'm really involved in care about your lives. Yet you were on my television show that I was also trying to produce. And that's a weird line to draw. And I have to be very careful. And I always err on the side of being human and caring about you guys. And sometimes I just want to know what's going on, and that helps me treat you. I just don't ever want to be that a-hole that threw somebody under the bus or mistreated you. And look, sometimes I'll push you.

Sometimes I'll be misleading in certain ways. If it's, you know, if I know I can get away with it, if it's good TV. But at the end of the day, you guys know, and I will tell everybody, I will not lie to you. I'm not going to screw you over. Like, unless you deserve it, unless you push me, I'll push back. You know that. But at the end of the day, I have your back and I'll be there for you. You always, yeah.

So then to follow up on all of that, you do. You treat this like you care about Claire. You're treating her like a daughter as a friend. When she tells you then, I love Dale and I want this to be done, you then obviously believe, like, your daughter and son come to you sometimes and say things that you're like, that's not good for you. Like, that's not right. Like, I need to correct you here. but at that moment you obviously believe that was the right thing to do if you allowed it to happen why were you so confident this was the right move well and i again it's i don't know if that's

necessarily the case like you know again you go back to being a dad it's you know my daughter taylor comes in and says dad i love i love Tommy you know we're going to get married and you know she's 16 years old um hopefully it's not that drastic um and you know Tommy's going to be walking with a lip for a while but um but no but you know i've learned if I go in and say, Taylor, you're forbidden from seeing him. You're never going to talk to him. You know, what's she going to do? I mean, Ashley loves romantic comedies as much as I do.

All you're going to do is make that person run to them immediately. And so, you know, my thing with Claire was not to tell her she's wrong because who's to say she is, by the way. That's something I learned a long time ago as well. Like, just because I think something doesn't make it so, it doesn't make it right. It doesn't make it, it's not so black and white. And so telling Claire from the beginning, you're wrong. There's no such thing as love at first sight. Well, that's naive and stupid and arrogant of me.

And so maybe I need to learn something here. And so it's more of, Claire, tell me from the moment this happened, which was night one, explain to me what you're seeing in Dale. And so it wasn't just this light bulb moment. There was several days and several, like, you know, a few weeks where we were having these deep conversations, sometimes on camera, sometimes off of like, what is it about Dale? what are you feeling what is it in your past that's making you do this you know so when we got to that moment i did feel secure in that okay you are making this decision and i'm going to support it and it doesn't mean i agree 100% that's not my job and it's not my job as a parent to always agree 100% but it is my job once you have made a decision to support you any way i can and and to still be there for you

and it doesn't mean she won't fall on her face it doesn't mean my kids won't fail but you have to be given enough leeway to make your own mistakes in life. And again, that's not saying this is a mistake, but you, that is important that you're not that dad or not that person that just says, Ben, you're wrong. You're an idiot. It's like, well, that's not given anybody not to make this political. I think we saw enough of that over the last several years of people just canceling you or telling you you're stupid, telling you whatever you're saying is wrong.

It's like, well, where do you go from that? Where's the grace? Where's the room to talk and debate and have a conversation? How am I ever going to evolve and learn if you just tell me I suck and I'm stupid? I've never understood that. And that is our political parties right now and not the parties. It's the people. You believe your side so much that if anybody disagrees with you, they're just idiots.

Well, where's the room to grow? And in this case, I had to give her room to grow and I needed to grow. So when you walked into the room and you said, okay, Claire, we've got to make a decision here. How did you think that conversation was going to go? I wasn't sure. Really, that's the weird part. I mean, you should never produce a show where you don't know the outcome. I mean, it's really, it's like TV 101.

You go to school. It's like when you're learning journalism, don't ever ask a question you don't know the answer to. And that's our entire show is we're asking a question we don't know the answer to. So it's a really dangerous way to produce TV. But I thought I knew what she would say, but I wasn't so sure that she was going to be so strong in her convictions that she was going to be willing to shut things down. And that's where that dinner came from. And even at that dinner, I wasn't so sure that we wouldn't just put Dale back in the house and kick back up again. And then who knows what happens.

Again, you know, there was no definitive set answer to. Tasha's our new Bachelorette. By this point, I will tell you, we had already called her and she was on property, but that didn't mean she was the Bachelorette yet. That just means she took a leap of faith. And if things kept going that direction in this direction, then she would be. But there was never that moment of Tasia, just because she's here, is going to be our Bachelorette.

Claire had to lead us down that road. And when we got to a point where the show ends, and I think everybody's been watching the show for 20 years, you know when the show ends, there's a proposal. that's it like that's ballgame we move on and so claire took us to that point and dale took us to that point in that then and really only then were we sure that tasha was going to be the bachelorette and anything before that if anybody tells you any different they're lying it's just wrong but tasha was there clearly she needed to come because the protocol for getting tested medically to be safe to figure out

what we would do with clothes because it's not as easy as just going shopping because we can't shop for you. So we had to figure out a lot of things. So she was there. But she knew as well as all of us that it wasn't a set deal until this couple was, you know, well, not even until they were engaged. It was just until Claire made a definitive decision. So what's bananas to me is that over the past two weeks or so,

there's been a lot of rumors that Claire didn't feel like she was in charge, that she felt like, you know, she had to go along with production's decisions. but watching this episode, it makes it seem like she was given the decision-making power the entire way through and that she made the decision that she loves so much. So how do you address those rumors? Why are they even floating around? I don't know. I mean, I haven't heard Claire say anything.

You know, and until I hear Claire say something along those lines, then, you know, all I can say is, and I have texted with Claire back and forth, and I think she understands this, too. it was all in her hands. I mean, I can't tell you how many times I sat down with her, and you saw a lot of it and said, you tell me, where does this go from here? What do you want to do? I want time with Dale.

Okay. I mean, in unprecedented fashion, we stopped the show and gave her a bizarre, kind of overnight fantasy suite in the middle of the show. I mean, that's just, it's unprecedented. So not only did she have control, but we also moved mountains to make things happen that shouldn't be happening right now.

And so, yeah, I mean, she had total control. You know, yes, we push things along because that's how that's also how the show goes of, okay, well, this is the next step. They cross that hurdle. Okay, well, now this is the next step. Where does this go from here? And that's engagement. And then once there was an engagement, then there's no forcing.

It's just that's where the show, I mean, I don't know what else we would have done and just, what, show them eating dinner every night together, watching Netflix. That's not a television show. But even with that said, you saw all in the tease, we still bring. them back and we still have conversations we're still going to keep up with them um you know as things go along but there is no more show she's not dating anybody anymore and so i'm not sure what else anybody would want us to do things took its natural order and progress and then it was time to move on and start another season of the bachelorette now i i have a couple more follow-up questions to

that um but before we transfer uh transfer just for a bit into manly bands talking about proposals, you had mentioned that this a few weeks ago, and this is something that Ashley and I have been confused by since then, is that this is 100% clear season. You made that comment. Why that comment? Because it still doesn't fit with where we know we're going with the show now. Well, because it was, well, first of all, we weren't talking about who was next, you know, what was happening. So we weren't at a giveaway. That's first and foremost. And that was also out of respect for Claire. You know, we had a lot of meetings behind the scenes, ABC, and producers and the promos department.

Like, when do we announce, Tasia? What do we do with that? And again, the decision time and time again was protect Claire, protect this season for her, let her promos run. I want her to feel like she has as much of this experience as possible. And when I say it was 100% Claire, I mean, until it wasn't, it really was 100% for Claire. Yeah, we started making arrangements just in case something went absolutely bonkers, which it did. But it was still about Claire facilitating her relationship, making sure she was happy, making sure she got engaged, pushing pause, creating this bizarre moment in relationship with Dale. And then it can become about Tasha and moving on.

But up until that moment, I would beg to differ that it wasn't 100% about Claire. I mean, maybe you could argue it was 98% because, yeah, we start. started looking towards the future of what do we do with this television show because we also have to deliver 10 or 13 episodes to ABC and we have four. So we need a little bit more TV. We have eight, eight times two. So we have 16 hours. We still need to deliver to ABC or else I'm getting fired. And so, yeah, we had to look down the road a little bit. But I fully stand behind the fact that I poured my heart and soul into Claire right up until the time I knew it was okay not to. That makes sense. No, that does. That clarifies it.

Clarifies it. Yeah, I don't know. I don't. I can't say it. You can't get away from it. I can't get away from it. Let's take a break here from the show. I know Ashley has a few more questions to ask about this episode and where we're going, but we did see a proposal. I am engaged as well. And with those two things combined, I have chosen to get a manly band for my wedding ring, which I'm super pumped about. So cool. I've gone through a couple options. In fact, it's interesting.

I was going to get one tattooed on my hand. I still might just for golf and for, you know, whatever you do. And I, and Jess and I were trying to figure out what we're going to do about having a wedding ring. Well, I see Chris come out with this ring set and this partnership. He reaches out kindly enough, says, hey, you know, are you interested? I'm going to, I'm choosing to do it because I love them. Chris, before we jump back into the show, tell us what mainly bands is, why you chose to do it. with mainly bands, where this is going?

It's really cool. I love stories like this. Again, it's a little bit like The Bachelor. It's just a great love story that happened in this weird meeting where the folks are mainly bands. It's this true kind of great American story of this husband and wife that were getting married. He's a big dude. No rings fit him. There was no variety because there really isn't variety for men.

And they decided to create a company. And this husband and wife created a ring company called Manley Bands. And now it's this massive success. And they came to me and said, hey, will you help us with some promo videos? You're kind of the master of love and matchmaking. We'd love to kind of promote our brand. And like any company, before I do anything, I get to know them. I want to know what they're all about and what they represent.

And I fell in love with them. And I said, hey, can we do something more substantial than some silly videos? And they said, what do you have in mind? And I said, I don't know. We started talking. And now this is what's happened is this collaboration where I have my own wedding ring collection. And we dove in, came up with this amazing variety of materials and rings and looks and feels. And, you know, you've seen them, Ben.

And the main thing for me is, and I've been married before, and I think the wrong ring was the main cause of my deport. But in all seriousness, there's really no variety. And so what I love is you look through this collection and you find your personality. You find a ring that speaks to you. cool um you know actually you and you and jared you know go through this and it's like okay there's silver there's gold there's really not a whole lot there and so i love the fact that you can find something that has wine barrel in it or something that has diamonds or something that has meteorite or dinosaur bones something a little country yeah it's pretty cool dinosaur bones i've i it's

i have to hear about this dinosaur bones because i saw on the website are they like where do where do you source dinners yeah where do you source dinosaurs This is the weird part. I have to sneak in to the Museum of History at night. Just chisle away that I sneak. Night at the museum. Yeah, you know, it's crazy. So there are, and this is the things you learn,

there are bones that people have unearthed that are just too small to display. They're too small to fit on anything in a museum. I mean, tiny, tiny bones that are never going to be used. And so they sell or they donate these bones. And they're too small to do anything with, but as far as a museum, but plenty to use in bits of rings and other materials.

And so we take these bones and we repurpose them. You know, what's cool is we have meteorite and we have dinosaur bones. So the thing that dinosaurs, it's all full circle. It's this weird dark. But yeah, so there's some really cool different materials and looks. And, you know, I wouldn't be opposed to, you know, having several rings. And, you know, like, you know, I don't know. Look, Ash, I would never say wear the same dress and the same purse every single day of your life. You know,

sometimes you want to dress up. Sometimes, you know, like you look like Ben does now and you're casual. And, you know, you just want to be bopping around. And the cool thing is to Ben, first of all, we send you a ring sizing thing. So you, you know, exactly what size to tell us. But we also send you this silicone ring that you get to keep. And so you could take your ring off like I had to when you play golf because it hurts. And it's this cool silicone band that you can put on so you don't have to permanently tattoo anything to you. But it doesn't hurt when you're playing sports, working out, any of that stuff. So it's, it's kind of a cool thing you can slip on. This is a great, I mean, this is such a good idea. Because you're

right. I mean, Ashley, you're married. I'm on my way to there. When Jared was picking out a ring, there isn't a plethora of choices up until something like this. That's so true. No, I mean, Ashley, how sentimental is Jared's ring? Can we, can we get him to switch? Can we get him a ring? He'd be down to get, get one that he could, like, play sports lift weights in and stuff like that. What if it was like a number 12 Tom Brady ring?

Yeah. I mean, can you get him a Super Bowl ring? He'll wear on his left finger. That would, he'd love that. Yeah, be engraved like TB 12 inside. Yeah, absolutely. 100%. It's really cool.

It's something I got really excited about. I'm really proud of it. People that have found it already. It's been a huge, huge success that people are falling in love with. And the quality of these rings are awesome. And by the way, this Friday is Black Friday. And so massive sales on, if you go to the site, so go to mainly bands.com. If you're ever going to do it, do it this week because there's massive deals now.

This week's Black Friday? What do you mean? I'm so confused. We're starting. We're starting a Black Friday sale. Okay. Yeah. It's Manley Bands Black Friday sale.

Okay. So before we go back in, I know Ashley's. right now she's itching like literally itching to ask you more questions about this episode um where can people find mainly bands uh and uh and then we can move on but the coolest thing is uh you don't ever have to leave your house which is kind of important these days there's no brick and mortar you're not going to a store you go online you pick the ring you want we send you the ring size or you get this cool thing and you size exactly what you want size of your ring um and then you tell us and then we ship it all to you so you never leave your house

everything fits perfectly um money back you know you know you get your life lifetime guarantee on the ring so anything goes wrong or it doesn't fit we'll fix it um and you're going to absolutely love it so it's i mean it couldn't be easier um to you know and look guys we're not complicated but we're also not smart so we dumb this down we make it as easy as possible thank you no matter what you're there's a ring for you as far as none of them are crazy crazy prices and so it's very affordable you can find a ring and if for some reason there's nothing in my collection just go to manly bands too because you're on that website and there's a thousand other rings to choose from sweet man hey manly bands.com is that where we go yep go to manlybans

dot com and look for the chris harrison collection look for my pretty face awesome thank you we talk about your pretty face for a second why are you getting so much better looking with age like you've always been a handsome man but it's like you're taking handsome pills or something because like you get hotter every season first of all thank you uh I'm glad you're saying that instead of Ben, but that's, you know, that's all Gina Modica. She's, she's my secret weapon. Gina's been with me for, God, over 20 years now. She's my longest.

She's my longest relationship. Yeah, Gina is my makeup artist. And I am so thankful that she started, she's like, you know, the big sister that I probably never needed. And she just, you know, has beaten me for the last 20 years of wearing sunscreen, taking care of myself, all the things that, you know, moisturizing. and she's introduced me to these great products and things. And so luckily, obviously good DNA, good genetics. Thank God for my mom and dad. But she's taken care of me over the last 20 years.

And so, you know, what I do laugh about is I never shoot in the same studio. So I guess my hair looks different from time to time. It'll be darker or lighter or whatever. People like, oh, nice spray job, dude. Ease up on the paint or whatever. I'm like, guys, like, you guys have been near me enough to know. There's plenty of gray up here. Trust me.

Yeah. Well, it's, I think I like you when you're scruffy and you have like you're dressed down. So does Lauren. So you had those conversations a lot during this episode. So I was, I was like, I'm going to follow with my mom. I was like, why is Chris Harrison keep getting better looking? And then Jared in the background goes, it's true. He's getting better looking. So it's not just me. Jared. By the way, when you're in the desert and it's 180 degrees, that's really good for the skin. I mean, you are really. Glowy. God. okay but let's go back to proposals now so she gets a gorgeous ring it was a beautiful proposal and i know how you're going to answer this question but like during their dinner conversation and during like their little sleepover i was like i feel it i totally feel it i love this um this is

so crazy that this is happening so quickly but then like when you're like okay it's starting to repose now i was like no this is wild this is ridiculous that's where it crossed over to like this is ridiculous to me, but in bachelor fashion, that's the way we have to end it, right? That's where we go. Well, you don't have to. You know, again, you have to understand that was just the point where we were. What you decide to do with it is up to you. And that's always the fascinating thing with this show is you push people out of their comfort zone. You push them to these decisions and these crossroads. And, you know, given, you know, your own leisure whatever you could just go on forever but when it gets down to claire and dale

uh as a show we said okay now what and so we took the next night that night and the next day and we were talking about it if like well i mean we're not just going to watch claire and dale go to the movies every night we are at the point where after after this moment in the show there is a decision to be made what do you guys want to do and it was very clear the more we talked to them they were head for heels and love. And so we proposed the idea of them proposing. And Dale said, sure, I'm in. I love this woman. Let's do this. So that's where we ended up. And it was. It was a bizarre, it was a bizarre level to get to because it was so extreme. But that's where they were. That's how extreme it was. And so when you saw that proposal, it all felt, to me, it felt lovely.

And it felt wild. And it felt, again, unprecedented. It was, it was, it was, it was, very interesting to watch. I agree. Once it happened, I was like, okay, yeah, that's right. All right. I'm so happy for them. This is great. But it was like the lead up to like, wait, oh my gosh, these people have known each other for 10 days. Can we confirm or deny? Has it, was it about 10 days? I think it was longer than that, but it wasn't much more than that. I, you know, probably to 12 to 14 or something like that at that point. You know, because there were days off, too. We took, you know, we weren't going to take days off, but there were days where we had to stop and say, okay, what are we doing?

Where do we go from here? Because, again, it's just, it's hard to explain how we are trapped in a bubble. And it's not like we could just, you know, maneuver and move things in and change dates around. We were pretty confined trying to figure this out. So there was a lot of work and meetings and stuff that had to happen. And then people are being consulted outside, whether it's, you know, Rob Mills, Mike Fleiss and Martin Hill, all these people that weren't in the bubble. We were having to, you know, try and consult,

and they're trying to comprehend what is going on, you know, inside this bubble. Because for them to get in takes, you know, what, five, six days. And so it wasn't just where you could just swing by and see what was happening. So there was a lot of moving parts to get to that moment that we made look pretty smooth. And there was no hesitation on Dale's part. None. I mean, not to me anyway. You know, I don't know if you said something to anybody else.

but every time I talked to him, he looked me straight in the eye and said, I love this girl. I'm all in. And I said, okay, great. Well, let me call Neil Lane. And we had to, you know, I'm calling Neil Lane who I facetimed him. I didn't know if they would even use that, but they did. And I'm like, Neil, I need a ring.

And this is, again, talk about a fortuitous balance. If we weren't where we were, which was a two-hour drive from L.A., we actually had to have a ring driven out to the property and dropped off at production. because we didn't have a ring. Why would we? It was two, three weeks into production. Okay, so watching this engagement, I may get flak for saying this, but oh, well, it made me kind of annoyed that Claire accepted Benoit's engagement because I just feel like that was so

premature. And I feel like personally, in my opinion, she accepted his proposal on that stage because she didn't want to embarrass him. And I don't know. that's, I think that's not completely wrong, maybe, but not completely fair in that I would say knowing clear like I do now, I think she wanted something so bad. Yeah. You know how you want something so bad that you're able to kind of look past a lot of hurdles and red flags? And, and you just, you want it so bad that you just kind of manifest it. Like she had hope for it. She was

like, this may not feel 100% right now. But like, I'm going to, go for it and give it a go. Yeah, and I don't know if you've ever been in a relationship. I think we all have at some point if you get mature enough in your life where you have entered into a relationship. Maybe it's not a proposal, but you've entered into a relationship where you're like, this isn't 100%. But like, I think maybe I could make it work.

I could maybe change him or I can look past this. And then later, and then later you look back down the road, you're like, what the hell was I thinking? Not that Benoit was a bad guy or it was a mistake. Clearly, they were two different people heading two different directions and it wasn't going to work. And it's easy to say in hindsight, but I think she just really wanted love and wanted to be love so bad that she just, I think she was willing to look past a lot of those red flags and make it work and make it happen. She wants that fairy tale. That's not my place to say that like, you know, whatever.

It's like if Claire, Claire makes her decisions and I'm not saying that that takes away from this moment, but I think that this. moment felt so much more full of love and real and to me too why you know I will defend Claire and I will defend this decision and everything we did because at the end of the day look is it going to work out with Claire and Dale who knows who knows is it going to work out with Ashley and Jared who knows well you know you know it's easy to say as someone who's sitting here with their hand up of a relationship that didn't work out it's easy to say something's not going to work because guess what odds are it's not yeah love is hard and been been in the same boat it's hard it's difficult and it often doesn't but when it does work and when you see something

beautiful why not support it and just love it and give it a chance because you know nine times out of ten it may fail but um it felt great i i love them in that moment and i felt like there was love there so i'm there to support it you know it's so easy to sit back and go this is crazy you got in your minds you guys did this she did this it's like who cares like they're there let's let's just send them some love right now before we wrap this up and I know we we do I have to just mention that I think that this episode really solidifies the fact that these two did not talk before the airing of the show I mean before they met on the show can we talk about this I am only as good as my eyes and heart tells me to be.

And I only can say things with the information I have at the moment. And I can't tell you how many conversations I've had with Claire and a few with Dale, but mostly with Claire, because I'm just more intimate with her on the show. And to my eyes, I don't think they did. I truly don't think they talked. There were several moments. And I went back and watched and remembered that first night because I had immediate suspicions. But the way they introduced each other, the conversations they had, and you guys didn't see it all, you only saw parts of obviously what we air.

But nothing felt familiar to me. Nothing felt rehearsed. It didn't feel like they were faking it like, hey, remember, you don't know me. There was just these basic questions that they asked that I don't think they, you know, this isn't Merrill Streep and Tom Cruise or Daniel Day Lewis. They're not that brilliant. they would have tripped up and there were just things that happened that lead me to believe she did look him up on social media she she totally has owned that she looked a lot of those guys she had great expectations she built him up in her head she went in with almost kind of like

a celebrity crush on him but i think that that's it yeah i think i think she wanted to love him i think she wanted him to smell good and be tall dark and handsome and and he was he was all those things and as soon as she saw that smile and no joke smelled him um sniffing his pants was a whole different level but um that was weird and diana i have a problem with diana for uh being an you know an enabler in that but uh but uh no i i i just want to put that to rest and again i'm not saying i'm 100% accurate this is just my opinion that's it chris final question for you uh thanks for spending some time with us thanks for hanging out with us it's been an awesome awesome experience and it's always good to catch up with you especially about the show and then

about life. Where do we go from here? We have a bunch of guys still sitting there. What are your hopes for them? You know obviously how this plays out, but if you can go backtrack to this night on that day when you confront the boys again and you bring Tasha in, what were you thinking, what were you hoping for? This is actually the first time I actually excitedly get to speak about Tasia, who as you guys know was a very dear friend of mine. I've gotten to know her for a couple years now and i absolutely adore her i think she is a fantastic woman obviously stunningly beautiful but she is so kind and giving and just sweet and down to earth um it just has such balance about her and this this this great energy she's this type of person you just want to be around so i'm

really excited i it's not that claire shouldn't have been the bacheloret and stop saying that you know it's this doesn't this isn't either or proposition tase is just someone who i wanted to be the Bachelorette. I fought for her. I wanted her to be on our list and she was. And as soon as we had the chance to have another one, I was so excited when we all decided she was it. And it's not that we didn't talk about other people, but I can promise you to the list. There was Tasia and then there was the rest. We really wanted it to be Tatia. And I'm glad that she came in. And I, because I knew that she, and also let me just say something else. When I say the guys, I feel like these guys were cheated in a certain way. It doesn't mean Claire

screwed them over. Claire just found love. And so I just, this is a great group of guys. And I don't know if we've ever had this great solid group before, which is strong, professional, mature, good dudes. And I didn't want to waste this group of guys. And so, you know, people like, oh, you're reusing them or repurposing them. I'm like, these guys haven't found love yet. Why not? These is an awesome, awesome group of guys. And so I was excited to have Tasha meet this group and bring them together. I thought there was going to be some perfect fits in here. So it was bizarre to all of a sudden have gone through the craziest moments in my career and then start over and have a limo pull up.

It was just like, what are we doing? It felt so bizarre to me to then reset and restart. I can't begin to tell you how odd it was. But I was excited. And I was so happy to see her. And it was kind of a weird conversation when she got out. It was, you could tell it was kind of a couple of friends talking. It was this kind of weird moment of like, what are we doing here?

This is really weird. And obviously, starting next week, you're going to see the rest of where it goes from here. And now it's all about Tasha and it's all about her journey, although we will check in and keep you up to date on what's going on with Claire and Dale. What I think is cool, or at least what my hope is, is that this season was very, like, fateful, whereas there were two women in the franchise who had their future husbands in that group and they were meant to both be there. I hope so. And, you know, I do want to say one thing before I go. And that is, I would ask everybody to just take it easy on Claire. She is getting beat up and torn up in social media. And I get it. Social media, especially Twitter, is an absolute just wastebasket. You know, it's the vocal minority, people that want to troll you and scream and yell, whatever. And so I get it. You can ignore 99.9% of what's on Twitter. But people are going out. after her. And it's not deserved. This woman has done nothing wrong. There's nothing. There's nothing that Claire has done that deserves anger in her to be vilified. If you don't agree how she did it, if you don't agree how she treated the guys, I get that. And the guys were frustrated. And I was

frustrated at times too. But at no point was I mad that this woman fell in love. Think about what you're mad at. Who are you really mad at? Why are you mad that this woman found a love? of her life and got engaged if that's what you're pissed at you need to really reassess your life um and so i just would ask everybody to have a little grace and little understanding and let's support claire let's support dale and let's see what happens and now let's also support tachia's our backs are at i just i've just seen a lot of anger and a lot of just things being spewed right now and it just kind of upsets me and and claire takes this stuff to heart i know that um especially our female leads tend to really lean into social media a lot more than the guys do um

And it just, it breaks my heart when I see Caitlin. When I say, well, Ash, you've had it too, you. And, you know, it just, it drives me crazy. And I know that they've opened up their lives to social media. They've opened up their lives and agreed to be on TV. But nobody signs up for that. If you want to be frustrated, if you want to voice your opinion, God bless you. You are welcome to it.

Just think about it. Think about drawing that line of where you're going. Chris, you're the man. Okay. Before we let you go, should we still tune in for Tation season? Yes or no. No, no. No, I would turn it off now. I do love people that have said, this is the worst season ever, man. You suck. You're the worst. And I'm like, well, record ratings tells me different. Yeah, we're doing right. We have had two of the highest rated

episodes, I think, since last week was 2017 this week, even higher. So something tells me you're going to be back. And the cool thing is, Tasia's journey is totally. different it really is same you know a lot of the same guys um obviously maybe you'll see some a lot of the same guys spoiler alert um and uh well you've already seen them sitting there um but maybe not all the same guys and so it's it's pretty interesting to see where this journey goes because again claire is not tasha tasha is not clare everybody's different they bring their own personality to this you're the main chris thanks for joining us thank you did you just do you just hear that thank you called him claire we'll do that we'll do that

What I'm going to say is thank you for clarifying. Yeah. Thank you, Claire. You guys, thank you, Claire. My boyfriend's professor is way too friendly, and now I'm seriously suspicious. Oh, wait a minute, Sam. Maybe her boyfriend's just looking for extra credit. Well, Dakota, it's back to school week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon.

This person writes, my boyfriend has been hanging out with his young professor a lot. He doesn't think it's a problem, but I don't trust her. now he's insisting we get to know each other, but I just want her gone. Now, hold up. Isn't that against school policy? That sounds totally inappropriate. Well, according to this person,

this is her boyfriend's former professor and they're the same age. It's even more likely that they're cheating. He insists there's nothing between them. I mean, do you believe him? Well, he's certainly trying to get this person to believe him because he now wants them both to meet. So, do we find out if this person's boyfriend

really cheated with his professor or not? To hear the explosive finale, listen to the OK Storytime podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What would you do if one bad decision forced you to choose between a maximum security prison or the most brutal boot camp designed to be hell on earth? Unfortunately from Mark Lombardo, this was the choice he faced. He said, you are a number, a New York state number, and we own you.

Shock incarceration, also known as boot camps, are short-term, highly regimented correctional programs that mimic, military basic training. These programs aimed to provide a shock of prison life, emphasizing strict discipline, physical training, hard labor, and rehabilitation programs. Mark had one chance to complete this program and had no idea of the hell awaiting him the next six months.

The first night was so overwhelming, and you don't know who's next to you. And we didn't know what to expect in the morning. Nobody tells you anything. Listen to shock incarceration on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. The Super Secret Bestie Club podcast season four is here. And we're locked in.

That means more juicy cheesement. Terrible love advice. Evil spells to cast on your ex. No, no, no, no, we're not doing that this season. Oh. Well, this season, we're leveling up. Each episode will feature a special bestie, and you're not going to want to miss it. Get in here!

Today we have a very special guest with us, our new Super Secret Bestie. is the diva of the people. The diva of the people. I'm just like text your ex. My theory is that if you need to figure out that the stove is hot, go and touch it. Go and figure it out for yourself. Okay.

That's us. That's us. My name is Curley. And I'm Maya. In each episode, we'll talk about love, friendship, heartbreaks, men, and of course, our favorite secrets. Listen to the Super Secret Bestie Club

as a part of the Michael Tura podcast network available on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Hi, I'm Janica Lopez, and in the new season of the Overcover podcast, I'm taking you on an exciting journey of self-reflection. Am I ready to enter this new part of my life? Like, am I ready to be in a relationship? Am I ready to have kids and to really just devote myself and my time? I wanted to be successful on my own, not just because of who my mom is. Like, I felt like I needed to be better or work twice as hard as she did. Join me for conversations about healing and growth.

Life is freaking hard. And growth doesn't happen in comfort. It happens in motion, even when you're hurting. All from one of my favorite spaces, The Kitchen. Honestly, these are going to come out so freaking amazing. Be a part of my new chapter and listen to the new season of the Overcomper podcast as part of the My Cultura podcast network on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. My name is Ed.

Everyone say, hello, Ed. I'm from a very rural background myself. My dad is a farmer, and my mom is a cousin. So, like, it's not, like... What do you get when a true crime producer walks into a comedy club? I know it sounds like the start of a bad joke, but that really was my reality nine years ago. I just normally do straight stand-up,

but this is a bit different. On stage stood a comedian with a story that no one expected to hear. Well, 22nd of July 2015, a 23-year-old man had killed his family. And then he came to my house. So what do you get when a true crime producer walks into a comedy club? A new podcast called Wisecrack, where stand-up comedy and murder takes center stage. Available now. Listen to Wisecrack on the IHeart Radio app,

couple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Chris is the best. I love him. You feel like he'd be tired about talking about the franchise, but when you ask him questions, he rolls. He loves it. Yeah, you do. Like, I always used to think that Chris probably, like, was like, I'm just sick of this thing. I don't want to talk about anymore. But then, given the right circumstances, like given him the environment to which, you know, you ask him not the typical questions, but different questions. And you hear it a lot more now than ever with different podcasts, not just ours. He really enjoys it.

And you know what Chris is getting more and more into as he gets more and more comfortable, which, you know, he's 20 years in. He really enjoys talking about the, just the amazing team behind the scenes. Like he loves talking about the production, the cameras, the people helping out. I think he's just super grateful that they've helped him have a job for this long. yeah it's such a great family i wish you guys could could know them on the other side i really wish that we can interview some producers but i know that's probably not allowed but they're great people um all right well you guys we have some hot topics uh first starting with claire wearing the

massive engagement ring the day that her final episode aired uh ben did you see this yesterday i did it's a big deal i felt like maybe it was sort of like a commercial for watching the episode with the election and everything like maybe people's minds weren't on the fact that there was going to be a bachelorette episode airing on a Thursday and then the ring was kind of like i'm going to put my ring on and remind everyone that the uh that possibly the engagement episode is tonight it's uh you know what's going on I think she's super happy and I think she's probably waited for this I imagine right now that Claire is just like I want to be done with the criticism, the hate, and move on with Dale and make this thing work. In fact, we saw them on Instagram Live last night, and I thought it was really cute. I thought it was a great way for them to kind of, you know, announce themselves to the world. I agree. And yeah, Claire just, she just, she looks great with that ring on.

It fits. I feel great about it. yeah um i'm just excited for them i can't wait to watch more of their relationship like i hate i hate that there's pressure for them to have to like show it off on social media but i have to say i'm very excited to see that and get to know their relationship more since we did have fewer episodes yeah that's right and uh as chris harrison had to drive down um to deliver this ring that's hilarious it's gorgeous next headline is it was announced this week that cassie randoff uh dropped the restraining order against Colton Underwood. Well, we also know now that Colton Underwood has

taken down all of his Instagram posts, like all of them. Ashley, what do we know? That's really all we know. He still's got two million followers, but zero posts. I know that sometimes celebrities will do this that they're about to launch something when they want a fresh start. I mean, it seems like Colton would want a fresh start. So he wiped his page clean of all pictures, not just ones of Cassie. When I saw this headline yesterday, I thought, oh, yeah, he deleted the pictures with Cassie, but no, just clean. No pictures from any time of his life.

Though there are no posts on the account, his page is not deactivated. It's just there's no post. Yeah. All right, next headline. Bachelor's Tierra is engaged to Tyler Brooks Brown seven years after controversial stint on Sean Lowe's season. Yeah, so if you guys remember back in June when we were doing coverage of Sean Lowe's goat episode, we tried to track down Tierra. Apparently, no one has been in touch with her from her season or in the bachelor community since Sean's season.

But here she is on Instagram announcing on Wednesday that she got engaged in Tulum, Mexico, the place of the first Bachelors, bachelor in paradise and his name is tyler brooks and um she was she was surrounded by red rose petals ironically at the time of the engagement and it was like in a tp like structure seems eerily bachelor-esque hey good for her though we celebrate that but that is the big headlines here it is engaged now the next one is something we talked to chris quite a bit about we took a long segment just talking about something cool that he's been up to not only is he a host of a show but he also uh has a collection of manly bands wedding rings they're pretty awesome so if you're out there you're thinking about getting engaged and your man uh doesn't know kind of what he's looking for

or hasn't found a ring that he enjoys i've been on manly band's website they're really awesome as chris said again if you want to hear more about that uh we talk to chris to a long extent about it during his segment well ben do we wrap up this episode with another story time with ben we a hundred flying through these okay ben um the next story is one of those ones that you've teased to be intimate i believe oh no the time i had to sit out of my senior year homecoming football game due to a severe case of jock itch and the local papers headlot in the local headline read Ben Higgins

sits out of game due to severe rash. Oh my God. Ben, this is the last story that I copied and pasted. Is it really? Yeah, that's sad. Well, I have one more that we'll share next week. But yeah, I think we're down in the final two.

This is a really good story, Ashley. And it might give us sense a little bit more to why when I tell you or I announce publicly like, hey, I've always been a little insecure um that like this really hints at okay so here's the deal we'll give a little background this is one of the most interesting stories and and the headline in the book doesn't really fully encompass the whole story itself um so i uh was the quarterback on my high school football

team i mean ow ow ow ow um and i was able to play as a freshman luckily a couple guys got hurt. So it wasn't because I was good. It was just because I was a life. You're a freshman and the quarterback of the varsity team. Who are you? And why have you ever felt insecure? You're like a hometown dream. Well, when three guys get hurt and you're pretty average, it pretty, it hurts you pretty bad. So I'm, so I'm playing football. I really want to play in college. Then my junior year, I blow out my knee completely. And it kind of like changed my path because I was just no longer as good or as fast or at all as athletic as I once was. And so I had to come to terms that, hey, I'm going to still play football my senior year, but I got to expect to not be as good as I ever

was hoping to be. And I had to mentally get to this point. Well, so I was always kind of walking this line of trying to prove to myself that I could still play. And I still want to put together a good season so that I would feel like, hey, all this work for all of these years have led up to something positive. And I carried that weight. I wanted to be the best for really my confidence for myself and for my you for the team well um it gets to be homecoming and our football team was pretty good uh we had a good run going uh we had won a lot of games and in a in a football this is going to get pretty uh graphic and so just if you if you get grossed out or if you don't want to look at me in this way just like turning this off now it's no big deal you're not going to

miss anything but um in a football locker room a lot of guys you know obviously sit naked and change and like put on their clothes whether you sit on these like concrete business inches that are kind of in front of your locker. Well, I had sat down one day, I guess, and I had gotten some type of, like, it's called a fistula, quite honestly. And a fistula is like a really bad bacteria that, like, eats into your body. And it eats, it eats, like it tunnels a hole in your body for whatever kind of it touches. So I had this fistula that is, and if anybody out there knows what a fissula is, like, they're gross and they're really bad. And, like, they hurt really, really bad.

And so I got it right where you sit down. So it wasn't jock. It wasn't like, no, it wasn't jockage. That's the thing. It wasn't jockage at all. But, like, people don't know what fissulas are. So I put jockage in the book. But so I got this fistula.

It takes me weeks of trying to get rid of it. Like, tons of doctors appointments. In fact, I had surgery, like, to cut it out. Oh, gosh. Yeah, they would take these, like, um sticks that like uh with like a silver nitrate on them and try to burn it out like so they stick it inside of the fistula and try to burn out the back it was the worst couple weeks and i'm still trying to play on top of all this well finally i can't take it anymore like it's gotten so bad

and it hurts so bad that i can't hardly walk and i and there's no way i'm going to be able to play a football game and so i have to get that surgery that i just mentioned and it's about a weak recovery. So when I get this surgery, I hadn't really told many people, obviously, at this point in time, like, hey, um, you know, I've got a fistula that I have the surgery. I told my coaches, but I wasn't like announcing it publicly by any means. Um, I wasn't really hardly telling my friends, but I had to wear a diaper because you're bleeding so much. And so like you have this Oh my goodness. Yeah, you have this adult size. Yeah, you want to talk about like a confidence kick. You are not only like somebody, you know, you're in your senior year. You're the quarter. You're the

quarterback you're hoping to have a good season but like now you're wearing a diaper to a football game and you're you know you're bleeding um which the bleeding part really's got me yeah it's rough i told you this is a graphic um well okay fast forward to the night of the game it's a homecoming game uh the crowd is packed and i have to tell my coaches three days before the game i can't play because of this surgery and they go i get it like this is pretty bad we've seen it like you can't play um and so out of the goodness of their heart they're like well we have to obviously like announce why you're not playing like yeah you you do and they take it upon themselves these are football coaches this isn't a good PR team like this these guys these guys like are

just trying their best to keep some high school kids running up and down a field and they tell they think the best option is to tell the local paper and the media uh that i'm sitting on the game because I have a rash. And so literally, the headline of the paper reads, Tigers win without Ben Higgins, who sat sits out the game because of a severe rash. A jockage. I mean, can you imagine the assumptions?

Can you imagine the jokes from people, your friends, family, like people who are like reading this headline going, what kind of rash do you have been like this is the best of all the stories how like what how severe is this rash and I have to defend myself

to something I'm already insecure about that no it's not a rash it's actually just like this like bacteria that's tunneled its way through my butt and it looks worse than ever now to close the story off I did recover I did come back and play football

I never I never walked the hall always in my high school the same again. And there's another reason for that. And I'll tell you that story next week. It's one that might top this. And it's one. Okay.

Okay. Do you know why I didn't put that on the list? I didn't put that on. I know the story you're about to tell. But I didn't put it on the list because I was worried that you weren't going to feel comfortable talking about it. Oh, come on. People.

The one thing I've learned over my life is that everybody has weird stuff going on. Everybody has awkward moments. And if the more I talk. about it it's the less insecure i feel and it's the more other people maybe out there can be like oh yeah here's a funny story i have i mean this is our podcast so let's just talk as much we can hey well thanks for asking this has been a blast next week will be our last story and uh and i'm glad we've gotten to know a little bit more about me in this whole experience well hey awesome to have chris harrison on the podcast it's always a pleasure to take time out of his schedule to come

on to this show and give us all the details that he does uh this has been another almost famous podcast. We'll be back next week for a breakdown of Tasha's season of The Bachelorette. With that, I've been Ben. I've been Ashley. And I'm Chris Harrison. There we go. I'm so glad you said Harrison. That's amazing. Follow the Ben and Ashley I, almost famous podcast on IHartRadio or subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. My boyfriend's professor is way too friendly and now I'm seriously suspicious. Wait a minute, Sam. Maybe her boyfriend's just looking for extra credit. Well, Dakota, luckily, it's back to school week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon. This person writes, my boyfriend's been hanging out with his young professor a lot.

He doesn't think it's a problem, but I don't trust her. Now, he's insisting we get to know each other, but I just want her gone. Hold up. Isn't that against school policy? That seems inappropriate. Maybe find out how it ends by listening to the OK Storytime podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, my name is Enya Umanzor. And I'm Drew Phillips. we run a podcast called Emergency Intercom. If you're a crime junkie and you love crimes, we're not the podcast for you.

But if you have unmedicated ADHD... Oh my God, perfect. And want to hear people with mental illness, psychobabble. Yes, yes. Then Emergency Intercom is the podcast for you. Open your free IHeartRadio app. Search Emergency Intercom and listen now. Every case that is a cold case that has DNA right now.

a backlog will be identified in our lifetime. On the new podcast, America's Crime Lab, every case has a story to tell, and the DNA holds the truth. He never thought he was going to get caught, and I just looked at my computer screen. I was just like, ah, gotcha. This technology's already solving so many cases. Listen to America's Crime Lab on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I just normally do straight stand-up, but this is a bit different. What do you get when a true crime producer walks into a comedy club? Answer, a new podcast called Wisecrack, where a comedian finds himself at the center of a chilling true crime story. Does anyone know what show they've come to see? It's a story. It's about the scariest night of my life. This is Wisecrack, available now.

Listen to Wisecrack on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Super Secret Festi Club Podcast Season 4, is here. And we're locked in. That means more juicy chisement. Terrible love advice. Evil spells to cast on your ex. No, no, no, no, we're not doing that this season. Oh, well, this season we're leveling up. Each episode will feature a special bestie, and you're not going to want to miss it. My name is Curley. And I'm Maya. Get in here! Listen to the Super Secret Bestie Club on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. This is an IHeart podcast.

Thank you.