Chris Harrison Spills on Pilot Pete, Soulmates, & Season 24 of The Bachelor

What's going on guys? Hanging with me right now, I have the most dramatic TV host ever. Ever. Ever, ever. Chris Harrison, Chris, how are you?

I'm good. Good. Big day. Big day. Premiere day. Yeah, it's always exciting. I've been doing this for 100 years. Yeah. Uh, you know, but I really, I was just talking to my the creator of the show, my wife this morning and we both were agreeing that it doesn't matter. We've done this so many times, but opening day is still opening day and you just you don't know. You hope Bachelornation is still there. You hope people are going to, you know, watch the show and and it gets the ratings that you think and and that Peter's as good as we think he is. But you just don't know. And so you always have the nerves on night one.

Well, I was going to say that welcome back because the last time you were here was 2010.

I love The Bachelor. That's my baby. I will always do that thing until, you know, someone tells me I can't.

You're still killing it.

It took me 10, it took me a decade to be invited back. How crappy? How crappy was that interview?

You just got done saying you're basically the busiest person ever. So we finally got you back. Welcome back. And season 24. It's about time.

I know. It's packed. I'll be honest. Sometimes we stretch things out a little bit. Um, but tonight, I mean, you you have the arrivals, you have the first rose ceremony, you have the first few dates. You have Hannah coming back. There is a lot to unpack. It's going to it's kind of too much to ingest.

Well, I think the viewers love that. We're ready. You're drinking from you're drinking from a fire hydrant. Cannot wait. So speaking about Pilot Pete, he's our guy this season. How does he differ from other bachelors we've seen so far?

I mean, the cool thing about the show and hosting it and producing it is is they are all so different. I mean, you can't treat Peter like you treated Colton, like you treated, you know, Hannah. They're all so different. They just bring their own strengths, weaknesses, insecurities, backstory, whatever it is. And you if you go, it's kind of like being a parent. I'm a I'm a parent. I don't know if you have kids. But I have two kids. And it's like I don't parent my son the same as I do my daughter. They're just different human beings. Right, yeah. And so that's what bachelors and Bachelorettes are. You just if you go in thinking you've got this thing figured out, you don't. Um, and so Peter was very different. And he had again, his strengths, but there were also some weaknesses we had to overcome and some issues that we had to some hurdles we had to cross. He's a good dude. He's a real and oddly enough, he's a neighbor. His parents live half a mile from me. It's he went to high school where my kids go to high school. So we really do have this amazing and I I didn't remember this and and maybe I'm a diva for for not remembering this, but I met him a long time ago. He said we I was at the movie theater with my kids and he was there with his dad and he came up and introduced himself to me a long time ago. And uh clearly

But do you remember it now? Like in your mind after you brought it

No, you still don't remember. Oh no.

Well, we appreciate the honesty.

I'm not big of a jerk. I'm clearly too big for that.

Well, fun fact. So I'm clearly too big for that. Fun fact. I don't know if you're into astrology at all, but according to the inner webs, you and Peter are both Leos.

Well, that is true. That's a fact. It's not It is a fact.

Do you know anything about being a Leo? Like are you interested in it? Um, just ask a lot about us. So we have some Leos in the Young Hollywood studio.

No, forget about me. Ask me how I do. No. Uh, yeah, no, we're caretakers. We're we're caretakers, we're loving, we're giving. Yeah. Um, we're the life of the party usually. Uh, yeah.

I love it. I just wanted to ask because I love astrology. I don't know how Leos get along. Though. So that was going to be my next thing. Do you feel like you guys are similar?

But yeah, I feel like we are similar and maybe that's why we did get along. Is it birds of a feather or people apart? I don't know. I don't know. I guess we'll find out, right? We got along, but we got along. But then again, we're not going to live together.

Fair. Yeah. Spoiler alert. I'm not who Peter ends up with at the end. If he ends up, if he ends up with anybody, it's not me. That would be really the most dramatic season ever. I thought.

We did go on a date recently though.

You did.

We went on a golf date. So I took him uh because I I play a lot of golf and I was getting him hooked up with uh some clubs and this is the great thing about having a pilot. He goes, "Can we just fly instead of drive to San Diego?" I was like, yeah, we can. You have a plane? So he actually flew us down to San Diego. And he's a very confident, confident pilot.

So I was going to ask, are there a lot of dates on the season where he just flies there? Are you guys going to melt?

Not until episode one. When there's literally a date. We're at the airport and they go flying. Yeah, of course. We it really, but there are times when we lean into things and it's more of a joke like the windmill. Um, but it really is his life. I mean, his dad is a pilot, um, found his mom, who was a flight attendant, and that's how they found love. And Peter has it's been a part of his life since his teens where he learned to fly. And tonight we actually go to where he learned to fly, which is up in Camarillo, just up the street from where we shoot. That's so cool. And so, you can tell it is his passion. It's his love. It's in his blood. And I don't think Peter's that guy that's going to leave this show and try to steal your job or my job and become a host. He loves to fly. That is his life. And whoever he finds to to be with him, that's going to be a part of it.

Well, yeah, and then I can't imagine him ever ending up with someone who doesn't like flying. That would be rough, right?

It'd be great if if if she was just petrified of flying. It would make for good TV.

It would make great TV. It would, it would. I do want to bring up this quote that you said in an interview. Um, and I have it here, so I don't say anything wrong. This is how you said it. Hannah and Peter, they have this thing, that intangible chemistry. It's one of those things that no matter how much you think you're over somebody, when you see each other, it's a thing. And I love it. Immediately when I heard you say, I was like, I have to ask Chris about this because I think it's so cool and it's relatable. So I want to know your thoughts on that.

I don't know if you've ever had that boyfriend, girlfriend thing that I think people can relate to where you're just like, I can't get this person out of my system. And I just feel like they have that thing. And you're going to see you know, in the premiere episode, Hannah comes back and and she comes back a couple of times. Oh. Spoiler alert, little news flash. She comes back to do something very sweet and sincere. But then she also comes back a little later on. There is a conversation between Peter and Hannah that is so riveting. That people are hands down going to be talking about this tomorrow. Uh, for a lot of reasons, of is it even appropriate they're having this conversation and how far it goes and how deep it goes. And it is emotional, there are tears and it was I don't know, it was just the most riveting, raw, emotional conversation I've seen in a long time. Um, and and so to to that quote, I think you will see that stands up. Oh wow. There is something here. Is it something that's going to go beyond that? I don't know, but is it there is something you're just like, these two people. It's hard to break them up.

So one of my favorite things is to talk about timing with love. So with this, do you feel like it could be like a timing thing or maybe just those two, what they have and what we're seeing is just all that's meant or maybe there's more? Like how do you feel about that with timing?

Timing, you're right. Timing is everything when it comes to a lot of things. Business, love. Yeah. It it really is about being in the right place, the right time and and and both parties being ready for it. And you know, I just think deep down there was something in Hannah that just wishes she hadn't made that mistake of choosing Jed.

Yeah. Well, she gets another chance, right?

Maybe. Maybe. Maybe.

And it brings me to my next question. Do you believe in soulmates and things being destined? For any amount of time. Two very different questions.

Yeah, I don't know if you can well, I don't know if you can combine those two. I you know, I do believe you know, in in you know, there I I am a firm believer in whether it's love and and it's someone you're spending the rest of your life with. People come into your life for a reason. I'm a firm believer in that.

Me too.

Um, people have come into my life that even it was a brief short period of time. Um, whether it was someone I dated or someone I met and then they passed away or whatever. But they changed my life or touched my life in a certain way. So I'm a I am a firm believer in that. And that sometimes relationships are like that where you date somebody and it didn't work out. But maybe they showed you something or changed you in a way or taught you something. And so yeah, I'm a firm believer in that.

Me too. Do you feel like that people find their soulmates alive on the show? There have been a few couples I'm obsessed like Sean and Catherine. Right.

Sean and Catherine. I mean, you go back to Ryan and Trista and it's like I can't imagine those two with anybody else. They just fit. Um, and when you're with them, it's just it's kind of perfect. Um, Ashley and JP are another one that I just adore and love and and are shout out to JP who's getting better. Um, and you just see them and they're like, man, they you with the day they got married, I felt like they'd been together 100 years.

Wow. That's special.

Um, and so yeah, when you you've been around people like that and so it's cool that I'm a part of something, this show that does that. Yeah. Like as much crap as there is in the world and as much tearing down and all that, it's cool to be a part of something that's about kind of building people up.

I agree. Although there's 29 breakups along the way.

That's what I'm saying. There is some drama. Hey, what the good comes the bad.

I was about to say we can't appreciate those good moments without those, right?

Exactly.

Okay, so on the reverse, have you ever seen two people, you know, before like the proposals or the dates where you're just like, I know that they're going to connect. Like immediately.

Yeah. You well, it's interesting when you see night one. Like you'll see tonight, there are certain people that get out of the limo and you're like, wow, they just have chemistry. You know, something you can feel and see. And I always say, when there's relationships, you know, you can write down on paper what you want. You can check off all the boxes. But if we don't have that intangible, that thing, it just doesn't work. And you can, you know, we've all had a conversation with a with a friend where you're like, what's wrong with that person? They're great. Look at them. And you're like, yeah, but I don't know. It's just there's not that it factor. And when they get out of the limo tonight, sometimes you see, wow, there's that it factor. But then when you go deeper, is there more? Um, is it superficial and then, you know, that's where the fun begins.

Have you as the host ever noticed a pattern between the people of where it starts from lust and goes into love? Does it kind of come at a certain point? Like one on ones, adventure dates?

No. No. No.

What? You mean beyond the show?

Yeah. No, it's not for everybody. I think that's an opposite, that's a good selling point for you. Well, you'll see because it makes us want to be honest. Well, you'll see this on the show where people kind of get eaten by the eaten up by the process. There's a actually a certain girl I can't give away, but there is a girl. I was just talking to Peter the other day and he was asking me my opinion on a certain woman that was on the show. And and it's a woman that's actually going to get a little bit of a bad rap. And I said, you know, I think it wasn't her personality. I don't think she's a bad person. I think this wasn't for her. I think this situation was bigger than her. It was very different. It was out of her realm of kind of just what she's familiar with and comfortable with and it got the better of her. And that happens a lot. I think some of these quote unquote villains are people that can't just handle that situation. And it's not for everybody. It's it's not easy to sit here in front of these cameras and have a nice conversation and date and end up making out or getting a hot tub. That's not normal for everybody.

That is very true. I mean, people ask me about being the Bachelor, I'm like, no, I would not want to do that. No.

Like, my private life, I'm a really shy person when it comes to that stuff. I'm not a big PDA guy. I'm not a big live out loud person, despite what I do. I'm confident in what I do as far as hosting. Yeah. That's my I I think it's my calling, it's my gift, it's what I love. But making out and walking shirtless on the beach and doing all that stuff, that's a whole different thing.

I can guarantee you that Bachelor Nation would 100% watch you do it if you ever just decided.

Yeah, because it'd be a train wreck. It'd make for good TV. Which you know it. It is. It would be good.

Thank you so much for coming by. We cannot wait.

Thanks for having me.

Guys, catch it. You all want to miss it. And I'll see you, I guess 2030 is when we do this again, every 10 years.

Exactly.

Cannot wait. Counting down now.