Chris Harrison Says Being Fired From ‘The Bachelor’ Was a “Blessing,” Not a Cancellation

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Chris Harrison is back as host of a TV dating competition, but he won’t be handing out any roses.

Harrison, the former longtime host of The Bachelor (and its in-universe spinoffs), is launching his own spin on the genre with Chris Harrison’s The Vow from Lionsgate Alternative Television, which streams on Fox News Channel’s companion platform Fox Nation. You’ll remember Harrison from getting fired from The Bachelor for defending 2021 contestant Rachael Kirkconnell for attending an antebellum-themed fraternity formal three years before she appeared on the ABC series.

Five long years later, Harrison is bringing his own (second) bride with him. Lauren Zima, the former Entertainment Tonight host, and Harrison were married in 2023. Harrison and Zima created The Vow together and executive produce it.

“It feels really a little cathartic,” Harrison told The Hollywood Reporter of his Hollywood comeback vehicle, which has more than flicked at his old job in its marketing materials — earning Lionsgate and Fox a cease and desist from The Bachelor studio Warner Bros. Television.

Chris Harrison’s The Vow curates the dates between its hero and his prospects, setting up “real-world compatibility challenges,” according to its synopsis. It’s all pretty faith-based and longterm focused: “At a time when much of modern dating culture is driven by fleeting connections and social media attention, the series offers a different approach by placing the focus on meaningful relationships, commitment and building a life together.”

The six-episode Chris Harrison’s The Vow premieres its first two episodes today on Fox Nation; read more from our interview with Harrison below.

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Five years later, how do you now feel about your very public split with The Bachelor?

I know this sounds weird because it was so tumultuous and it was a crazy time in my life, but I look back at it as a bit of a blessing. I was in a contract negotiation with them. I was talking to my wife: “Is it time to move on? What do I do?” And I don’t know if this lightning-bolt moment hadn’t happened, if I would have stepped away. Having that divorce and that breakup was a blessing. It allowed me to step away. However humbling all of that was, it allowed me time to hit the pause button and watch my kids graduate high school, fall in love, get married in my own life — tell my own love story for a minute — and then kind of get the fire burning again and get excited about creating my own show because The Bachelor wasn’t my baby.

Being able to create this with my wife and with the people I choose to do it with, and be there every step of the way to executive produce, host, sit there and go through the post-production process — it is a painstaking process to get something there, and it’s a great achievement. We’re very proud of it and very excited.

Do you believe your contract situation played more of a role in you being let go from The Bachelor than was initially reported?

Probably. But in any divorce, you only know your side, right? The rest is speculation. They have their story, and then somewhere in the middle is probably the truth. I’m guessing it had some impact on it all, but how much I have no idea. It definitely played in it for me, and gave me that chance to break away from that, and come back and be so refreshed and excited and involved from the ground up and create [a new show]. Again, it’s weird to call something like that a blessing, but when you’re humbled and you move forward and you come back bigger and better, feel the excitement in the air — timing is everything, and the timing now is so good.

Do you believe you were “canceled”?

I don’t. I know people say that because of the time, and that term really came on strong then. I don’t say that, and I don’t think that. In my opinion, it makes me seem like a victim, and I wasn’t. I had a messy public divorce with the people I worked for. It was a very humbling moment for me, and I think a little humility and getting knocked down is good in life. Look, as I tell my kids, life’s not a hockey stick — it’s a roller coaster ride. The ups and the downs. I’m glad I don’t define my life by being the host of a certain show. Again, I go back to my faith. I go back to my friends and family, and you carry on and come back bigger and stronger and hopefully smarter. If you don’t learn from something like that, God, you’ve done yourself a disservice. I do feel like a better host, a better producer, a better husband, a better friend because of all that.

Do you feel that the industry has typecast you into this host-of-reality-dating-competition role? Or is this genuinely what you want to be doing right now?

It is. I got to a very blessed place in my life, and it’s very rare you can get there in business. And that is being able to choose the project, and also choose who you would like to do that project with. Going back to The Bachelor, I was a hired host, so I didn’t get to choose who I was working for, with, etc. You go in, you do your job, and you are so happy to get the paycheck in this business. But along the way, I did Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? I hosted Miss America, The Walking Wallendas.

I did a bunch of other shows, and really, what I love is twofold: I love hosting and producing TV. I find it so invigorating, intriguing. I love telling stories, being a part of stories — but I also love love. I’ll admit, I’m a little bit of a hopeless romantic. I love rom-coms — those are my favorite movies — and I love diving into these people’s lives, kind of exposing them and telling their stories and hopefully helping them find love, as romantic and silly as that may sound. I love being a part of those stories. When you see it work, that’s the addiction. When you see it work, you’re just like, man, that lightning in a bottle, that love story that we’re all clamoring for, that we all enjoy. It’s worth it. It makes it all worth it.

Forgive me for not remembering his name, but how did you find this show’s “bachelor”? He’s frustratingly handsome and seems like a good dude too.

Jace.

Right and he has a cool fucking name. It’s not fair.

He could be a spy. He could be a stunt man. He might be the next James Bond. We we like to say he’s if Tim Tebow and [Rob Gronkowski] had a baby, that’s what Jace looks like. He has the looks, and yes, he has the abs. He really was that diamond in the rough, and that’s what set the tone.

We had this amazing casting director, Lindsay Liles, who was a producer on The Bachelor and left to go do her own casting agency. I had this great relationship with her, but she thinks like a producer, and that was really important to understand— as the kids say, she understood the assignment. She really knocked it out of the park, and we took more time, more energy, probably more money on casting than anything. We really wanted to do our due diligence on every aspect of these people, and make sure that this is who we wanted to launch this show with. In our case that diamond in the rough was from Canby, Oregon, of all places, and he is a man of faith, a man of values, high morals. Not perfect — he’s a human being. And he’s a little bit older. He’s 30 years old. That was important to us as well. The frontal lobe is formed, and he knows what he wants.

Faith is a big part of the show. Jace and his bachelorettes, for lack of a better word, pray together on camera. Fox Nation’s audience should be into that. Tell me about your own faith.

My wife and I — faith very much plays a part in our lives. It’s a big part of our marriage. I think it’s the foundation. Definitely as a man, it’s my foundation. It’s something I always fall back on. But our faith wasn’t the impetus for the show, but what I do think is, it made Lauren and I good stewards of how to create this environment.

That was why we ended up partnering with [Fox Nation] because that is part of their brand. They have other faith-based shows. All of us thought it was important that this wasn’t a cocktail joke. It’s not. “Hey, look, we’re doing a show about faith and look how crazy and silly this can be!” No, I wanted the intention there, and it was important that we understand that world to create the environment so they can actually feel able to let go. Like they— you know, I guess pun intended, they had to put their faith in us to come on this show, talk about their faith, feel comfortable doing that. And I think we were trusted to create that world for them that they could let go and really try to find love and talk about it freely.

So the season is wrapped as we speak. Did any of the 11 participants sort of expose themselves as maybe not being there for the right reasons?

What I was hoping for as a producer was, if we did a show involved that involved people of faith, that if we brought 11 humans on, we’d have 11 different opinions, experiences, and I was hoping that we would get the conversations that we have. And this is one thing I’m really excited about. You are going to see and hear conversations and topics covered you’ve never heard on reality TV, and it is raw. It’s rare. You’re going to see people pray, and you will see people called into question about their faith.

Some people, like the people at Warner Bros., will call this a ripoff of The Bachelor, and I believe it’s a fair criticism. That said, pretty much every dating show since The Bachelor has been, to some degree, a ripoff of The Bachelor. You, more than most people, should get a pass on that. But you’ve removed a bunch of the tropes, like a formal elimination ceremony to end each episode, and Jace is not expected to propose in the finale…

We took all those hurdles and safeguards that honestly, you probably should have as a producer, because it’s smart. Like an elimination ceremony. “OK, it’s 10 o’clock. Kick two girls out, so I know I can end episode one with a break up.” We didn’t do that. We felt any contrived, produced moment is going to [feel like a contrived, produced moment].

Well episode one does kind of end with a break up, but I’ll concede that the elimination feels more authentic. Jace’s marching orders are to eliminate a potential mate when she stops seeming like a potential mate.

It’s what a gentleman should do. It’s what women should expect. If you’re going to break up, look her in the eye. Don’t shoot a text. Don’t go on your keyboard. Don’t just ghost somebody. Let’s raise the level, guys — come on!

But that intentionality is very important to us, but it’s scary because if you take your hand off the wheel, you don’t know what you’re going to get. But what we found was the unpredictability is the drama. You don’t know when those breakups are going to happen, and even as producers, Jace would be talking, and all of a sudden we’d be like, “Whoa, OK, he’s up right now. Here we go.” And it turned out to be great TV.

In the sizzle reel for the remainder of the season, it is revealed to (those of us who don’t watch The Bachelor) that one of the women was on The Bachelor. I’m guessing that was after your time, so did you know?

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. We talked about that in casting, and we had a long talk between all the executive producers and our casting agent. And again, it was very intentional. Why her faith in where she is in her journey and what she wants, and it felt like none of that was really given a fair shake [on The Bachelor], and she wasn’t really able to talk about that and show that. So we thought, “You know what? OK.” And we had a long talk with her, and we felt like that was a very intentional, good choice to add to the mix.

Was it a challenging decision to cast the woman who sells penile implants for a faith-based Fox Nation show?

It’s what she does for a living. I wanted to show what people of faith really look like in this world. This generation, these are women are unbelievably dynamic, incredibly diverse, and come from all walks of life. One is a penile implant salesman. So be it. That’s her job. She’s really — and I mean this sincerely — she’s passionate about it.

No spoilers, but are you happy with the arc of the season and the results, whatever they may be?

I am. I am very proud of the show. We are very proud of the show. We’re proud of what we created. On one side, because this business is so hard, and to get a show created, sold, and produced, and on air…it’s tough right now. And to put people to work and all those things. There’s that side of it that we’re really proud of. But then the product we created, the show, the idea we had — to watch that come to fruition really was a dream. The show’s not predicated on the fact that it’s going to work. It’s not guaranteed.

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Chris Harrison’s The Vow streams weekly on Wednesdays on Fox Nation.