Playing by his own rules. The Bachelor season 21 star Nick Viall was a guest on Will You Accept This Podcast on Thursday, February 9, and he explained why he’s made some surprising decisions thus far regarding when to cut the women.
During the interview, Viall promised that his season will be “unpredictable” before saying that his willingness to eliminate some of his ladies on a whim gives him freedom to be less decisive at other times. On the ABC dating show’s February 6 episode, he sent home Jasmine in the middle of a group date before axing two other women, Whitney and Danielle L., from his two-on-one.
“Ultimately, I knew even going into this process, I assumed that there would be times where it would be hard to make decisions,” the two-time Bachelorette runner-up, 36, said. “I think being definitive when I did know gave me more credibility when I have to use all the time allotted to me to make decisions.”
And yes, Viall is aware that this led to some cringeworthy scenes: “It was important to me that at any moment I realized I didn’t see a future with any of these women that I didn’t have to wait for a rose ceremony to send them home. While in the moment that might seem awkward or more surprising and might hurt people’s pride, I thought it was actually better in the long run for them.”
The reality-TV mainstay also cautioned that viewers might need to keep the Kleenex handy for the remaining episodes. “If you’re an emotional person, if you’ve cried on the season before, no matter what happens, you might cry at the end,” Viall said.
The Bachelor airs on ABC Mondays at 8 p.m. ET.