'Bachelor Pad's' Chris Harrison on Season 2: 'It May Be the Best TV We've Produced'

The first on-camera meeting between exes Jake Pavelka and Vienna Girardi is "a thousand times worse than you think," he says.

5:21 PM PDT 8/8/2011 by Kimberly Nordyke

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Chris Harrison

Get ready for the drama, Bachelor Pad fans.

So says host Chris Harrison, who told E! News that the first season doesn't hold a candle to the second.

"It's like the kiddie pool; it's like child's play," he said of the first season when compared to the new installment. "We joked that we needed three hours for the first episode, and it's become a reality."

STORY: 'Bachelor Pad' Season 2 Cast Revealed

He added, "It may be the best TV we've produced."

The show, which premieres at 8 p.m. Monday on ABC, features contestants from The Bachelor and The Bachelorette competing for a $250,000 cash prize as well as another shot at finding a potential mate on TV.

Ramping up the drama quotient this time around? The casting of exes Jake Pavelka and Vienna Girardi, who got engaged at the end of The Bachelor season 14 but later underwent a public breakup (ABC aired a contentious interview between the two post-split).

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"As surreal and bizarre as you think that first moment [where the two meet up on camera] will be, it's worse," Harrison said. "It's a thousand times worse."

Additionally, the cast also features ex-fiances Holly Durst and Michael Stagliano as well as previous Bachelor Pad contestant Gia Allemand, who apparently harbors some resentment toward Girardi over a failed relationship with franchise star Wes Hayden.

As for the next season of The Bachelor, Harrison said producers are currently casting for it but a new bachelor has not been named.

STORY: 'The Bachelor,' 'The Bachelorette' Renewed by ABC

Over the past several seasons, the show has cast previous contestants in the "bachelor" role, and Harrison said some obvious candidates from the just-wrapped season of The Bachelorette would be Ames Brown, Ryan Park and runner-up Ben Flajnik.

"Honestly, it's hard to find that perfect someone, that innocent, perfect, millionaire, good-looking guy," he said. "We're always looking ... [but] someone would really have to blow us away to come in off the street [and be cast as the bachelor]."

VIDEO: 'Bachelorette' Ashley Hebert Talks About Future with Fiancé J.P. Rosenbaum