Hannah Brown arriving at the Bachelor Mansion on Weber's first night.
ABCABC is expanding the Bachelor franchise.
The Bachelor: Listen to Your Heart, a music-themed spinoff of the network’s long-running reality franchise, will be coming to ABC in the spring. Set to premiere April 13 at 8 p.m. ET/PT, Listen to Your Heart will keep Monday nights in the Bachelor Nation family, with the series airing between the Bachelor finale (Peter Weber’s cycle kicked off Monday) and the Bachelorette premiere, which typically returns in May. The network has yet to confirm if Chris Harrison will host the spinoff.
The new project will “unite two of the most emotionally powerful forces in human life: music and love,” according to ABC, which announced the news Wednesday during its portion of the Television Critics Association’s winter press tour in Pasadena.
ABC Entertainment president Karey Burke described the series as The Bachelor meets A Star Is Born, saying, “The format is an evolution of The Bachelor. Contestants will be talented musicians and people whose lives and work revolve around music. [The series will] capture what we all know: love, emotion and music are intertwined. How people find each other through songwriting and singing is the thrust of the show.”
Listen to Your Heart will see 20 single men and women embarking on a journey to find love through music. Similar to the setup of The Bachelor, The Bachelorette and the summer spinoff series Bachelor in Paradise, the eligible bachelors and bachelorettes competing on Listen to Your Heart will also cohabitate and go on Bachelor-style dates, but their outings will focus on music.
Once the couples commit to each other, they then take their relationship to the next level. The harmony of the couples will be tested through musical challenges, including live performances judged by some of the biggest names in the music business, according to ABC. Singing well-known songs, the contestants will look to form attractions through the melodies, find and reveal their feelings and, ultimately, fall in love. The pairs whose performances “reveal their love and devotion to one another” will continue along the competition, until only one couple is left standing.
Listen to Your Heart is the first Bachelor franchise spinoff since The Bachelor Winter Games, which ran for one season as Olympic counter-programming in winter 2018. Bachelor Pad was another spinoff that launched in 2010 and aired for three seasons before Bachelor in Paradise took over summer programming for the franchise in 2014. With the addition of Listen to Your Heart, the franchise will air almost continuously from January through September, when Bachelor in Paradise concludes.
After a strong summer run — The Bachelorette ranked No. 1 among adults 18-49, with Bachelor in Paradise finishing in the No. 2 slot on Mondays — the premiere for Weber’s season of The Bachelor was up 20 percent from last year’s premiere.
The Bachelor: Listen to Your Heart is a production of Next Entertainment in association with Warner Horizon Unscripted Television. Mike Fleiss, Martin Hilton, Nicole Woods, Bennett Graebner, Peter Gust, Tim Warner, Louis Caric and Peter Geist executive produce.
More from The Hollywood Reporter
-
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power
Horse Dies on Amazon’s ‘The Rings of Power’ Set, PETA Calls for Use of CGI Animals
![]()
-
Olivia Colman
‘Great Expectations’ Review: Olivia Colman in an FX/Hulu Dickens Adaptation That Strains for Edginess
![]()
-
the tonight show
‘Succession’ Star Kieran Culkin Explains Why Roman Roy Doesn’t Seem to Understand Chairs
![]()
-
![]()
-
![]()
-
![]()
