Here's Why It's Useless To Speculate About The Next Bachelor

As The Bachelorette season draws to a close — the finale is this Monday, August 7 — Bachelor fans has decided it's time to speculate about the next Bachelor. The Hollywood Reporter published a piece wondering which of the final four would be chosen as our next leading man. Most fans seem to agree it's between Peter Kraus and Dean Unglert. My Bachelor discussion group is bored with Peter and thinks Dean is too young to take the lead. (He's also told the press several times that he's not ready for the role.)

But more importantly, speculating about the Bachelor tends to be a useless endeavor. Most people take is as fact that the franchise chooses a runner-up from a previous season to be the Bachelor, but this isn't always the case. In fact, of the past 21 Bachelors, more than a few have been completely out of left field.

The trend is, without a doubt, that producers select the fan favorite from a previous season. (When Refinery29 reached out to ABC about the selection process, no one was available for comment.) Although, it should be noted while we're here that in the early days of The Bachelor, The Bachelorette did not exist, and therefore couldn't provide its grocery store of potential suitors. Ben Higgins, the season 20 Bachelor, came in third on Kaitlyn Bristowe's season. But ABC is making a reality television show! There have to be surprises. For every mundane runner-up choice, there's been a bananas Bachelor decision — ahead, here are the ones that surprised us the most.