Warning: Mild spoilers for Listen To Your Heart Week 4 are ahead.
Now that Listen To Your Heart is rambling towards its finale, host Chris Harrison wants only the strongest couples to survive. So much so, that he intentionally stirred up some drama by sending people on dates with new partners: Julia Rae with Brandon Mills, Jamie Gabrielle with Ryan Neal, and Rudi with Chris Watson. The purpose of that was mostly to make good reality TV, but also to make sure that the final couples standing are really the most romantically dedicated to each other. (You mean you don't go on a date with your ex right before you become exclusive with your partner in real life? Weird.) And with the Listen To Your Heart finale airing in just two weeks, there's not a lot of time left to weed out any couples who may not be there for the right reasons.
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This show was originally intended to tide Bachelor Nation over until The Bachelorette premiered in late May. It's a six-week series, with the Listen To Your Heart finale airing on Monday, May 18 at 8 p.m. ET. After that, Clare Crawley's Bachelorette season was supposed to start the following week on May 29. The Bachelorette won't happen on that timeline now, but it appears that Listen To Your Heart is sticking to its original schedule. Perhaps there will be some sort of televised reunion via Zoom now that there's an opening in ABC's scheduling, but the official LTYH finale is set for May 18. Before that, the remaining couples will be whittled down in the May 4 episode and then the May 11 semi-finals. And at some point, probably during the penultimate episode, there will likely be a few Fantasy Suite dates, as is the Bachelor way.
Harrison previously told Refinery29 that the point of Listen to Your Heart is for a musician couple to find harmony, but also romance. "The goal is to have a couple at the end of this that is madly in love, if not many," he said. In order to strengthen those bonds that the couples are building, Fantasy Suite dates just make sense. Bachelor in Paradise has them, as do The Bachelor and Bachelorette. It may not be the focus on the episode on LTYH the way it is on those shows, since the musical performances are the big moments for LTYH, but the last few remaining couples are likely to get the option of staying the night together. It's also likely to happen when the show hits the road; the trailer teased trips to Las Vegas and Nashville in the final few episodes.
The couples will be judged in the semi-finals and finals on both their singing talent but also their chemistry. The last couple standing on May 18 will win the chance to tour together and create an album. But not every couple is on the same page just yet, so some of the the most dramatic pairs still need to be sent home before that finale takes place.