Chris Harrison: ‘Bachelor: Listen to Your Heart’ Cast Didn’t Know Who I Was

Chris Harrison has hosted 24 seasons of The Bachelor — but that doesn’t mean everyone knows him! In fact, it was a very different group of contestants for The Bachelor: Listen to Your Heart, the longtime host told Us Weekly exclusively.

“It was funny. I knew who they were because I had studied who they were, but they don’t know me. They don’t really know the show. It was a brand new experiment,” Harrison, 48, told Us. “One of the guys was a little, like, ‘Is it Chris Hansen?’ I was like, ‘Nope, not catching predators!’”

The show follows 20 musically inclined contestants as they also search for love, but it’s totally different from anything the franchise has tackled in the past.

“It’s a very different mansion. We’re not in the Bachelor mansion! We moved to a bigger place — a little different vibe,” the host teased. “There are some great characters.”

As for the format of the show, it is similar to Bachelor in Paradise … at first.

“With the rose ceremonies, there are men and women, women hand out the roses to the guys, guys will then hand out roses to the women and people will be going home based on those relationships — having nothing to do with the music,” he explained. “Music’s always a part of the show on the dates and you know, they’ll be at the house, playing for each other, but it’s not about the performances.”

After relationships are established, it will get into musical performances for celebrity judges and members of Bachelor Nation: “Then it is about those performances and the chemistry on stage.”

The former Who Wants to Be a Millionaire host understands the skepticism fans may have — but hopes they’ll give the new show a chance anyway.

“Just know that if you’re a Bachelor fan, it’s going to have that awesome familiarity. It’s going to feel right,” he teased. “But then there’s going to be this weird, eccentric twist to it that you’re not quite sure where it’s going. That’s why it’s so good and so new and so fresh. I think Bachelor Nation will absolutely just gobble this thing up.”

For more from Harrison, watch Us‘ exclusive interview above.

The Bachelor: Listen to Your Heart premieres on ABC Monday, April 13, at 8 p.m. ET.

With reporting by Emily Longeretta and Sarah Hearon

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