According to Bachelorette host Chris Harrison, Monday’s expanded “Men Tell All” special promises to be the most — you’ll never guess — dramatic reunion in Bachelorette history.
“I wasn’t expecting much from these guys because usually by the time we do the reunion show, the guys have said their piece and they’re done. They don’t usually hold on to anger like the women do,” Harrison tells PEOPLE. “It got out of hand in a hurry. They got aggressive from the moment we started rolling and it became like high school or a fraternity house.”
Harrison was most surprised by where some of the heat came from. “I expected Dave and Juan to fight. I expected some people to have harsh things to say to Jake about him going to Austin,” Harrison says. “It was the other characters like Sasha, Robby, Mark and Brian that jumped in that took me by surprise.”
Not that Dave disappointed. The discussion about “man code” and inappropriate behavior with Jillian on the boat got fairly heated. “I expected Dave to have seen what he did on that Vancouver date and really backpedal. I’ll give him credit. He did apologize and it was heartfelt,” Harrison says, “but I still don’t think he sees what was wrong with how he acted … He even looked at the women in the audience and was like, ‘What? You don’t want me to compliment your ass?’ That’s stunning.”
In fact, Harrison says some of the men behaved so badly, he had to step in and set them straight. “I’m not the greatest guy in the world but these guys were terrible,” he says. “They came off like knuckle-dragging cavemen.”
Another hot button issue, of course, was Wes. “I don’t care if he does or doesn’t have a girlfriend. I don’t even think that is the question anymore,” Harrison says. “It was his overall lack of sincerity for her feelings … When he was around Jillian, he was Casanova with a guitar who said all the right things. He pushed it as far as he could and when things got serious, he pulled the parachute.”
But Wes didn’t attend the “Men Tell All” taping — which didn’t exactly surprise Harrison after the country singer’s public comments about how he was portrayed as a villain on the show. “It’s always the guys who fancy themselves really smart and really cool who feel like they were mis-edited and portrayed badly,” Harrison says.
But the two-hour show wasn’t all drama and bad blood. Fans can also expect to see a blooper reel, a sit-down with former Bachelor star Jason Mesnick and Molly Malaney and a video about the shenanigans and hook-ups at a recent Bachelor-Bachelorette cross-seasonal Las Vegas reunion weekend. Jillian also faces the men she dumped and discusses the final two suitors.
Harrison’s take on Ed and Kiptyn? “Each represents a different aspect of what she was looking for in her life. The only thing I see as a problem with Kiptyn is her insecurity with him. I don’t like the fact that she feels out of her league,” he says. “On the flip side, you know Ed and Jillian would be best friends for life, but do they have the sexual chemistry and intimacy? He left once but he came back and he’s been very open about how he feels. Every woman has had a best friend like Ed where they have wondered if they should take it further than that?” – Carrie Bell
Tell us: Who are you looking forward to seeing on the “Men Tell All” special? What’s your prediction about The Bachelorette finale?
Craig Sjodin/ABC; Kevin Foley/ABC
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