"The Bachelor" Host Chris Harrison Speaks Out About Season Finale

Jason Scott
March 11, 2014

It was the awkward finale heard 'round the world. Seriously. If you were on social media on Monday evening (March 10), then you witnessed the outrage over The Bachelor's season 18 finale, whether you've even seen one episode or not. Last night's "After The Final Rose" included a heated exchange between the not-so-eligible bachelor Juan Pablo Galavis and show host Chris Harrison. Following the incident, Harrison has spoken out about the episode.

It all began when Harrison repeatedly questioned Galavis about his future with Nikki Ferrell, who appeared to be equally as uncomfortable with the proceedings. Galavis refused each time to give any clues. "The more he spoke, the worse he looked," Harrison revealed to ABC News. "I felt bad for both of them."

He continued, "Usually as the host and as a producer on the show we know exactly for the most part what we're going to get. The show has its beats: Sean sits down, and it'll be difficult with Lindsay but it's not a huge deal; and there's the coronation of he and Catherine. Last night, going into the show, I had no idea how it was going to go from start to finish. I really had no clue what I was going to get and it really started with the audience... not knowing what their reaction was going to be. It made for an exciting, fun night for me."

As viewers know, the conversation only grew more painful to watch as it drug on. "I wasn't harping on him so much to make him say 'I love you,' that's kind of irrelevant to me," Harrison explained of the circumstance. "It was just, things weren't adding up and it was just bizarre. Their body language was telling me one thing and his words were telling me another."

"She wasn't allowed or able to speak her mind. I almost felt sorry for her," he confessed. "She was uncomfortable. He was making her uncomfortable, and I assume, I'm hoping at least, it was just an orchestrated event by him to somehow and in some way, get back at me or the show, I don't know what his motivation was for what he pulled last night. That was the most puzzling thing. I really felt like I was sitting here, like Jerry Maguire, saying, 'Help me help you. I'm trying to make you look better. Come up with an articulate thought about this woman next to you who has pledged her devotion to you.' The more he spoke, the worse he looked."

Harrison also admitted to feeling a "little contentious" throughout the run. "Sadly, I got exactly what I thought I was going to get last night," he says. "Some you saw and some you haven't seen [during the show]. I don't dislike him whatsoever. I wasn't mad at him last night. I was just trying to think, 'How can I make this guy articulate his feelings and show his emotions?' ... This guy is not looking good and all he had to do was simply explain that even if he didn't want to say I love you, that's totally fine, but say something. Everybody's invested in this and you came into this with the understanding of what 'The Bachelor' is."

"You can't get away with, 'I've never seen the show.' He knew exactly what he was getting into. He had trouble embracing being the Bachelor. People take that as an indictment on you and it's not. It doesn't make you a bad person. He had trouble getting into the process."

Despite his good will and intentions, many fans viewed Harrison's actions as "being a bully." He replied, "I can't disagree and I can only respect their opinions. That goes to show how great the show is and this is why I love it: I had people telling me how great I was last night and I handled him and he was a bad guy and then I had people telling me I was the worst person in the world and he's great. As usual, the truth lies somewhere in between." When Galavis whittled the competition down to just Ferrell, he just could not commit. Check out the awkward non-proposal here. here