In February, ABC announced it had paused The Bachelorette and the show would not return for another season in its usual timeslot. The dating competition has been iced, and it is unclear when the series will return. While Jesse Palmer is confident that the series will be back and better than ever, questions remain about why ABC stopped The Bachelorette. It’s unknown precisely what led the network to pause the series. Still, rumors have swirled that they couldn’t find a suitable lead. A “redo” season was reportedly considered before the hiatus was announced.

A ‘redo season’ of ‘The Bachelorette’ was seriously considered before the pause

Last month, Ben Higgins and Ashley Iaconetti spilled the tea on The Bachelorette’s sudden and unexpected pause. During an episode of Almost Famous, Iconetti said she had heard the production team were looking at Maria Georgas to lead the show before opting to put it on pause.

While Georgas was reportedly the frontrunner, she wasn’t the only person considered to lead the doomed season. Iaconetti claims the production team looked at a few contestants from Grant Ellis’ season of The Bachelor, too. She says they even considered giving a past lead another chance at finding love before deciding none of the potential leads were going to work out.

Iaconetti said that past Bachelorette Season 19 star Rachel Recchia was seriously considered for the lead role before the network paused the series. While she left the series engaged to Tino Franco, the couple’s relationship didn’t last. Franco admitted to cheating on Recchia before fans even learned he was the show’s winner, and they subsequently ended their engagement.

Why isn’t Rachel Recchia leading another season?

Iaconetti and Higgins seem fairly certain that the production team was really trying to make a “redo season” work for Recchia. It simply did not fall into place. In fact, the podcasting pair claims that there is a very good reason why Recchia can’t take on a lead role. Higgins argues that the reason is “exciting’ but that he can’t yet share what it is.

Based on the hints and clues, Recchia seems to be returning to TV. We just don’t know in what manner just yet. Higgins isn’t giving it away, either. Since the end of The Bachelorette, Recchia has stayed active on Instagram. She even competed in season 9 of Bachelor in Paradise. She was well-received, and fans of The Bachelorette did feel bad when Franco cheated on her. Her likability means any new project will likely be successful.