Chris Harrison Unsure If Gay Bachelor Would Work, Knows "Chubby" Guy Definitely Wouldn't

TV host asks, "Is our job to break barriers, or is it a business?"

By Rebecca Macatee Mar 04, 2014 3:18 PMTags
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Juan Pablo Galvais said a gay Bachelor wouldn't be a "good example for kids" earlier this year, and now host Chris Harrison admits he's not sure if a gay Bachelor would work within the model of the ABC reality dating show.

In an interview with the New York Times, The Bachelor mainstay explained that "on a philosophical level," he's "100 percent for equality and gay marriage," but pointed out, "The question is: Is it a good business decision [to have a gay Bachelor]?"

"Look, if you've been making pizzas for 12 years and you've made millions of dollars and everybody loves your pizzas and someone comes and says, 'Hey, you should make hamburgers.' Why?" Harrison asked. "I have a great business model, and I don't know if hamburgers are going to sell."

And while he's "happy" to talk about different groups wanting to see themselves represented on TV, that's "a different topic" than producing a hit show. "Is our job to break barriers, or is it a business?" he asked, adding, "That's not for me to answer."

But when asked if The Bachelor had "considered a less hunky bachelor, maybe like a chubby guy," Harrison answered bluntly, "No."

"You know why?" he asked. "Because that's not attractive, and television is a very visual medium, and I know that sounds horrible to say, but I know that at 42, in the eyes of television, I'm old and unattractive. Sure, I can put a suit and tie on, but I have hair on my chest and I don't have a 12-pack. I live a healthy life, but I don't do eight hours in the gym, nor do I want to."

One thing Harrison's learned from his 27 seasons hosting the show? "Love is a competition," he said. "If you don't think so, then you're crazy, because why are you dressing up, why are you wearing those heels, why are you wearing that $400 perfume? Why are you shaving your chest and eating 40,000 egg whites?"

Valid point. And while Harrison, who split with wife Gwen in 2012, says he wouldn't make for a good Bachelor (In his own words, "I have seen how the sausage has been made for 12 years now, and I helped make that sausage and so it just wouldn't work"), seeing his ex as The Bachelorette "would be amazing."

"She's beautiful," he gushed. "I think she would love that. I would not only host that, I'd produce it."