The Bachelorette Begins: Behind the Scenes of Becca Kufrin's Foray Into Handing Out Roses

Executive producer Mike Fleiss shared behind-the-scenes pictures of the reality show's first night in production

By Chris Harnick Mar 16, 2018 1:22 PMTags

Becca Kufrin started handing out her roses. Yep, The Bachelorette is officially filming and your first look is here thanks to executive producer Mike Fleiss.

In the photos below, Fleiss provides a behind-the-scenes look at filming of The Bachelorette premiere. There's the limo! There's Chris Harrison! There's a guy in a chicken suit? Of course there's a guy in a chicken suit. He's just the latest in what has become a Bachelor/Bachelorette tradition. Contestants have arrived on horseback, in shark outfits, wearing a unicorn head, in a wedding dress, with fake hearts…it's now a grand Bachelor Nation tradition. Go big or go home, right?

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Becca, who actually won The Bachelor and was engaged to marry Arie Luyendyk Jr. before he broke it off with her (on camera, of course) to be with runner-up Lauren Burnham, wore a white gown to meet The Bachelorette contestants.

Arie said he broke up with Becca on camera in hopes it would help her become the star of The Bachelorette.

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"I really wanted everyone to know that this was on me," Arie told Michael Strahan on Good Morning America. "This was my fault, and I felt like filming that would let people know that, that if there were any questions on the breakup, those would be squashed if they saw the breakup. And I wanted her that opportunity, honestly, I wanted her that opportunity to be the potential Bachelorette."

In an interview with E! News, Chris Harrison explained how that on-camera breakup helped Becca become the next Bachelorette.

"Once this evolved and once we saw the outpouring of love and support for Becca—and on top of that, we saw how she handled that unedited, controversial scene. I mean, she was so graceful, so poised, so strong and put together, it made our decision so easy," he told E! News. "That's why we don't ever really rush to judgment, and a lot of times people give us a hard time or say we've made the choice, and I just laugh at those articles and stuff that are written because I'm like, ‘Um, we really haven't made our decision yet.' Because we want to wait and see."

The Bachelorette returns this spring on ABC.