The Wait Is Over — Next Season’s The Bachelor Announced

After months of waiting, The Bachelor has finally announced its next leading man! The big announcement was made during the season finale of Bachelor in Paradise on Tuesday, and it wasn’t necessarily who people were expecting.

As time was running out on the finale, host Chris Harrison announced Peter Weber will be the next gentleman looking for love on the ABC reality series, which is set to premiere in January 2020.

Weber was brought out on stage during the reunion, and fans seemed to be excited about the announcement. The 28-year-old — who is loveably known as “Pilot Pete” expressed how happy is it be given this opportunity to find his person.

“It’s still hitting me right now, and I feel so grateful right now just to have this opportunity in front of me. I feel emotional right now. This is crazy. This is life-changing,” Weber told Harrison and the crowd.

“I have truly, my entire life, looked forward to finding my girl, and that first person that I cannot wait to spend the rest of my life with. … I have all the faith in the world that this can work for me, and I know it’s going to.”

While Weber was a fan favorite during Hannah Brown’s season of The Bachelorette, he wasn’t exactly the frontrunner to become the next Bachelor following her season. In fact, many fans predicted her runner-up, Tyler Cameron, would be the next Bachelor, that is until he began dating supermodel Gigi Hadid.

Some viewers were also hoping producers would cast Mike Johnson as The Bachelor, as he’d be the first African-American male to be the lead of the show.

Though Johnson wasn’t picked as The Bachelor, there are rumors floating around he’s dating pop star Demi Lovato, so it sounds like it’s all working out for everybody! What do you think of Weber becoming The Bachelor? Are you excited to watch? Let us know what you think!