Jenn Tran Reacts to The Bachelorette Going on Pause Ahead of Season 22 (Exclusive)

Jenn Tran is sharing her thoughts on the delay of season 22 of The Bachelorette.

In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE at a taping of Kelly Mi Li’s Stir the Pot, Tran reacted to the news that The Bachelorette would not be returning for its normal summer premiere this year. As the lead in season 21 of the longstanding dating show, she says she also has some theories as to why the change was made.

“It was a surprise to me,” she notes. “The franchise has been going on for so long. Sometimes you hear things like why [shows go on pause]. I have no idea why and what’s going on there. I really have no idea.”

“The Bachelorette does usually air in the summer when people are traveling — I heard that it doesn’t do as well as The Bachelor, which airs in the fall, where people are home and ready to watch TV,” she adds. “So maybe it’ll give a chance for the next Bachelorette to air at a time where there’s more visibility. That would be nice.”

Fans were caught off guard after Deadline reported earlier this month that the franchise was “pausing” production, which typically begins in late winter or early spring. Days later, host Jesse Palmer clarified that there was nothing to worry about, but he was also a “little bit bummed” by the news.

“The good news is I know it’s not going away. I know it’s definitely coming back,” he said on a Feb. 11 episode of the Playing the Field podcast. “Without being able to get into too much of the creative decisions on it, I know that when it does [return], I just think it’s going to be absolutely tremendous.”

He noted that it is “not unprecedented for The Bachelorette not to air in the summer,” and promised that “once it does come back, I know Bachelor Nation will be really excited.”

There have been a few seasons of The Bachelorette that did not follow the typical summer schedule in the past. In 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, season 16 didn’t air until late October that year. Season 18 also aired in October.

The show also went on a hiatus from 2006 until 2007, which was the only time the network did not air a season of The Bachelorette since its inception in 2003. 

Tran’s season came to a conclusion in September 2024 with an explosive After the Final Rose episode in which she revealed that she and winner Devin Strader had broken up. At the time, she claimed their dynamic changed almost immediately after filming the finale.

“As soon as we had left Hawai’i, things were just different,” she said during the After the Final Rose special. “It kind of just felt like he was pulling away all the promises that he had made to me — wanting to move somewhere together, and wanting to have this future planned out, and wanting to see each other all the time.”

Jenn explained that she stopped receiving calls and texts from Devin, and grew “confused.” Then, one night, she got a call from her then fiancé.

“He called me, and he basically broke off the engagement,” she explained. “[He said] he didn’t love me anymore, feel the same way and felt like something had been off since the second thing he proposed. He regretted getting engaged.”

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The Bachelorette is now available to stream on Hulu.