Chris Harrison

The venerable host-pimp of ABC's guilty pleasure reality franchise says he deeply regrets what unfolded on Ashley Hebert's season of The Bachelorette.

Chris Harrison learned a key lesson from the Bentley Williams debacle and that's why he's intervening in a big way on The Bachelor tomorrow night.

Bentley's deceit about his intentions, not to mention his being a complete d!ck, eventually led to heartbreak for Ash. Chris takes part of the blame.

"I didn't go far enough in talking to [Ashley Hebert] about Bentley," he says. "I warned her and I took some steps. But I don't think I went far enough."

Sometimes a pimp's gotta step up to the plate and reprimand his employees.

Tomorrow night, Harrison takes firmer steps to prevent a repeat with current Bachelor star Ben Flajnik, as teased in a preview of this week's episode (below).

Harrison arrives in Panama City, Panama, where Ben is wooing the remaining women, to drop a bomb that evidently leaves Casey Shteamer bawling.

"There's something that happens with Ben in Panama, where I got to kind of, you know, rectify that situation and do the right thing," Harrison said.

"In that speech to him and the girl that's involved, I actually said, you know what, I made a mistake [last] season, so I'm not going to do it here."

The Bachelor spoilers we've read have hinted at this for weeks now, but it looks like the show is full-on admitting it early. Its Facebook page teases:

"Soon it will be revealed that one bachelorette still has a boyfriend ... Who do you think it is?" We're gonna guess Casey S. Just a thought ...

The Bachelor Promo: Mojo Rising

He bared his soul on The Bachelorette. Now Ben Flajnik is baring even more.

We're talking about bare buns, people.

"It's a very nude season," host-pimp Chris Harrison says of Flajnik's turn as The Bachelor, which kicked off with another mesmerizing season premiere Monday.

"Ben is comfortable in his own skin. He doesn't have modesty issues."

But it wasn't all easy for the 29-year-old, San Francisco-based winemaker, who admits he was caught off guard by the fierce level of competition among the 25 women.

He's a go-with-the-flow kind of guy when it comes to disrobing on camera, but the emotional nakedness of the reality show left him seeking cover. So to speak.

This winter will feature a mystery woman from Ben's past (our Bachelor spoilers page has the details), a hyped-up skinny-dipping session and MAJOR cat fighting.

"Obviously with a situation like this, the claws are going to come out," Flajnik tells People Magazine. "And they came out a lot earlier than I would've expected."

We've come to expect such things, but never quite like this. If you missed the (sexy, dramatic, suspense-filled!) trailer for the new season, watch it after the jump:

Rumors that next season will star Emily Maynard as The Bachelorette are greatly exaggerated, according to venerable host-pimp Chris Harrison.

Still, he left the door open for that possibility later.

“It is way too early, way too presumptuous of anybody to say that Emily is The Bachelorette," Chris said this week on Access Hollywood Live.

Harrison said that despite the Bachelorette rumors, Emily's split with Brad Womack is still too raw, and she likely won't seek love on TV again.

“It’s obviously been bantered about. We’re not idiots, we've talked about it, but it hadn’t even been broached to her," he said. "It is way too soon.”

“They're barely even broken up. As far as TV goes, we don’t go into production for six more months. We would never pigeonhole ourselves."

In a tear-jerking interview Monday, Emily said her split with Brad boiled down to commitment issues and her being a single parent to Ricki, 6.

Emily Maynard will open up to Chris Harrison about her breakup with Brad Womack in a special segment next week on The Bachelorette.

Brad will not be joining her.

Harrison said that Womack was not ready to discuss the split with Emily, to whom he proposed on The Bachelor finale earlier this year.

Maynard confirmed the breakup, which had been something of an open secret for some time, in an interview last week with People.

Harrison said he reached out to Brad to ask if he would participate in the interview, but the Texas bar owner was not willing to do so on television.

"While he gave his blessing for Emily to speak on their behalf, his emotions are still too raw and he wasn't ready to speak about it," Chris said. "I respect that and told him I was sorry we had to do this interview at all."

Yes. So sorry they had to rehash this publicly for ratings.

Harrison also said that Emily Maynard was "reluctant" to discuss the split, but wanted to set the record straight following so much media interest.

In our Bachelorette recap earlier, we touched on many burning questions from last night, most of which we may never fully know the answer to.

Why did Bentley Williams go on the show? Why did he treat Ashley like garbage? Why didn't ABC boot him? How can he be allowed to return!?

One thing is clear: We need Chris Harrison like never before.

Below are excerpts from Chris' EW blog this morning, in which The Bachelorette host addresses the scourge of society that is Bentley:

On whether Bentley Williams is the show's worst villain: My first thought about that is that’s really something for you guys to judge, not me.

My second thought is the “villain” title really doesn’t do justice to what went down. It softens the blow and simplifies things too much in my opinion.

On why Bentley left and when: I’m not positive, but something about not getting the rose on this group date seemed to set the wheels in motion.

Whenever he decided he was going, he pulled the trigger the next morning. Let me be very clear about my thoughts on Bentley and him leaving.

I have no problem with him coming on the show, even if he hoped The Bachelorette was Emily, or with him deciding it was time to leave. That's up to him.

Bentley Williams is already establishing himself as one of The Bachelorette's all-time villains. When Wes Hayden is calling you out on Twitter, you know things are getting uglier by the day - and we're only two episodes into the season.

Despite admitting that Bachelorette star Ashley Hebert wasn't his type, Bentley is basically wooing her just for kicks. That has Chris Harrison pretty upset.

Here's what the ABC show's host had to say about the drama:

On how he even got cast: "He obviously didn't say all those derogatory things in casting. He might have said, 'It would be cool if it was Emily [Maynard].' Bentley obviously didn't say, 'If it's Ashley, I'm going to use and destroy her.'"

On whether he warned Ashley: "If you have information about a guy before he even gets out of the limo, which we did, that's beyond a red flag. We gave her the option, telling her, 'You don't have to meet this guy. We can pull him.'"

"We justify everything by giving Ashley the power."

Bentley Williams was cast as this season's villain on The Bachelorette - sort of like a Wes Hayden / Justin Rego hybrid - before he even got out of the limo.

Before the night began, Ashley Hebert explained she had been warned about Bentley by someone from last season (Michelle) who loosely knows him.

According to this Deep Throat, he was coming on the show promote his company and not find love ... a.k.a. NOT THERE FOR THE RIGHT REASONS!

Bentley admitted to the producers he wished Emily Maynard was The Bachelorette, then acted ambivalent about Ash ... who gave him a rose anyway.

Despite all the warning signs - Chris even begged Ashley to cut him - she went with her gut, and from the looks of this season preview, she may well regret it.

"He reminds me of every bad guy in all the John Hughes movies. His name should be Blaine and he should drive a red Porsche or something," Harrison says.

"Everyone says the producers are jerks and how could [we] do that to her, but she always has the final decision, she can always get rid of this guy."

"You didn't even see how much I begged her to bag this guy right there on Night 1. She said I'm going with my gut and she gave the guy a rose."

More reflections on the premiere from Chris after the jump ...

The traditional two-hour filler episode of The Bachelor provided no huge revelations, but there were some fireworks last night on the Women Tell All special.

The Hot Seat was aptly titled at times. We'll take what we can get.

How didit all  play out when Brad Womack's outcasts reunited for mediation sessions with host-pimp Chris Harrison? Here's THG's trademark +/- recap!

First, props to the great Chris. This is who you'd want in the room if you were being sued. Not as an attorney, just a debonair, calming, pimping presence. Plus 13.

We don't recognize half of these women and we watch every week. Minus 15.

One of the season's final four, the adorable mortician Shawntel N., did not say a word. Did she not wish to? Is she not interesting enough? Either way, Minus 11.

There will be a Bachelor Pad 2. It will feature Vienna Girardi. Plus 10.

Michelle Money was the unquestioned highlight of the night, using all her camera time to bash the other women, then crying when they turned it around. Wash.

Dramatically trying to catch your breath, Michelle? Acting much? Minus 4.

Chris Harrison, venerable host/pimp of The Bachelor, sat down with Ellen DeGeneres yesterday to discuss what goes on behind the scenes of the ABC hit.

While there were no Bachelor spoilers of significance revealed, he did chat about bringing back Brad, rose ceremony all-nighters and Bachelor drinking games.

The best part? Ellen pointing out the absurdity of Chris ritualistically announcing the final rose each and every week, as if the women and viewers don't know.

Watch his funny reaction and the rest of his interview with Ellen here ...

Chris Harrison on Ellen

Bachelor Pad was a sleeper hit this summer.

Sure, it has none of the Bachelor spoilers, scandals or love triangles that make its parent shows so compelling. But the competition was definitely fun.

As such, host-pimp Chris Harrison wants to run it back with some changes, and thinks there's a good chance ABC will give producers that opportunity.

A dramatic scene from the first season of Bachelor Pad.

"It's not official, but I'm hearing good things from everybody at ABC and the creators of the show," says Harrison. "Everybody wants to do it again."

"Nobody has officially signed on the dotted line, but I feel really good that it's going to happen again. ABC really liked what it did for them."