Chris Harrison

The news of Chris Harrison separating from his wife of 18 years took many by surprise yesterday, but the venerable TV personality will still be back in his familiar role as The Bachelorette host and pimp on May 14.

In a recent article for EW, he previewed six guys to watch this season.

Will any of these fellas end up in the final four, or beyond? See The Bachelorette spoilers we've compiled so far for more on that. Then read the primer on a half dozen fellas who undoubtedly will be major players this summer ...

Kalon McMahon, 27: This "luxury-brand consultant" is, Harrison says, "cocky, brash, and arrogant" and arrives on the first night in a rented helicopter.

"He makes a huge first impression, but the big story is, will it fade quickly?" Sounds that way ... considering his equipment wasn't that remarkable.

"I don't know where that helicopter came from, but it was pretty unimpressive," Harrison says. "It would be like showing up in a Prius instead of a limo."

The Bachelor host Chris Harrison and his wife of over 18 years, Gwen, are divorcing.

The couple announced their separation "after much heartfelt consideration" today.

"Though we have made this incredibly difficult decision to separate, our love and mutual respect remain, and we look forward to sharing in the lives of our wonderful children," Chris and Gwen said in a joint statement Thursday.

Harrison, 40, is best known for hosting ABC's The Bachelor and The Bachelorette. In 2010, he was accused on-screen of hitting on a producer's wife.

At the time, he was hardly ruffled by the "cheap shot" of controversial contestant Rozlyn Papa. "I had nothing to hide," he said. "My wife was there."

The couple live 35 miles from Hollywood with their kids Joshua, 9, and Taylor, 7.

Harrison, who coaches both kids' soccer teams, is "an amazing father," Gwen says. "He's very loving and involved." He's also amazing at his job.

No word if he will also be the next Bachelor, but Harrison will be back running the show for its popular spinoff (see Bachelorette spoilers) May 14.

[Photo: WENN.com]

The Bachelor host Chris Harrison spoke to reporters via conference call today and shared his thoughts on the re-engaged Ben Flajnik and Courtney Robertson.

Chris paints a fair portrait of the controversial couple, and sympathizes with Courtney (though he concedes he and his family were Team Lindzi from the start).

Will the couple make it? Will we see them on TV again? And what was it like whipping out that ring on the After the Final Rose special? So many questions.

Excerpts from his lengthy interview on all of that and more below:

On whether he's rooting for rooting Ben and Courtney:

"Of course I'm rooting them on. You know, why wouldn't you?"

"I mean, I know that she wasn't the most popular choice and that if you put it to America's vote maybe she wouldn't have been in it, but I think the important thing and the great thing about the show is that was Ben's choice."

"Why not respect that? Who am I not to respect that? And so of course I wish them the best and the million dollar question, will they make it? Who knows? Who's to say which couples make it in life? But I wish them the very best. 

Tim Tebow as The Bachelor?

It's been talked about, by host Chris Harrison no less. This week, Chris asked the Denver Broncos star whether he would be interested in being the star of the show.

"They always say yes, but it never happens," Harrison said. "He did say yes ... but he would never do it. He has a little job called quarterback for at least another year."

Tebow said he'll pass, so to speak, via Twitter: "Haha rumors can be crazy! Even though I've watched the show before, I'm definitely not gonna be on the Bachelor."

Could you imagine if Tim Tebow were The Bachelor, though?

The dates he would take the women on would be amazing:

• Listening to Taylor Swift and sipping water at home
• Tebowing at various national landmarks
• Hanging out with his family
• Playing board games
• Watching game film

NOTE: For the latest developments on the wild, crazy current season, which Tebow most definitely would not approve of, follow this link for The Bachelor spoilers.

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."