Arie's Season Of 'The Bachelorette' Is A Must-See

When The Bachelor Season 22 airs this January, it’s going to feature a contestant that fans may remember from Bachelor Nation years ago. However, there's also a chance they may not remember him at all. Arie Luyendyk Jr. has been out of the Bachelor spotlight for a while. Perhaps even before you started watching the show. So if that's the case, you may be wondering: what season of The Bachelorette was Arie on?

The new Bachelor might be brand new to some viewers, but that’s totally OK, since ABC plans to air Countdown to Arie on Monday, Dec. 11 on ABC at 10 p.m. EST. The special will give viewers a little catch-up of sorts on Arie’s life and a little insight to who the race -car driver is, for fans who may need a bit of a refresher. You see, Arie is actually from Season 8 of The Bachelorette, during which he placed second in winning the heart of then-Bachelorette Emily Maynard.

If it seems like the people behind Bachelor Nation took their good old time in giving Arie the chance to look for love on reality TV again, he could have been the Bachelor much sooner. According to People, when casting was being done for The Bachelor Season 19, there were rumors that Arie had been seriously considered, but as we all know, Chris Soules was chosen as the Bachelor for that particular season, and life went on.

Flash forward to today and although fans speculated quite a bit about who the next Bachelor was going to be and theorized that it would likely be someone from one of the most recent seasons of The Bachelorette or Bachelor in Paradise, we were all thrown a serious curveball when Arie was announced as the next rose-carrying suitor. But even if you’re a little unfamiliar with him or his season of The Bachelorette, there’s plenty of reason to get excited about the new Bachelor.

The Bachelorette Season 8 wasn’t by any means one of the first, so the format from then until now hasn’t really changed. It was the first and only season to film in the Bachelorette’s hometown rather than on location in Los Angeles. There was still some pretty stellar traveling though, including a trip to Prague, where it was revealed that — gasp — Arie had had a previous relationship with one of the show’s producers. Luckily, it didn’t get him axed at the time, but he still didn’t end up getting to slide one of those Neil Lane engagement rings on Emily’s finger at the end of the season.

Arie might also be remembered as being a genuinely good guy. When Emily had a particularly hard time sending one of the men home, Arie showed up to her room to console her, but instead of their impromptu one-on-one being about furthering their relationship, it was solely for the purpose of Arie trying to make her feel better. All together now — awww.

Even if you didn’t see Arie’s season of The Bachelorette or weren’t watching the show at all at the time, you may have heard about his kissing skills. In fact, he was even given the nickname "the Kissing Bandit."

In the end, all of Arie’s sweet moves and legendary kisses weren’t enough to get him that final rose. But when it came time for Arie and Emily to reunite on the After the Final Rose special, he wasn’t bitter about anything and he didn’t wish her unhappiness moving forward. Instead, he was clearly heartbroken over the whole thing and revealed that after filming, he’d actually tried to contact her, but without any success.

I mean, that alone makes me want him to find his perfect match during his season of The Bachelor. So even if you don’t know him as well as some of the men from the more recent seasons of The Bachelorette, it’s hard to deny that Arie wants and deserves this chance.

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