The Bachelorette season 21 premiere had everyone talking about Jenn Tran, her crop of 25 contestants and two extra rodents along for the ride.
“You’ll notice there were two of [the rats],” producers told Entertainment Weekly on Thursday, July 11. “Everyone deserves to find love!”
Jenn’s season premiered on Monday, July 8, where she met an array of men whom she’ll date throughout the Bachelor Nation journey. After Sam Nejad (a.k.a. the self-proclaimed “love virgin”) stepped out of the limo to greet 26-year-old Bachelorette, eagle-eyed viewers noticed that rodents appeared to scurry across the floor.
While The Bachelor, The Bachelorette and the Golden spinoffs are typically filmed at the Bachelor Mansion in Agoura Hills, California, Jenn’s season took place elsewhere. Night one was filmed at the Hummingbird Nest Ranch in the Santa Susana Mountains in southern California. The cast immediately left the United States for Australia following the first rose ceremony.
As Jenn narrowed down her contestants, Sam McKinney stood out and earned the coveted first impression rose.
“Throughout that night, I was just like, ‘Who am I going to give the first impression rose to?’ And I kept thinking back to Sam, because we had such an easy-flowing conversation,” Jenn exclusively told Us Weekly ahead of Monday’s premiere. “It was easy to give him that rose, because I just felt so comfortable and I knew that there was going to be potential there.”
Sam, 27, is also the only man whom Jenn has kissed thus far, which she admitted to Us was a “feral” make-out session.
“I didn’t go into the night thinking, ‘I don’t want to kiss anyone.’ I went into the night knowing how this process works, how this journey works, how other Bachelor/ Bachelorettes have gone throughout their journeys, and, for me, a first kiss means a lot. And I need to be able to feel a certain level of comfortability with somebody,” Jenn said. “And I need to be able to feel like our relationship is at that point for me to want to kiss you. I knew that it wasn’t going to be everybody on night one, and so I really just tried to listen to my gut and whoever I felt most comfortable with, I was like, ‘Yes, I’ll entertain it,’ but I knew I wasn’t going to kiss everybody.”
The Bachelorette airs on ABC Mondays at 8 p.m. ET.