Former lead Jesse Palmer was recently announced as the new host of The Bachelor, and he has quite an interesting past. Jesse came into fame as the lead of season 5 of the ABC reality series. In 2004, when Jesse was only 25 years old, he found himself falling in love with his winner. However, he did not propose. The two continued with a relationship after filming was complete, but broke up several weeks after the finale aired.
Since his time on the dating series, Jesse has used his notoriety to his advantage as he continues to work in the entertainment business. He worked as a commentator for Fox in 2005 and as an NFL analyst in 2007. With that experience, Jesse was offered other gigs covering sports and hosting shows. Even though his time on The Bachelor didn't work out romantically, he did succeed professionally. Now, Jesse is the new host of The Bachelor following Chris Harrison's exit.
Before Jesse became The Bachelor in 2004, he was just a small-town guy from Canada. The now-42-year-old was born in Toronto but later moved to a suburb just outside of Ottawa. According to the American Football Database, Jesse received an athletic scholarship to attend the University of Florida, where he played for the Florida Gators football team from 1997 to 2000. After graduating from college in 2001, the TV personality was chosen to play for the New York Giants during the 2001 NFL Draft. He went on to play for four seasons as the quarterback. Jesse was also drafted by the Canadian Football League. However, he was looking for another opportunity with the NFL and was signed by the San Francisco 49ers in November 2005. Jesse later returned to the CFL but ultimately retired in 2007 to begin his broadcasting career.
While still working as a professional athlete, Jesse was named The Bachelor for season 5. He fell for Jessica Bowlin, but the couple called it quits just a few months after first getting together. According to Us Weekly, Jesse made an appearance in 2012 on George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight, where he discussed how devastated he was by the breakup. While his relationship didn't work out, Jesse made quite the career out of his time on the show. Jesse went on to host shows for ABC, such as The Proposal and most recently, The Ultimate Surfer. Jesse also joined Good Morning America as a Special Contributor in 2015 but left the position in 2017 to host DailyMailTV. Jesse is also known on the Food Network channel as the host of the Spring Baking Championship and Holiday Baking Championship. Besides his professional career, Jesse has since found love. He began dating model Emely Fardo in 2017 and got engaged in 2019 while in Champagne, France.
Now that Chris has been officially replaced by Jesse, viewers are excited to see what he will bring as the new host of The Bachelor. Jesse does have years of experience as a host and presenter, so he will definitely be a natural at the job. While Jesse's new role is getting mixed messages from fans, he does seem like the perfect fit for a new era of the ABC franchise.
Source: The American Football Database, Us Weekly