(UPI) — Bachelor series host Chris Harrison will not be returning for Season 7 of ABC’s Bachelor in Paradise, according to reports.
The new season of the spinoff series is set to premiere on Aug. 17 at 8 p.m. EDT. Harrison will be replaced by a selection of celebrity guests hosts including David Spade, Variety has reported, citing sources.
Entertainment Weekly also confirmed the news, along with Page Six, which states that Spade was selected due to being a fan of the Bachelor series.
Harrison will also be absent from The Bachelorette Season 17, which premieres Monday at 8 p.m. EDT. Former contestants Tayshia Adams and Kaitlyn Bristowe will be serving as hosts of The Bachelorette Season 17.
Harrison announced in February that he was stepping away from the reality franchise following backlash he received for defending Bachelor Season 25 contestant Rachael Kirkconnell.
Photos of Kirkconnell at an antebellum plantation-themed party and other racially insensitive posts had surfaced online. Harrison, in an interview with Bachelorette star Rachel Lindsay on Extra, asked for “a little grace, a little understanding, a little compassion” from the “woke police” for Kirkconnell.
Harrison later apologized for the comments.
“What I now realize I have done is cause harm by wrongly speaking in a manner that perpetuates racism, and for that I am so deeply sorry,” he said at the time.
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