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Talk with Alex Michel, Star of ABC's New Reality TV Series 'The Bachelor'

Aired March 22, 2002 - 09:42   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: One man, 25 women. For most single guys, that's a dream come true. For Alex Michel, star of ABC's new reality TV series, "The Bachelor," it's work. In the show, Alex is looking for love and getting a helping hand. He's set up with 25 beautiful, eligible women, and his "job" is to pick the one he likes best. "The Bachelor" premieres Monday night on ABC, and Alex Michel is with us now.

And I just got I got to wonder who are the 25 ladies, what where they thinking and what are parents saying, and better yet, what are your parents saying?

ALEX MICHEL, "THE BACHELOR": Well, they were 25 incredible women, beautiful, intelligent, brave and I think their parents all probably had mixed emotions. I heard of a lot of splits where, you know, the mother thought it was cool and the father was very concerned. In my family, it was the opposite. My mother was a little bit more worried.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

Whatever happened to, you know, meeting someone out in the park, at the gym, at a party, a social event? Why in the world do you need a television show to recruit these eligible women? And do you really take them seriously? You're not really looking for love here, are you?

MICHEL: I am absolutely am looking for love, and I understand that this is a very untraditional approach, but I think it's actually a great one. And for me, it just felt like this would be -- I just had a feeling this might be the way I wound find the person right for me.

WHITFIELD: And? Any luck? Can you reveal that?

MICHEL: Well, I'm not allowed to say what happens, but I can say that I'm really happy I did it.

WHITFIELD: All right, so explain how this goes. We are going to see six episodes on ABC, the 25 women. What takes place during these episodes? in what way are you encountering these women, meeting them, getting to know them? MICHEL: Well, the first episode is this coming Monday night, and what happens is a big cocktail with 25 women. They come over, and we have sort of a mixer, and I just -- I frantically try to spend a little bit of time with each of them to try know them a little bit. And at the end of the evening, I give 15 women a rose and invite them to continue along this romantic journey to get to know them better.

After that, in later episodes, there's a lot of dating, more social events, a lot of incredibly exotic dates, things that I wouldn't have been able to pull off on my own. And we keep on sort of narrowing it down until I find the woman who I think is best for me.

WHITFIELD: OK, you have got 25 lovely ladies. Beauty is only skin deep. On the surface, you see, yes, they're all beautiful, they're attractive, et cetera, but how did you really go about trying to find some real content, or was that your objective?

MICHEL: Yes, that was absolutely my objective.

WHITFIELD: Yes, real compatibility, real people here.

MICHEL: Yes, I mean, every date I went on, I couldn't help but think, every little thing I was thinking, how is this going to be for the next 50 years? It was all about the long term, and I was amazed by how intense things got, how quickly. So, absolutely is everyone as beautiful there from start. But we had some conversations about what are we looking for out of life, and you know, how many kids do you want? And things probably make me run for the hills if they would have happened on a first date in normal circumstances, but in this situation, we got to know each other really quickly because of the situation we were in.

WHITFIELD: Yes, and here you are, a Harvard and Stanford- educated man, and you know what happened the result of the, you know, Rockwell/Darva Conger, that whole debacle. And did you really approach like you would find a quality, you know, love connection here? I mean, what do these women think about, a, being recruited or volunteering? Who are these girls?

MICHEL: They were an incredible bunch of women. And they you know, they had some characteristics that actually I think are good for me, in their willingness to just do this at all. I mean, they were brave, they were self-confident, they were social and extroverted, and they all had this great sense of adventure that let them sign up for something like this, so I was really impressed with the caliber of the women. They were not what you might expect from a TV show. These were real people.

WHITFIELD: And you did find a love connection?

MICHEL: You got to tune in to find out. But you know, I'm feeling good.

WHITFIELD: You're happy. Well, I guess, you had 25 woman at your disposal.

MICHEL: Thank a lot. Alex Michel. The show is "The Bachelor" Monday night on another network, ABC.

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