Andrew Spencer Said He Filmed A Bachelorette Hometown On Katie’s Season

As Charity Lawson’s season proves yet again, Bachelor/ette hometowns are always an emotional part of the process: a chance for leads to meet their potential in-laws and narrow down some big decisions about who they’d like to end the show with. But this is reality TV, and not everything makes the cut. In fact, one Bachelorette alum recently revealed that he filmed footage for a hometown date that never aired.

In a recent appearance on The Dave Neal Show, Andrew Spencer opened up about his time on Katie Thurston’s Bachelorette season. As you’ll recall, Andrew and Katie forged a strong connection — but the Season 17 lead ultimately eliminated Andrew the week before hometown dates. “I could not look your mom or your sister in the eye and tell them what they would want to hear,” Katie explained. “Because they know what you deserve. I know what you deserve. And the hard part is that I am building stronger connections. And you deserve more than I can give you.”

The next day, Andrew said goodbye to Katie with a note that read, “If you change your mind, I’ll be waiting.” This led her to reconsider, asking Andrew if he would like to stick around a little longer — an offer he ultimately declined. But that wasn’t the full story of Andrew’s Bachelorette exit, apparently.

“I had a hometown,” he told Dave Neal. “Not a lot of people know that ... I think it was just in case if I said yes to staying, they would have aired it.”

As Andrew explained, though, it wasn’t a typical hometown. While he did spend time with his family, it doesn’t sound like Katie was involved. “I just got sent home [and producers were] like, ‘We still want you to film with your family.’” Remember, this was in early 2021 — so in keeping with COVID restrictions, hometowns took place at The Bachelorette’s temporary filming location in New Mexico. Andrew’s family was in town for 10 days due to travel precautions, he explained, which seems to have facilitated the just-in-case hometown footage.

Andrew also referenced a rumor that he was “coached into staying” because of Michael Allio’s self-elimination. “So, to complete the numbers, it’d be better if I would have stayed. That would have been four, instead of just three people going into hometowns.”

He still decided against staying, though. “I want my future wife to choose me,” he said at the time. “And, you know, I wasn’t chosen. So I had to say no. I don’t want to go through this with her again.”

It doesn’t seem that The Bachelorette regularly banks backup hometown footage, of course. Rather, Andrew’s hometown filming was a combination of several unusual factors — namely, filming during a pandemic and, as Andrew suggested, a season with several self-eliminations.