The Future Is Rosy
Your 2027 Bachelor Lead Is Football Player Sam Hartman
The Season 30 star breaks tradition for the show, which usually casts from within the franchise.
The Bachelor is so back — well, almost. Fans finally know who will lead Season 30 when it drops on March 21 (now on Sunday!). In an exciting twist, he is a totally fresh face to the franchise.
On Nov. 13, ABC announced that the new Bachelor lead for 2027 is Sam Hartman, a 27-year-old quarterback on the Washington Commanders practice squad. Hailing from Charlotte, North Carolina, “the charismatic heartthrob is ready to find a win off the field,” his bio reads.
And heartthrob, indeed! The Notre Dame and Wake Forest alum’s robust social media following regularly swoons over his lush hair and smoldering visage, which even earned him a modeling gig with Ralph Lauren. “I had no idea what I was doing. Like, I thought you Zoolander-ed every photo,” he confessed on the Hero Ball podcast, nodding to Ben Stiller’s iconic “Blue Steel” pout. “They were like, ‘Please don’t do that.’”
Oh, and he’s delightfully online — sharing on the same podcast that he’s one for watching movies part by part on TikTok (a man after my own heart). As he put it: “You watch the film on TikTok [like] Come on, hurry up, chop-chop movie boy.” Altman also soundtracked a recent photo dump to the de facto yearner’s anthem, The Script’s “The Man Who Can’t Be Moved,” which should bode well for the romance he’ll be serving on The Bachelor. Right?
In fact, some fans have thought so for a while. In a viral post from less than a month ago, one Redditor wrote they were “begging” for Hartman to lead The Bachelor, explaining: “He’s old enough, has a built in fan base, isn’t cringey, he’s hot. Even if his season doesn’t lead to serious love, it would help revive the franchise.”
Commenters largely agreed, with one writing: “Is this what they mean when they say fantasy football? Because I could get behind it.”
However, Hartman wasn’t originally convinced he was the right man for the job. “Honestly, at first I was like, No way,” he admitted on Good Morning America, noting that he wasn’t sure about the “connotation” of the role. But he got some “insight” into the experience from Bachelor host and fellow football player Jesse Palmer that ultimately convinced him to go ahead.
As for what Hartman is looking for? A healthy sense of competition doesn’t hurt, he said, “in a way that they have a drive for something, that motivates me to wake up every day and chase them.” He added that he’s drawn to “compassion” and “caregiving,” noting that he comes from a family of healthcare workers. “Seeing them do so much for other people, I think that’s a huge part.”
