"The Bachelor" welcomes the New Year with a new 22<sup>nd season and 29 women vying for the love of main man Arie Luyendyk Jr.
The 36-year-old race car driver turned realtor is far from being a new face. He is the runner-up on the 2012 season of "The Bachelorette," where he was dumped by Emily Maynard for Jef Holm. It is the same season Luyendyk was nicknamed the "kissing bandit," after sharing so many steamy kisses with the leading lady on screen.
But while all that was televised, fans of the Bachelor Nation have not really seen or heard much of Luyendyk in the past five years. In the Jan. 1 first episode of "The Bachelor" season 22, it was revealed that he has since spent a lot of his time on the road, some 200 days every year, before trying to settle down in the realty business. And yet, throughout the years, Luyendyk failed to find a woman who could make his heart skip a beat, hinting that the incident with Maynard left a huge scar.
But that should change once he gets to know the 29 new women ready to give it their best shot just to win his heart. He met them one by one, as the ladies arrived in various cars. Their bios have been released early on in December, with almost half of them also in the realty business like Luyendyk. There was also a personal stylist, an event designer, a rock-climbing nanny, and a few other interesting personalities.
In an earlier interview with People, Luyendyk revealed that he did not only find one woman to give him butterflies, he found two of them.
"I've never been in that situation, and it was really hard. And they were two very different women, and that's what made it even harder," he told People. "The end was really difficult for me. And I think that it's because it's such a huge decision, and it's my life. But I'm happy, and I wouldn't have changed anything."
Who are these two lucky women? One thing is for sure, they are not Alison, Amber, Bri, Brittane J., Jessica, Nysha, Olivia, and one of the four Laurens, who got evicted in the season's first rose ceremony.
"The Bachelor" season 22 airs Mondays, 8 p.m. EDT, on ABC.
