Sam Hartman, a backup quarterback on the Washington Commanders’ practice squad, is the next star of The Bachelor. ABC named the 27-year-old as the lead of the show’s 30th season on November 13, and the network says the new run premieres on Sunday, March 21, 2027, from 8 to 10 p.m. Eastern and Pacific.
The network’s announcement leans hard on the football angle. ABC describes Hartman as a pro athlete who is ready to find his “forever teammate,” and says he will start “handing out roses as he searches for love.” Episodes stream the next day on Hulu, and on Hulu inside Disney+ for US bundle subscribers. Jesse Palmer stays on as host.
From Wake Forest records to an NFL practice squad
Hartman was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, on July 29, 1999. Viewers of the high school football documentary series QB1: Beyond the Lights first met him during his senior season at Oceanside Collegiate Academy in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, and ABC calls him a fan favorite from that show.
His college numbers are the reason anyone outside North Carolina knows his name. Across five seasons at Wake Forest he threw 110 touchdown passes, the most in Atlantic Coast Conference history, and he holds the ACC record of 21 games with 300 or more passing yards. His 2021 team opened 8-0, a first for the school, and reached the ACC Championship game. He finished with one more college year at Notre Dame in 2023, where his debut came against Navy in Dublin, Ireland: 19 completions from 23 attempts, 251 yards and four touchdowns.
The NFL was less straightforward. Hartman went undrafted in 2024 and signed with Washington on April 28 of that year with $245,000 guaranteed. Since then he has bounced between the practice squad and the active roster several times. The Commanders cut him on August 30, 2026, as they trimmed to 53 players, then brought him back to the practice squad a day later. The CFL’s Ottawa Redblacks also placed him on their negotiation list on August 31.
A comeback season for the franchise
Season 30 ends a long gap for ABC’s longest-running dating format. The 29th season, built around Grant Ellis, wrapped in March 2025, and the network renewed the show for a 30th run on June 30, 2025, with Bachelor in Paradise producer Scott Teti taking over as showrunner. Teti is listed as an executive producer alongside Jason Ehrlich and Andy Frank, with Warner Horizon Unscripted Television producing.
The timing works around the day job. Filming is expected to start in January 2027, once the NFL regular season is over, so Hartman can finish the year with Washington before the cameras roll. That leaves about two months between the end of production and air.
By Badiyaa’s count, the premiere lands 128 days after the casting announcement, a window that runs from mid-November through the whole of the NFL playoffs and into spring.
Reality television has been leaning on famous faces from sport this season. Our coverage of Wayne Rooney leading the I’m A Celebrity 2026 lineup tracked one route, and Prime Video’s Fallout Shelter: The Experiment with its $1 million prize shows how hard streamers are chasing the same audience. For more on the league itself, see our story on the NFL’s second game at the Bernabéu in Madrid.
The first rose ceremony of the Hartman season airs on ABC on March 21, 2027.
Further reading
Image: Roan Smith, Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
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