“It really has very little to do with being on The Bachelor,” Chris Harrison, the series’s former host, tells me over breakfast at Manhattan’s Whitby Hotel in mid-October. Harrison orders avocado toast with poached eggs on top, then gently redirects the conversation to The Vow, his new faith-based dating series that premieres November 11 on Fox Nation. “It’s what we noticed, reading articles about this revival of young people going to church more than ever,” he says, turning to his wife and fellow executive producer on the show, Lauren Zima, who is seated beside him. “Here in New York, there are youth nights at the Catholic Church, at the temple, that are selling out thousands of kids. Clearly, this generation is searching for something solid—salvation, foundation.”
The six-episode series airs on the conservative-associated Fox Nation, Harrison says The Vow isn’t meant to have a political slant. “We’re not telling you to believe this or follow this path,” says Harrison. “Good shows look into a niche, this one’s about faith-driven people trying to find love. The hookup culture was a big deal and settling down became a cocktail joke. This generation’s really pushing back the other way.”
Faith-based dating shows aimed at Gen Z audiences have begun to infiltrate the reality TV landscape in recent years, from The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives to Hulu’s Ring by Spring Break, an upcoming series “that drops single Christian college students into a steamy spring break in Cabo, where finding ‘The One’ isn’t a dream…it’s a deadline.” But mixing romance and religion can be tricky business, as evidenced by the indeterminate future of the Mormon Wives and a ready-to-release season of The Bachelorette put on pause following allegations made against Taylor Frankie Paul, who leads both shows.
On The Vow, Jace Cates is a 30-year-old devout Christian mortgage-loan officer from Canby, Oregon that 10 similarly faith-driven women compete to marry. The goal is that, “Jace finds love,” says Harrison. “If it leads to marriage and children, we don’t have enough time for all that to happen on the show, but I want to help try and create the real article on TV. And if we don’t, that has to be real as well because this show is not predicated on the fact that it’s guaranteed to work.” But it’s hard to imagine any contenders stand a chance against Sierra, a virgin who lives 20 minutes away from Jace and attends his same Portland church. Her frontrunner status is cemented with a night-one kiss, the filming of which happened to coincide with Sierra’s 26th birthday. “We cast her before we cast Jace,” says Harrison, which feels as telling a reveal as any about producers’ ability to set themselves up for a successful outcome.
