First Bachelorette season 19 footage answers a burning question about limo exits

The upcoming season of The Bachelorette might as well be subtitled A Festival of Awkwardness. For the first time in the show's 19-year history, two women — Gabby Windey, 31, and Rachel Recchia, 26 — will date the same pool of men during their season-long "journey" to find a husband. And that could get very uncomfortable.

While my biggest fear, rose lovers, is that producers will try to turn the besties against each other during their quest for love, my second-biggest fear is that they'd try to maximize the awkwardness on night one by making the suitors greet each Bachelorette separately. But ABC just revealed the first footage from the season premiere, airing next month, and my worries have been alleviated.

As you'll see in the promo below (around the 18-second mark), a man walks out of the limo and strides right up to Gabby and Rachel, who are standing next to one another. (Unfortunately this dude, who looks like John to me, says, "Hi, Rachel" to Gabby — so, strike one!)

If you're thinking, "Kristen, why are you making such a big deal about this? Of course they'd have Gabby and Rachel greet the men together!" — well, you clearly did not live through season 11 of The Bachelorette back in 2015. In that season's "historic" first, Kaitlyn Bristowe and Britt Nilsson started the season as dual Bachelorettes, but the men voted for their favorite at the end of night one. And, rose lovers, the limo-exit setup was terrible. Producers had Britt and Kaitlyn stand so far apart that you'd think this was a COVID-era social distancing situation. Behold:

ABC Kaitlyn and Britt on 'The Bachelorette'

When the guys got out of the limo, they had to decide on their own which woman to greet first. And while he chatted with one Bachelorette, the other one just had to stand there looking uncomfortable, like the Queen of all Third Wheels. Behold:

ABC Kaitlyn pretends she's somewhere else while Britt hugs a contestant on 'The Bachelorette'

It was beyond mortifying for all involved — including those of us watching. So thank the reality TV gods that Gabby, Rachel, and Bachelor Nation will not be enduring a similar trauma when the new season of The Bachelorette premieres July 11. See you then, folks.

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