JoJo Fletcher and Jordan Rodgers are offering their expertise on finding love through reality television to a group of recently divorced couples on The Big D.
Premiering Wednesday, the USA Network unscripted series is co-hosted by Fletcher and Rodgers, who tied the knot last year after first getting engaged during her season of ABC’s The Bachelorette that aired in 2016. The pair join relationship expert Dr. Jada Jackson in helping to guide six divorced couples who meet in Costa Rica and attempt to find love by dating the other divorcees in the house.
During their conversation with The Hollywood Reporter, Fletcher and Rodgers discuss the project’s bumpy path after having previously been set to air on TBS, why they almost ended their relationship during their first year together, how dating shows can continue to evolve, their appearance on Charity Lawson’s upcoming season of The Bachelorette and why couples like themselves who meet on TV can feel “set up to fail.”
Given that these couples have gone through divorce, was hosting this show different or perhaps more intense than you expected?
JOJO FLETCHER All of those things.
JORDAN RODGERS Yes.
FLETCHER To your point, divorce is not easy. It’s heavy. It’s kind of an untouched subject, but the reality is, a lot of people go through it. The stigma of, your life is over after divorce, or you failed in some way, that was what really attracted us to show the evolvement of hope after heartbreak. With The Big D, when you first hear about it, you’re like, “Drama.” Like, “There’s no way that this house isn’t gonna end up being lit on fire at the end of it.”
RODGERS And it’s got all that.
FLETCHER (Laughs.) It does. It’s crazy. But I will say that the one thing that we didn’t anticipate was just a roller coaster of emotion — how the softer side of your emotions start to really come out as you watch the show. It does pull on your heartstrings a bit.
Jordan Rodgers and JoJo Fletcher
Patrick Ecclesine/USA Network
The show does have that dichotomy where it shows the excitement of new possibilities alongside the pain of past regrets.
RODGERS You just reminded me of something, which is, when I was dating JoJo on reality TV, she didn’t have anybody to fact-check me. I was honest, but I could be whoever I wanted to be and create this new picture if I wanted to. I didn’t, but the interesting part of dating people in front of your ex is, you can’t hide any of your baggage. If you’re telling somebody, “Hey, I’m good at this. I’m so nice. I’m laid-back. I’m stress-free.” And your ex is like, “Yeah, you should see him after X, Y and Z.” So I think you get a really accurate picture of how relationships are gonna work because you’re right there with someone that can tell you the blunt, honest truth, if you want it.
Could you offer unique support, given your own experience with finding love on reality TV?
FLETCHER No one believes it that you can fall in love on TV. But we were a great example of, “Hey, if you want something and you open yourself up, it can happen.” Also for me, before I became the Bachelorette, I was basically at the altar getting dumped by a guy I thought was going to be proposing to me. So there was this heartbreak that I went through that I had to let go of in order to open myself up to a new, better relationship for me. That process that I dealt with internally was something that I could pass on to the girls in moments where it made sense.
The show was initially set to premiere a year ago on TBS, and now it’s on the USA Network. Had you heard anything about why that happened, and what was that process like?
RODGERS It was just a roller coaster of emotions. We were so excited. We’ve been around a lot of shows, and I feel like this has a great, unique approach to the dating scene. We’ve wanted this thing to get on the air as soon as possible because we know it’s so unique, and it’s gonna be such a good show.
FLETCHER And so happy landing on USA Network and to be able to stream on Peacock afterwards. It couldn’t have worked out better. We’re super proud of it.
RODGERS And also right after Temptation Island. We’re big Temptation Island [fans].
Do you still watch The Bachelorette, or are there other dating shows you follow?
FLETCHER We love all the dating shows. Love Is Blind. We love Married at First Sight — you cannot get us not to watch that. I haven’t been able to catch up on some of the past Bachelor/Bachelorette, but we did a little cameo on this season of The Bachelorette with Charity, and we love her. It’s gonna be a really good season, great group of guys. But we’re just big reality dating TV fans over here.
Your relationship, along with Rachel [Lindsay] and Bryan [Abasolo], is among the lone recent Bachelorette success stories. Do you have a sense as to why the recent pairings haven’t worked out?
FLETCHER It’s unique to each relationship and to each couple. It’s really easy to throw in the towel when you meet in this way. It’s like, “Well, we met on reality TV. Of course it wasn’t gonna work.” But I think for us, what worked in our favor is, we really just stuck it out. We didn’t rush into an engagement. We were engaged for six years before we got married — two years of that was pandemic-delayed.
We went through a really tough first year, and we rode that wave. There was moments where we were like, “Is this for us? We need to walk away from this.” We just leaned into remembering why we ended up together and the love that we have for each other. It’s just work. It’s not easy. If you throw in the towel when it gets tough, it’s not gonna work. But a lot of these relationships, sometimes it’s just not the right match. And it’s hard to know that in a crazy environment like filming The Bachelor and The Bachelorette. You do your best to figure out all those things about that person. But the reality is, real life happens, and you really have to go through that kind of process again of relearning this person and relearning your relationship and how it can work.
RODGERS In a lot of ways, it’s set up to fail because you have all those built-in excuses. You have the, “Well, it was a reality show.” “Well, we probably would have never met in the real world.” “Well, now you have a platform; you’re popular. You can probably go date somebody else that’s good-looking as well. That’s not hard.”
FLETCHER I don’t like that.
RODGERS No, I’m just saying, all these things make it very easy to go, “You know what? We tried.” But when you really get back to why and how were we able to form that kind of connection that quickly on a TV show, lean into those things that were real. In that first year, we sat down a year in: “Here’s our come-to-Jesus: It has not been going good.” It was a very tough first year. We did nothing but fight. And we sat down, and she just goes, “I love you, but is this enough? Is it better for us to go in our separate ways?” We had a very amicable conversation just about where we’re at, and we chose, “You know what? No. We’re gonna lean into it, and we’re gonna commit to sticking together and focus on changing some of these things.” And it obviously worked out. It would have been very easy to go, “Love you, no bad blood. It wasn’t gonna work.” But we chose not to.
I don’t think I realized how close you were to moving on from the relationship.
FLETCHER There was a lot of pressure involved, so we didn’t share that with our friends and our family and obviously the public. Because there was this expectation, so there was a lot that weighs on your shoulders right after the show. That makes the relationship come with a lot of challenges. So that’s probably why you didn’t hear it that first year, at least.
The Bachelorette has made important strides with inclusivity. Now that you’ve worked on your own dating show, are there ways that you feel The Bachelorette can continue to evolve?
FLETCHER With The Big D having Dr. Jada, who was a licensed therapist, on-site and working with the couples, that should be offered to every castmember on a reality TV show. It is so crucial, whether they’re on the show and they’re being aired, or just having that resource for castmembers to use after the fact.
RODGERS On most reality shows, and we did it, you have your own thoughts, and you have an empty hotel room to sort through what you’re thinking. You have a huge decision to make whether you like this person, you don’t; you want to ask her to marry you, you don’t. And having an unbiased resource there was absolutely unique about the show, absolutely necessary. The reason that I think couples were successful going through it, at either coming to closure, building better communication skills, finding their love after divorce — all those things that happened, wouldn’t have happened without having someone like Dr. Jada there to help out contestants.
To your point, The Bachelor has been doing a great job at diversity and inclusion. This season’s going to be fantastic with Charity, and we’re so excited. We got to meet her for the first time — she was great.
FLETCHER I also think, in terms of diversity, it’s so great that it’s all happening right now, but it needs to continue. It needs to be something that’s not just like …
RODGERS Check that box and move on.
FLETCHER This needs to be something that just goes up from here.
I love The Bachelor, but it can feel like the leads have been white guy after white guy.
FLETCHER I 100 percent agree with that.
RODGERS Yeah.
Has there been any talk about more seasons of The Big D?
FLETCHER We hope that there is. We hope that people tune in and love this show as much as we think that they will, and obviously, we love doing it. We’re up for it. We hope this first season just kicks it out of the park.
Interview edited for length and clarity.
The Big D premieres Wednesday at 10 p.m. on USA Network.
