Tayshia Adams and Tyler Cameron are heading back to Bachelor Mansion — but this time, they’re dealing in renos, not roses.
The Bachelorette alum team up as judges for HGTV’s brand-new renovation competition, Bachelor Mansion Takeover, which pits beloved members of Bachelor Nation against one another as they give the iconic Bachelor Mansion a much-needed facelift.
Videos by PopCulture.com
Ahead of Monday’s Bachelor Mansion Takeover premiere, Adams and Cameron opened up to PopCulture.com about the “iconic” HGTV/Bachelor Nation crossover as they tease all the “drama” to come.
“My first thought was, ‘How has this not been done before?’” said Adams, who handed out roses on The Bachelorette Season 16, as Cameron, who competed on Season 15 of the ABC dating show, agreed that Bachelor Mansion is “definitely top five” in the most famous houses in the U.S., making for the perfect HGTV partnership.
“I could not wait to get in there,” Adams continued of joining the show. “I love interior design, and being able to have a little bit of a say in how this is going to turn out was so exciting to me. Plus, being that I lived in the house, I feel like I have insight that not a lot of people do.”
“It was fun to see how they were to save the integrity of the home,” she continued. “Because there are so many iconic things that should stay, but [we’re] seeing how they’re going to elevate it a little bit.”
Competing in the six-episode series, hosted by Bachelor Nation’s very own Jesse Palmer, are 12 former Bachelor, Bachelorette, Golden Bachelor and Golden Bachelorette contestants — Dean Bell, Jill Chin, Noah Erb, Allyshia Gupta, Tammy Ly, Sandra Mason, Sam McKinney, Brendan Morais, Courtney Robertson Preciado, Jeremy Simon, Christopher Stallworth and Joan Vassos — all of whom will put their design and renovation skills to the test in weekly elimination challenges.
As they transform beloved Bachelor Mansion spaces, including the bunk rooms, the rose room, the pool area, the mixer room, the terrace and the kitchen, their creativity and craftsmanship will be evaluated by Adams, Cameron and a surprise guest judge, with the winner being awarded bragging rights and a $100,000 cash prize.
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“I was excited to see how the Goldens fit in with the Bachelor contestants,” Cameron told PopCulture, “and what that would have been like for them to come out of retirement, to leave their homes and come here, and really mix it up, really get into the drama of it all.”
“That was fun,” he teased. “I didn’t know they had that in them. The Goldens might be a little bit more snarky and have more fight than the Bachelor and Bachelorette contestants. …They were very feisty. They were strong, very skilled.”
He also hinted that fans might get a new perspective on people who might have been seen as “villains” the first time around, while “other villains” emerge. “There’s a lot of villain action,” Cameron promised.
For Adams, there was also the thrill of judging two of her former suitors, Erb and Morais. “I knew they were going to be on the show, but they had no idea I was going to be on the show,” she confessed. “So you’re definitely going to see their reactions in episode one…”
“Which are incredible,” Cameron chimed in. “They couldn’t even look at her. They were so nervous when Tayshia turned around, and they saw her.”
“They were like speechless,” she confirmed. “And these are guys that are typically not speechless. So it was kind of fun for me a little bit.”
Bachelor Mansion Takeover premieres Monday, March 2, at 8 p.m. ET on HGTV.