Sam Hartman has been named the next star of ABC's The Bachelor, giving the franchise a quarterback for its 30th season and a fresh lead for a milestone run set for March 2027. The 27-year-old Washington Commanders player will take over the role after announcing the news Friday on Good Morning America.
For ABC, the casting turns a football name into the face of one of its most durable reality shows at a moment when the series is being reset around a new lead. The season is scheduled to premiere Sunday, March 21, at 8 p.m. ET, with the next day’s streaming release on Hulu tying the network launch to the broader Disney platform push.
Hartman did not arrive there easily. He said he was initially hesitant about looking for love on television, even though he later changed his mind after talking with Jesse Palmer, the former NFL player who now hosts The Bachelor and The Bachelorette. Hartman said Palmer gave him a clearer sense of what the role would be, and what it would not be.
The choice also solves a practical problem the franchise has not addressed publicly: how a current NFL quarterback fits a dating show schedule. Hartman signed with the Washington Commanders as an undrafted free agent in 2024, so any filming or promotion has to fit around football obligations, not replace them. That makes the casting unusual even by reality television standards.
Hartman’s football background gives the announcement its hook. He played at Wake Forest University, where he set several school records and became one of the most accomplished quarterbacks in Atlantic Coast Conference history before transferring to the University of Notre Dame for his final season in 2023. In 2022, he was diagnosed with Paget-Schroetter syndrome while at Wake Forest, returned to the field later that season and received the ACC’s Brian Piccolo Award.
He has said he is looking for someone with a competitive spirit and a sense of caregiving, and he pointed to his family’s work in medicine as part of what shapes that instinct. Hartman also said he wants someone driven enough to motivate him each day, while acknowledging the scale of the assignment itself: he said he has a hard time holding a conversation with one woman, and 30 would be tough. For ABC, that self-awareness may be as important as the football résumé. For Hartman, it means the search for love now begins under the pressure of a season built to be watched closely.
