Bachelor Host Chris Harrison: Sean Lowe Is Definitely Not Vanilla Toast

Bachelorfans expecting Sean Lowe to be a quiet, simpleminded Mr. Goody-Two-Shoes will be pleasantly surprised when the 17th season premieres on Monday.

"[People who think,] 'Crap, he's like vanilla toast,' — well, he's not," host Chris Harrison tells TVGuide.com. "People will be surprised by his personality and charisma, and he's also got an edge to him. He's not afraid of confrontation or saying the wrong thing. "

Bachelor premiere by the numbers: 6 things to expect from Sean's season

Born and raised in Texas, Sean, 28, won fans over during his run on Emily Maynard's season of The Bachelorette. As the second runner-up, Sean left the show brokenhearted, but still hopeful that he'd find love. Producers of The Bachelor came knocking soon after and Sean jumped on the opportunity.

"My feelings for Emily were very real, and they were very authentic and genuine," Lowe previously told reporters. "[So] I wanted to know, could I find those feelings again? And because I had such a positive experience with Emily, I thought I owed it to myself to give it a try."

Viewers will see a side to Sean they might not have been expecting, particularly his hilarious sense of humor, right from the start. (Sean jokingly practices the "Will you accept this rose?" phrase many times.) "He was so overshadowed on Emily's season because there were so many big personalities," Harrison adds. "He was really played as the sweet, quiet, romantic Texan boy, but there's a lot more depth to him. Not to mention, he's so kind and nice and easy to get along with, and that really resonates with the producers. The [contestants] take their cue from the Bachelor and so do we. Is it going to be a battle every night before we shoot? Is it going to be like pulling teeth? But Sean just made everything so easy and, man, it [made] this season fun to work on."

Check out winter TV eye candy

While Harrison says Sean is very different from last season's Bachelor Ben Flajnik, he does have something in common with Season 15's not-so-fan-favorite Brad Womack.

"I haven't really counted yet, but he's got to be up there with Womack as far as the most shirtless Bachelor," Harrison says. "We had to establish the fact that after he got dumped by Emily, he didn't go on a two-month carb binger."

And, yes, we counted and Sean is shirtless five times — in the first minute and a half of the premiere.

Watch our exclusive clip from Monday's premiere and don't forget to check back after the episode for our Episode 1 Q&A with Harrison, as well as a video interview with Sean. Plus: Catch Chris Harrison hosting Miss America on Saturday, Jan. 12 at 9/8c on ABC.
The Bachelor premieres Monday at 8/7c on ABC.