The Bachelor's Arie Luyendyk Jr. Explains That Format Shakeup

Monday night's episode of The Bachelor did something very rare in Bachelor history. The episode -- the second of the season -- contained two one-on-one dates and only one group date, a structure almost never seen this early in the season (usually there are two group dates and a single one-on-one). The last time there were two one-on-ones in the second episode was during Juan Pablo's season in 2014.

Arie Luyendyk Jr. told TV Guide about why he decided to break from tradition.

"Because I hadn't been in this environment in so long and it's a little easier to have that one-on-one date, it was to calm my nerves and sort of to get me in the swing of things," he said. "And it was important to me to have as many one-on-one dates as possible. On the group dates, it's really hard to get a sense of who everyone is in such a short amount of time." He wanted to focus in early on relationships he could see going somewhere.

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The dates were both pretty high-stakes for this early in the season. For the first he took Becca shopping and showered her with thousands of dollars worth of gifts. For the second he took Krystal to his home in Arizona via private jet and introduced her to his family. The dates seem to mark them as contestants to keep an eye on as the season progresses.

The Bachelor airs Mondays at 8/7c on ABC.