The twenty-third season of The Bachelor premiered on January 7, 2019. This season features 26-year-old Colton Underwood, a former professional football player and charity founder from Washington, Illinois. Underwood finished in fourth place on the fourteenth season of The Bachelorette featuring Becca Kufrin, and also appeared on the fifth season of Bachelor in Paradise. In the second part of the live finale concluded on March 12, 2019, Underwood named Cassie Randolph as the winner with no proposal, only offering the final rose. Randolph was the first woman to win in the show's history after quitting in the same season. Underwood and Randolph dated for a year before announcing their breakup on May 29, 2020. Underwood publicly came out as gay on April 14, 2021, making him the first lead in franchise history to publicly identify as gay. (en)