Matt Rogers says ex-‘Bachelor’ host Chris Harrison was a ‘total jerk’

Matt Rogers may have won $5,000 on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, but he didn’t win over the show’s former host, Chris Harrison.

While reflecting on his 2017 stint on the game show, Rogers opened up about an uncomfortable interaction with Harrison that still sticks in his memory.

“Chris Harrison, from The Bachelor, was the host, who did not like me, and I could tell,” Rogers said on the latest episode of his Las Culturistas podcast, which he hosts with Saturday Night Live starBowen Yang. 

Rogers then explained that after his initial taping, he was invited to return for a second episode. When he accidentally flubbed his entrance, he claims that Harrison was visibly upset. 

“I messed up my entrance, and he didn’t like that because it was the end of the day and so he wanted to go home,” said Rogers. He added that Harrison, who gave off “a very ‘I’m over this, very tired’ energy” throughout the taping, responded to his mistake with a forceful handshake. 

“When I did my entrance to come out the second time, I went to shake his hand and he pulled my hand,” Rogers recalled. “You can actually see in the video me, like, come off my feet a little bit because he was trying to do, like, a male dominance [thing]… Like, ‘Don’t mess around.'”

Rogers did not mince words about his reaction: “He was a jerk. Total jerk.”

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The comedian then offered further evidence, adding that they shared another awkward moment when the episode cut to commercial and Harrison made no effort to chat with him. “He literally did that thing of like, ‘And now is the part we pretend to talk,'” Rogers said. “Like, everyone’s allowed to have a whatever day, but that was my experience with him.”

Rogers went on to say that his brief interaction with the host felt telling years later, when Harrison exited The Bachelor amid controversy. 

“I had that experience, whatever, and then, like, a few years later, he said all that whack s— when The Bachelor was having a lot of conversations about race,” Rogers said. “No one needed to expose him for being whatever way because he kind of unveiled himself as a little bit of a jerk.”

The podcast episode’s guest, Rachel Bloom, chimed in, adding, “Everyone knows he’s a piece of s—. I have to believe, and this has been proven numerous times, that if someone is mean to you in the industry, the world will figure it out.”

Yang and Rogers agreed, and she continued, “If they’re mean to you, you’re not an isolated experience. You don’t have to go on a public tirade against them. They are going to out themselves. And that has now happened numerous times, where I’m like, ‘The world will take care of them.'”

Harrison served as The Bachelor‘s host for 19 years, but he departed the series in 2021 after sparking heavy backlash when he defended Bachelor season 25 contestant Rachael Kirkconnell for attending a “plantation-themed” sorority party in college. He issued multiple apologies and took a hiatus from the show, expressing hope that he’d return, but The Bachelor alum Jesse Palmer ultimately replaced him.