‘Bachelorette’ is back with a local twist

Five of 31 bachelors are from South Florida.

When ABC’s “The Bachelorette” dating series returned on Monday night, South Florida viewers may have recognized at least five of Rachel Lindsay’s suitors.

Dumped by Nick Viall in last season’s “The Bachelor,” Lindsay now has 31 bachelors who are interested in capturing her heart (or at least some TV fame) over the course of the summer. The show debuted at 9 p.m. Monday on WPLG-Ch. 10 in Fort Lauderdale-Miami and WPBF-Ch. 25 in the West Palm Beach TV market. The show returns to its regular 8 p.m. Monday timeslot next week.

South Florida has traditionally been a hotbed for reality TV contestants. Shows like “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette” have been known to conduct casting calls at area bars and festivals over the years.

“Five out of 31 [contestants], that is quite a few from one region. But South Florida does have a big population,” said Robert Thompson, a TV and pop culture professor at Syracuse University. “My guess is that they have a good recruitment infrastructure for auditioning people in South Florida.”

The show casts from this region each year because there are “a lot of young, single people in South Florida. There’s quite a few people that are single, attractive and outgoing,” said Davida Vaccaro, who was a senior casting producer for the show in a 2015 story about “Bachelor” auditions.

Among the show’s South Florida alumni are Juan Pablo Galavis, a single father from Miami who starred as the bachelor for the show’s 18th edition in 2014; and Corinne Olympios,