Season 25 of ‘The Bachelor’ on ABC Jan. 4

(Image credit: ABC)

The 25th edition of The Bachelor starts on ABC Jan. 4. Matt James is the bachelor and 32 women vie for his affection.

After the two-hour season premiere, 24 hopeful contestants will remain.

Chris Harrison hosts.

The contestants include Alicia, a ballerina from New York City; Carolyn, a journalist from Los Angeles; Chelsea, a model from Brooklyn; and Magi, a pharmacist from Ethiopia.

Matt James, 29, played football and studied economics at Wake Forest. A real estate broker, he lives in New York.

The Bachelor is a production of Next Entertainment in association with Warner Horizon Unscripted Television. Mike Fleiss, Martin Hilton, Nicole Woods, Bennett Graebner, Peter Gust, Tim Warner, Louis Caric and Peter Geist are the executive producers.

Michael Malone, senior content producer at B+C/Multichannel News, covers network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television. He hosts the podcasts Busted Pilot, about what’s new in television, and Series Business, a chat with the creator of a new program, and writes the column “The Watchman.” He joined B+C in 2005. His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Playboy and New York magazine.