Chris Harrison Puts Faith at Center of The Vow

Chris Harrison is back in dating television, and this time faith is the point, not the backdrop. His new Fox Nation series, Chris Harrison's The Vow, premiered on 11 November 2026 with its first two episodes, following 30-year-old bachelor and outspoken Christian Jace Cates as he dates 10 women who are all seeking lasting commitment and marriage. The six-episode season runs on Wednesdays through the finale on 9 December, and Harrison says the show is built to "raise the bar" on what dating on television can be.

Five years after leaving The Bachelor, Harrison has thrown out almost everything that made that show famous. There are no roses. There are no elimination ceremonies. Instead, Cates and the women are told to end a relationship the moment they know it has no future, face to face, the way Harrison believes a gentleman should. That single rule changes everything about the show, because the drama no longer comes from a producer's twist. It comes from real conversations, in real time, about the things that actualy decide a marriage.

"After two decades of helping people find love on television, Chris Harrison is returning to the dating genre to challenge modern dating culture by putting faith and traditional marriage at the center of the conversation," the Christian Post reported on 11 November. "I want this show to raise the bar of what's expected when you date," Harrison said.

Chris Harrison The Vow: Faith, Purity and Marriage on Fox Nation

The format is deliberate. Cates and the ten women tackle questions most dating shows shy away from: What does faith mean to you? Where are you on your journey? Do you want children? What does the man do in this relationship? The dates and compatibility challenges explore faith, communication and long-term goals, and the show places particular emphasis on faith, purity, traditional marriage and lasting compatibility.

Harrison is blunt about what he is trying to do. "I think, hopefully, among many things, 'The Vow' does is raise the bar out there, especially for men," he said. He calls the series "the most authentic, most intentional dating show ever", and in another interview "the most authentic, real, raw dating show that's ever been made". He says fans are "hungry" for a faith-driven show and that "the timing is right", pointing to what he describes as a spiritual awakening among young people.

That timing argument is the bet behind the whole show. Harrison points to a generation going to church more than their parents did, and to dating apps falling by the wayside as young people leave them behind. "This social movement with this generation [with] more people going to church than their parents, and then the dating apps kind of falling by the wayside and people leaving," he told TV Insider. The Vow, he says, was inspired by "the faith-driven renaissance happening across America".

Jace Cates and the Women of The Vow

Cates is the centre of the experiment, and his faith is not a footnote. "Faith does drive [Jace] in his dating. It changes his decisions and it forms his opinions and decisions," Harrison said. The women were chosen the same way: Harrison says the casting looked for "people of faith and people searching for something — people that truly want love, family, children, all those things". One contestant, Kylee Russell, a Bachelor Nation alum, proudly shares that she is "on fire for Jesus".

Two more familiar faces anchor the show's faith credentials. Sean and Catherine Lowe, the Bachelor Nation couple known for being outspoken about their faith, appear on the series. "They've always been very outspoken about their faith and what that means to them and how it is the foundation for their relationship and their marriage," Harrison said. Their presence is a signal to the audience: this is not a show that treats faith as a quirk, it treats it as the foundation.

Behind the cameras, Harrison hosts and executive produces alongside his wife, Lauren Zima, with Nicholas Caprio, Tom Huffman and Louis Caric also executive producing, Elan Gale as consulting producer, and Lionsgate Alternative Television behind the production. Fox Entertainment Global will distribute the series internationally. The show is Fox Nation's first-ever original dating series, which makes it a test of whether a streaming audience will watch a dating show that asks its contestants to pray before it asks them to kiss.

The Bachelor Shadow and the Warner Bros Dispute

The shadow over The Vow is the show Harrison left behind. Warner Bros claimed weeks before the premiere that The Vow infringes on its copyright and trademarks for The Bachelor, and Harrison has pushed back, saying he does not see the studio going after the dozens of other relationship dating shows that have aired since he left. The dispute has not stopped the premiere, and the first two episodes are now streaming.

The bigger test is whether the audience follows. Reality dating has trained viewers to expect roses, betrayals and cliffhangers, and The Vow offers something quieter: a man and ten women talking honestly about God, family and the future, with the freedom to walk away at any time. Harrison argues that the stakes are higher precisely because the bar is higher. "When the stakes are higher and the bar is raised, in my opinion, the drama is more real and more authentic," he said.

The question the show asks is printed in its own premise: can genuine, lasting love still be found in the modern world? The first two episodes premiered on 11 November, with new episodes each Wednesday through 9 December. Whether The Vow becomes a hit or a curiosity, it has already done something unusual: it put a Christian bachelor, ten women looking for marriage, and a conversation about faith on prime streaming television, and dared the audience to take all three seriously. The finale will tell us whether they did.

But the most surprising part of this story is yet to come — keep reading.