As one of the fastest growing sports, Pickleball is taking over the United States — and soon our televisions. 

The beloved sport is now the premise of the new reality show called Pickleball Paddle Battle, hosted by former Bachelor Clayton Echard and he tells ABC Audio viewers are in for a treat. 

“We’re going to get some of the top competitors in the country to come in for a little bit over a week and they’re gonna compete against one another,” he explains. “Very quickly you’re going to get to see people get very passionate, very competitive, and competition just brings out the best in people and sometimes the worst.”

The prizes are “quite a big deal,” with one female and one male competitor earning a one-year-sponsorship contract with Pickleball Kingdom Productions. Also, one female and one male will be awarded their own Pickleball Kingdom franchises. 

Hosting Pickleball Paddle Battle will be a new venture for Clayton, he’s no stranger to reality television after being the lead on The Bachelor in 2021 and a contestant on The Bachelorette. So what advice does he have for the new Golden Bachelor?

“Give Jesse [Palmer] a really hard time for me… Also don’t do anything that I did,” he jokes, before adding, “I would also just tell him to just be authentically himself.”

“The worst thing that you can walk away from an experience with is knowing that you weren’t yourself and then you’re going to beat yourself up even more,” he continues.

Clayton also shared advice given to him by a former lead, “Don’t try to have control over everything … Let it go and just live in the moment. You cannot control everything with reality TV.” 

Pickleball Paddle Battle show details can be found at www.picklballpaddlebattle.tv. 

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