‘Bachelorette’ Season 17 premieres minus Chris Harrison, and it was cat-tastic

By Lisa Respers France, CNN

This season of “The Bachelorette” got off to an interesting start on Monday.

Katie Thurston met the men vying for her heart, but one man integral to the show was noticeably absent.

Longtime host Chris Harrison has stepped back from the show after making racially insensitive comments and was replaced in the first episode by former Bachelorettes Tayshia Adams and Kaitlyn Bristowe.

They were pretty great, but the real stars of the night were the myriad ways the Season 17 potential suitors tried to capture Thurston’s attention.

We had high hopes when the limos rolled up with the 30 contestants — given that as a contestant on last season’s “Bachelor” Thurston showed up with her vibrator — and we were not disappointed Monday night.

From James, who showed up in a gift box, to Connor B., who dressed up as a cat in a full costume to display his common love of felines with Thurston, it was definitely a #ThirstyForThurston kind of evening.

But the frontrunner according to social media appears to be Greg, who loves kids and presented a necklace his niece had made out of pasta.

Cue romantic sighs.

Thurston, a bank marketing manager, told The Hollywood Reporter she had some qualms about doing the show given the Harrison controversy, but she couldn’t pass up the opportunity.

“So of course it wasn’t an immediate yes for me. It was something I had to think about over time,” she said. “I didn’t want to live life with the regret of not taking this chance to fall in love in this very unique way, so I said yes.”