Nick Viall and Ben Higgins have got some advice for the new star of The Bachelor.

Earlier this month, ABC announced that Bachelor Nation alum and former football player Colton Underwood, 26, would be the star of the upcoming 23th season of The Bachelor. He had previously competed on the 14th season of The Bachelorette with Becca Kufrin and the recent fifth season of Bachelor in Paradise.

Before Underwood embarks on his journey to find love, Viall and Higgins talked together with E! News at the 2018 iHeartRadio Music Festival in Las Vegas on Friday and provided some insight. Viall kept things straight and to the point. He told E! News, "He needs to be decisive. Colton is an aware person. He wears his heart on his sleeve."

Viall encouraged the football player to approach it with a rip-the-band-aid-off mentality. "The difficult thing about being the Bachelor is making people feel bad when you break up with them. But you can sometimes make them feel worse by not being forthcoming with your feelings," he said.

His main piece of guidance, however, is a phrase well known in Bachelor Nation: "He's got to follow his heart."

Underwood, after all, is there for the right reasons.

Higgins, himself a former football player as well, echoed Viall in his advice to Underwood. Higgins praised the new Bachelor for his maturity on The Bachelorette and Bachelor in Paradise and encouraged him to keep transforming. "Keep feeling it, keep exploring, keep growing," he said.

Viall and Higgins were not the only members of Bachelor Nation at the iHeartRadio Music Festival. The two hung out with fellow alumni Dean Unglert (The Bachelorette season 13 and Bachelor in Paradise season four), Becca Tilley (The Bachelor seasons 19 and 20), Blake Horstmann (The Bachelorette season 14), Jason Tartick (The Bachelorette season 14) and Higgin's podcast co-host Ashley Iaconetti (The Bachelor season 19, Bachelor in Paradise seasons two and three and The Bachelor Winter Games), and her fiancé Jared Haibon (Bachelor in Paradise seasons two and three).

In addition, Wells Adams (The Bachelorette season 12 and seasons three, four and five of Bachelor in Paradise) was spotted with his girlfriend and Modern Family star Sarah Hyland.

Viall, 37, has extensive Bachelor Nation reality show experience. He competed on season 10 and 11 of The Bachelorette and season three of Bachelor in Paradise before he was made the star of season 21 of The Bachelor. He proposed to winner Vanessa Grimaldi. They broke up a few months after the 2017 finale aired. Just like Bachelor in Paradise's Grocery Store Joe Amabile, Viall also competed on Dancing With the Stars.

Higgins, 30, competed with Viall on season 11 of The Bachelorette in 2015 and in 2016, he appeared as the star of The Bachelor season 20, where he proposed to winner Lauren Bushnell. They split a year later. Earlier this year, he competed on The Bachelor Winter Games.

The 2018 iHeartRadio Music Festival will air on October 7 and October 8 on The CW.

Source:
courtesy of E!ONLINE

by CORINNE HELLER & LENA GROSSMAN

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