Jen Schefft may be new ''Bachelorette''

In casting ”The Bachelor” and ”The Bachelorette,” ABC seems to be sticking with its if-at-first-you-don’t-succeed formula. Having built seasons around such rejected suitors as Trista Rehn, Bob Guiney, and Meredith Phillips, the network is poised to center the next ”Bachelorette” around Jennifer Schefft. So reports Us Weekly, which says that Bachelor Andrew Firestone’s ex-fiancée will return to the dating arena and pick from a pool of 25 new swains. ABC hasn’t confirmed Schefft’s casting, but USA Today reports that she’s been OK’d by executives at Telepictures, which produces the show, and that taping will begin in September or October.

Schefft and Firestone had a May-December relationship; their engagement was revealed in the May 2003 season finale of ”Bachelor,” but they broke up in December. ”Our love for each other was genuine, but we confronted the same challenges as any other couple trying to make a relationship work day to day,” she said in a statement at the time. Since then, she’s reportedly dated another reality star, ”Apprentice” winner Bill Rancic. Guess it’s hard to make a relationship work when you’re from such different backgrounds; she was from ABC, and he was from NBC.