Just what happens to reality TV stars after their season of fame is over.

Well, stay tuned for that answer and more as we talk to the bachelor's officer and a gentleman, Andy Baldwin, have.

Been through it because it is harder than an Iron Man.

It was that two month period was felt like a year.

Coming up on the A-list, Andy Baldwin raised in the conservative community of Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

The 32 year old U.S. Navy lieutenant developed a strong drive for success at a very early age.

He's gone on to become a triathlete, a physician and a philanthropist.

In 2006, reality stardom launched him in front of the cameras and under the microscope.

I caught up with him at the historic Reed House Hotel in downtown Chattanooga.

Hi, Andy.

Hi.

So excited to meet you.

Welcome to the A-list.

So welcome to Chattanooga.

And I know most people know you best as the Bachelor, an officer and a gentleman.

I like that last little moniker.

You have the special one.

But I want people at home who maybe don't watch The Bachelor or know you there to realize that you're much more than just a guy who happened to star on a reality television show because there's a lot to you.

So you grew up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

That's correct.

And tell me a little bit about your childhood.

Well, you know, I didn't know much more than growing up in Amish country and the horse and buggies and, you know, going out with the Mennonite kids and, you know, doing things on the farm that was just very commonplace.

But you were pretty hard working even as a kid, right?

Yeah, I had a number of jobs.

My father told me if I wanted to go to college, that I better get my act together and save up enough money because he sure as heck wasn't paying for it.

So get a scholarship, save up money.

And so that's what I did.

And I worked a number of jobs, was a lifeguard saved up 25 grand before I finished high school was set to go.

I got an ROTC scholarship to Duke University and.

So was it tough balancing out ROTC work with your academics at Duke?

It was, but it provided a means to to do it all.

And I look back at at Duke at the time I was there, I cannot believe how I was able to do everything, you know, from being on the varsity swim team to being pre-med, you know, doing ROTC and having commitments there.

Being in a fraternity, you know, and everything that comes with the social life of being in college and having a girlfriend.

And then the Navy paid for you to go to medical school.

Does that help?

That's correct.

So as fate would have it, I emerged from Duke with two options.

One was to go special warfare.

I got picked up to go to be a Navy SEAL.

Okay.

And I also got into medical school and got a medical school scholarship.

That was a decision I had to make.

I thought, all right.

And, you know, it's an exciting prospect.

Be a Navy SEAL commando, but really what is best for your future?

What's your passion in saving lives, not taking life?

So that was the route I decided to go and again, a very interesting time.

And growing up in this very conservative area of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Duke was fairly conservative, too, in North Carolina.

That's those moments in your life where you triumph over what most people consider to be an impossible endeavor.

And as I've gone through life, you know, getting in, getting into Duke, being the first person from my high school to go to Duke in over a decade and going to UCSF Med School and then on with with triathlon and doing an Ironman and making it through dive school and then going on television.

There are these things that I'm so grateful to my parents in my upbringing and just for God or whoever instilled this tenacity and focus in me.

Upon moving to California, Andy took up cycling with team and training a group that combined sports and charity.

He achieved his childhood dream in 2002 by qualifying for the Ironman Triathlon World Championships in Hawaii.

And while others race for bragging rights or because of their competitive edge, Andy took on the race for another reason.

Well, 2002 was a big year for you.

I know not only were you doing the Hawaii Ironman, but something pretty big and tragic happened in your life.

In 2002, was an incredibly emotional year coming off of the wake of September 11th.

In 2001, I was in my my third year of medical school was really getting tough.

And there is a certain individual in my life who is like a father to me out in California.

My Uncle Tom, as I mentioned, he was a Navy fighter pilot.

So the most selfless person I've ever met believed in me incredibly.

And when the going got tough in med school, he was right there to give me a pep talk.

When I ran the Boston Marathon for the first time.

He's the one who funded my way out to do it.

Was there riding in the car along when I'd be training and giving me water and he treated everybody as an equal and always asked how he could help.

And there is always that.

He taught me that.

And.

But you took your uncle's death and you did something because of that that inspired you to start a foundation, right?

I my, my, my uncle died right before he died.

He I made a promise to him that I would do everything in my ability to make sure that others didn't suffer as he had.

And that's when I became very involved in the pancreatic cancer action Network.

Have continued to this day.

Fortunately or unfortunately, there's also been a number of it takes people that get some high level of exposure, such as Patrick Swayze, Michael Landon and Randy Pash, who was very much an advocate for pancreatic cancer research and understanding.

And he passed away this year.

And his book, The Last Lecture, has inspired so many.

And that was my Uncle Tom, and he lives on through me.

And it was that that year as well, that I was so motivated and inspired.

And he lived there with me.

It was there with me when I did the Ironman World Championships, a dream I'd had for since I was a little boy.

And you raise that in his honor.

I said in his honor.

And I've never been through something so hard in my life.

And so it's strange calling it painful and uncomfortable.

So in that year, 2002 seemed like a pretty pivotal moment in your life.

How did that inspire you as you went forward, both as a Navy doctor and in your humanitarian efforts?

Well, at 22 that year, it taught me a number of things.

It taught me that once again, that if I put my mind to something, that I could do it and that through doing that and you can inspire a lot of other people and the human, again, the human body is capable of anything.

And also to not be afraid to take risks.

And as I moved on and I graduated from medical school and I was still very involved in triathlons, and I went down to San Diego and did my internship.

And in general, surgery took on the challenge after that of going to dive school.

They needed a doctor who could hang with the special Operations unit.

And I found myself out in Hawaii working in Pearl Harbor and a very unique leadership role in charge of the health care of 150 special operations team members and their families and.

Says there's a real sense of history for him at Pearl Harbor.

His grandfather was stationed there, his mother was born there.

And he says a piece of him just needed to be there.

So you're kind of coming home in a sense.

Kind of coming home.

But you know what?

I also were also realized is that it was a staging ground or a launching point to the entire Pacific in Asia, Southeast Asia places that I hadn't been before, places where I knew I could go and make an impact.

I was looking for opportunity.

I wanted to I knew I had these medical skills.

I knew there were humanitarian options available.

And one day it happened.

I got an offer to go to be the team doctor and the doctor who would go and treat villagers in the country of Laos and Vietnam.

And that's how I found myself in 2006 for about a two month period, taking a helicopter every day from base camp into the depths of these jungle regions in Laos.

Literally, like with your machete trying to cut your way through.

And I said, How do I find myself here?

And I was armed with my medical drugs and the supplies provided from the United States.

And sometimes the elephant grass was so high.

Like you said, I had my machete and I would have to jump out of the helicopter and cut down the grass so that the Hilo could put down in a landing zone that offloaded medical supplies and I thought it was just another life changing experience.

For the work Andy did in Laos in 2006.

He was named humanitarian of the Year by both triathlete and competitor magazines.

But if you're a fan of reality television like I am, you'll no doubt recognize Andy from ABC's The Bachelor, An Officer and a Gentleman.

So why would a successful physician seek true love on reality TV?

So will you accept this?

Rose?

So here you are, a doctor in the Navy, Lieutenant.

A humanitarian.

You have all this going for you.

And I guess that same year you get this call from ABC wanting you to be on this show called The Bachelor.

Tell me about that call and what you thought when you got it.

So what is this, a joke?

Well, you know, a lot of that was happening in my professional life, my personal life.

I had just gotten over a very serious relationship where she didn't necessarily want to take it to the next step and and and get married.

And I was very frustrated by that at that time that I was expressing this frustration to a friend who took it upon himself to call a casting person he knew and give them my information and say, check this guy out, look what he's done, this and that.

And that prompted a barrage of phone calls.

Emails would not take no for an answer from from ABC.

As we were speaking about The Bachelor.

And he suggested we move the interview to a quieter, more comfortable setting his presidential suite where we continued our talk about his time on the reality show.

Now let's talk about The Bachelor.

Now I understand why the producers of The Bachelor would want you.

You've got everything.

You're a humanitarian.

You're a doctor, you're a lieutenant in the Navy.

You're a good looking guy.

But why would you ever want to do The Bachelor?

What guy in his right mind would seriously, after I took the time to meet with the producers and the executives out in L.A., you know, I really.

I pose that same question to them.

And I said the only way the only reason why I would do this show is if there is a chance that I could meet someone special and if you can craft or allow me to help craft a experience which is commensurate with that, then I'll consider doing it.

So you've agreed to be The Bachelor.

How do they go through the process of picking who the bachelorettes are going to be?

Did you have a stake in that process that they allow you to participate?

How did that happen?

I did.

There were a number of things I said straight up to them.

You need to improve the quality of the women that you have on the show, because honestly, it's it's not no.

Offense to the nine seasons.

Before.

No offense.

The nine seasons before, But, you know, the one of the top executives said you saw the last season with Prince Lorenzo.

Which one of those women would you have picked?

And I said, I've said to I said, none.

I mean, there's a fundamental flaw I see in your process, which I'd like to change.

And that starts with announcing me before you do the casting.

You know what woman is going to blindly sign up for a show not knowing who she's going to get unless they're just going on it for TV right now.

Why not have women who actually want to pursue a chance to get to know somebody?

And they said, Oh, all right, you got a point there.

And that was very effective.

I think it was about 50,000 women came out.

They announced to me at the end of.

50,000 women applied to be on the show.

50,000.

And did you to say, like what guy in his right mind would not let me?

It's like mean it's like Match.com on steroids where they pay for your, you know, these experiences and.

But they didn't pay you to be on the.

Show.

They didn't pay me to be on the show.

I mean, that's not the the purpose.

I mean, I think there'd be it wouldn't be as genuine.

But was there a part of the show that you could have never anticipated?

That just was a big shocker that you thought, holy cow, what am I doing?

Absolutely.

Alison.

You go in and unless you go through it, it's so hard to to explain.

That's why it's a very tight fraternity of people that have been through it, because it is harder than an Iron Man.

It was that two month period was felt like a year.

And it's physically challenging and incredibly emotionally challenging.

And they put you in a an isolated world where you are establishing real feelings for for these women and where else in life are you presented with a situation where you can date more than one person, fall for more than one person, and then have to make a selection?

It just doesn't happen.

I mean, sure, people might date a number of people, but you're not doing so with them for knowing that you're doing that now.

That's a logistical nightmare.

And both parties, I think.

And going in, you know, guys say, hey, you know what a guy's dream that must be.

Wow.

And no, let me tell you guys, it's it's tough and and getting it down towards the end, you got to be careful what you wish for.

The final three women in test suburban and Danielle across the board incredible people and I was very close to to all of them and you know my boss said to me before I went on the show, he said he said, Doc, you better not cry on national television.

And I said, Yes, sir, I won't I I'll be back.

And what I did, it can't help.

It was because you ended up proposing to him and you ended up proposing to test a horse.

Yes.

And she was the love of your life.

So what happened.

Tessa, was.

And is that gem that I was hoping would come on the show and she turned the tables on me and she made me chase her.

I would appeal to the producers to try to get more time with her and to change these dates around so that the the pretty woman date was with Tessa because she was threatening to leave.

And I remember at that table that sushi restaurant, just having such sweaty pits, sweaty armpits, because I was so nervous and wondering if I was talking too much about myself and asking her.

I mean, it was a real date.

It was I was trying to win her over.

I was so enamored by her and, you know, Tessa and I, I wanted her to know how committed I was to her.

And by proposing and I did that and we were together.

And it was very hard coming off of a show like that and becoming famous overnight.

And then her how it affected her and and her family and her being being famous and the tabloids coming after me and trying to, you know, you know, they they they build you up and then they want to cut you down and come out of there.

But so a lot of love of a thick skin, very thick skin and and when I got deployed last year and Tessa remained in San Francisco and I believe she met someone else and I got it news when I was over in the middle of the Pacific that she wanted to split.

And you still seem heartbroken.

It was it was it was hard.

It was really hard.

After you go through something like that together, it's oh, there's not anybody else out there that really, truly understands.

And lots of millions of people out there, the whole prayer vigils that will get back together and they know what they've seen on TV and they make YouTube video.

The monologue montage is of I mean, it's a it's a it's a love story that was real and real.

And then, you know, almost it's exploited almost to to television to you have to see it for what it is.

You know, I always am very grateful for the experience I had.

And would you do it again, knowing what you know now?

I it's a question I get so often, and I like to say that I was a television virgin, but I, I didn't know any better.

I was myself and I ran into roadblocks along the way where I understood, understand what production is about.

And I saw these producers that were trying time and time again to get me to do things that would drive their ratings and pick people they wanted me to pick.

And I would have I would leave, I would go out and I would sit down and say, No, I'm not going to pick that person.

I'm going to do what I'm not.

I wouldn't say that.

So they tried to guide your decision.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

That was so frustrating to watch reality TV's because I know I know what the how influenced these people are.

And if you let them.

Yeah, well it's a, it's a producer's dream and I established very early on to them when they tried to get me to select certain women that it's, this is my experience and agreed to go on for that reason and it's my way or the highway.

In 2004, Andy joined Project Active, a nonprofit initiative dedicated to diffusing world tensions through promotion of sport in war torn and impoverished countries.

And since his television appearances, Andy has become increasingly involved with other domestic and global humanitarian projects.

In order to help the families of America's fallen heroes.

Andy started the got Your Back network.

As I said before, you're much more than just the Bachelor.

You're a guy who really cares about making this world a better place.

You were given two different humanitarian awards.

Now you're running how many foundations focused on everything from families whose spouses or parents have served in the war to youth and healthiness and healthy attitudes?

That's the work we talked about in Laos in 2006.

I did receive some humanitarian a year awards for that.

I don't really think that there was much deserved.

I was doing my job and, you know, it was I was grateful to get those that was that was pre bachelor and coming after the show you know I am in the military and I've had friends that were were killed in action over in in the current war on terror and I saw the effect it had on their families.

I'm close to their families.

And when I was in Hawaii and especially in their kids and I said lot dog on it.

And you have a platform now where you can bring awareness to this.

Yes.

We there's a lot of the wounded warriors out there.

There's the veterans.

But, you know, what about their families and the increased responsibilities that they face?

They should have every opportunity, these kids that they would have had otherwise.

And that's the got your best.

Got your back network, dawg.

So I know one of your pet projects is Healthy Youth for Healthy Futures.

Tell me a little about that.

Well, healthy youth, the youth of our country are our future.

And as a doctor and as an athlete, I know how important it is to get out and educate and inspire and motivate these children and how it's so important to go out and encourage people like yourself and the community leaders to get involved.

And when the US Surgeon general, Admiral Garson, approached me a few months ago to help him in this effort as his initiative, I said, absolutely, you know, and in the US Surgeon General says, you know, I want to be your mentor, Dr. Baldwin.

You're just kind of like, wow.

And it's it is.

It's been an incredible honor to go out.

He is a surgeon general who definitely walks the walk and doesn't just talk the talk.

And he's been to over 40 states now honoring groups and communities that are pushing for this healthy youth, for healthy future, and tackling childhood overweight and obesity.

And to get out there and know get the kids fit and talk about the physical activity guidelines that are put forth by Health and Human services.

It's fantastic.

I really encourage everybody watching to go to Surgeon General Dot Gov.

He has a great pledge on there that you can actually print out, sign with your children put up on the refrigerator.

And it's just that act of commitment to leading a life which is is about prevention.

And what else is on the horizon for you.

You're 32, you've accomplished quite a lot, but what do you see next?

Hopefully the ability to get out and continue to do what I'm doing and speaking.

And I love working with children.

I love talking about health topics on television.

Continue with my Got Your Back network and helping the families of the fallen.

And so who knows, maybe another reality show or.

We'd love it.

You know that's the thing is that you never you never know where you're going to go.

And one thing that I always leave my students with is you live for the day, so you never know where you're going to be.

If I would have told you that I was going to be getting interviewed on the A-list two years ago.

I would have never believed it.

Yeah, in in Chattanooga.

So.

Well.

Oh, my goodness.

Yes.

You know, you've been such a great interview, but I just wanted to say it's been a pleasure having you on the A-list.

It's been a pleasure meeting you and being in your lovely suite.

And even though I'm married, I hope we can be friends forever.

And Andy Baldwin, will you accept this?

Rose?

Yes, I will.

Yes, I will.

Thanks for joining us on the show.

Coming up on the next A-list, a middle school principal and a true believer in the power of education.

She helped her students collect 6 million paperclips as a way to visualize the magnitude of the Holocaust.

Linda Hooper speaks about how teaching can change the world.

I haven't made any impact.

It's these children who've worked so hard.

Coming up on the A-list next Thursday night at 830.