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In early 2005, ABC's The Bachelorette, a reality show that features one woman courting and eventually choosing a potential mate from a bevy of single men, included something unusual—two self-declared, 20-something virgins. One of the men was Jason Illian, a motivational speaker from Fort Worth, Texas. During the "Men Tell All" episode, the comment was made of both bachelors: "We're like the black-footed ferret. Almost an extinct species." Even featured bachelorette, Jennifer Schefft said, "I don't think it's realistic to not be with a woman at this age." But is her statement true?

Jason, now 30, spends half his professional life speaking to groups and organizations on faith-based leadership and relationships. It's fairly safe to say he knows something about the subject. Why then would he go on a national television show and tell not only Jennifer Schefft, but 20 million viewers that he's never had sex? In the "Tell All" episode he said, "The fact that I'm a virgin, that's who I am." But that's not why he originally applied to be on the show.

Jason recalls how he and some friends were watching an episode of The Bachelor (the male version of the show) in which the current contestant told a group of girls he came on the show because he was tired of repeatedly waking up with a different woman, not knowing where he was. "Tell me he did not just say that," Jason shouted at the TV. "Tell me he's not what's representative of the male species." His friends suggested he send in his own application if he thought he could do better, and the rest is history.

Since statistics show 64 percent of all television programs contain sexual content but only 15 percent mention abstinence, protection, and/or consequences, it's not surprising Jason became the focus of both network promotion and a late night talk show host's monologue. He takes it all in stride. "It's not like the first thing I do is walk into a room and say, 'I haven't had sex yet.' That's just what ABC latched on to pretty quickly. And I think it's because it's a rarity in today's world."

Indeed Jason's "confession" to saving himself for marriage may have impacted Schefft's decision to cut him, though he didn't realize it at the time. He did say in his final episode, "I don't know whether or not my choice to save myself for marriage factored in in any way, but that's part of who I am. And I wanted to put my cards on the table, so that if Jennifer didn't want to keep me, she had good reason not to."

"Jason threw me a curveball tonight when he told me he was a virgin," Schefft said in her commentary after his revelation. "I respect that, but it's not about whether he's had sex or not. That's fine. It just reflects on his belief system, and that might be a little bit too stringent for me."

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