Jay Overbye, a part-time model and real-estate agent at Halstead on the Upper West Side, is competing against a Nevada fisherman for the next spot as TV’s “The Bachelor” on ABC.

In a new twist, the show is pitting Mr. Overbye against champion bass fisherman Byron Velvick for the coveted starring role. During the first episode, to be aired on September 22, the 25 bachelorettes will choose either the New Yorker or the Las Vegas fisherman to continue for the duration of the show. In the past, the show’s first episode had “The Bachelor” meet 25 potential mates and vote a handful off.

“I can’t think about it too much because I will freak myself out, I just want to have fun with it,” Mr. Overbye said of his impending national fame. He still has a few weeks left of anonymity before the show begins airing, but already clients are curious.

“They think it’s fun, but once they get past the novelty of “The Bachelor,” all they really care about is whether I can find them the right apartment,” he said.

As for doing the show, it was a role that Mr. Overbye took reluctantly.

“Whenever I was single, I would hear a lot of chatter about how I would make a good Bachelor, but I never really took it seriously,” he said. After his friend went to a casting call and gave his name to producers, Mr. Overbye e-mailed with the show and was soon asked to interview.

“I was unsure about it for the first four interviews, particularly having a courtship with a woman shown on national television, but the show did a great job of selling me on the possibility of finding the woman of my dreams,” he said. “It wasn’t great timing, because I had just started as a real-estate agent, but I knew if I didn’t do it, I would regret it.”

Sworn to secrecy, Mr. Overbye is forbidden to discuss any details about the show.

The 40-year-old bachelor, who has never been married, is not the sole reality TV star to double as a New York City real-estate agent. “Survivor: Thailand” and “Survivor All Stars” cast member, Shii Ann Huang, is a broker at Corcoran Group’s downtown office.

Halstead’s Upper West Side office is also no stranger to brokers in the entertainment industry, although none have a role quite as attention-grabbing as Mr. Overbye’s. There is Adam Trese, who has been cast in the production of 12 Angry Men, to open on Broadway in the fall, and the office’s top producer, Brian Keith Lewis, is an actor. There are also several Halstead brokers who model.

Being the center of a press blizzard, fielding calls from a variety of publications requesting interviews with Mr. Overbye, has given the white shoe brokerage firm, which often shuns publicity, a bit of a jolt.

“Does this fit our image? No. Are we delighted for him? Absolutely,” said the director of sales at the West Side office, Abby Plitt Gellert. “He is a charming man, he’s a hard worker who always does his homework.”

As for the office reaction, “everybody loves that he may be “The Bachelor,” but it does not play very much in the office interactions,” Ms. Gellert said. “He is a good businessman and very smart, and we hired him because he is going to be a great agent. We didn’t even know about the show at the time.”

Ms. Gellert had this advice for the rookie agent: “Fame will bring Jay more exposure, but his intelligence and business background is going to get him the deals.”

Looks don’t hurt either, and Mr. Overbye is signed to the Ford Modeling Agency, currently starring in billboard ads for Verizon.

“Modeling is a part-time thing, my primary income is from real estate,” he said.

Before joining Halstead, Mr. Overbye started a computer networking business with a partner in Chicago, selling the firm in 2002 after nine years. His other business experiences range from public-relations work for the Cleveland Indians to a job as an advertising account manager at Young & Rubicam in New York.

Mr. Overbye, who returned to New York last year, comes from a large family of four brothers, two sisters, and 10 nieces and nephews, who live in Connecticut.

He settled on a career in real estate after returning to New York because “I love the history and architecture of Manhattan, and being an agent has an amazing entrepreneurial side to it. I’m also a service-oriented person at heart, and that is a large part of this business.”

After researching a number of firms, he chose Halstead because “despite being a $1.5 billion business, it still has an informal family culture. I knew as soon as I walked in the door that this was the right place.”

“The Bachelor” will premiere on ABC in a two-hour special from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Wednesday, September 22.