The Golden Bachelor is finally coming to ABC.
It’s been years in the making, and Jesse Palmer has been putting out word for a while now that the search was on for the perfect seniors to put together a new Bachelor spinoff featuring older singles looking for love.
With the writers strike in full gear, now is the time as ABC made sure their fall 2023 lineup was strike-proof by bringing back several reality shows, planning for reruns on some of their hit scripted series, and adding a few new reality spinoffs like The Golden Bachelor to the mix.
For years, Bachelor Nation has seen comments wishing for older singles to be featured on the show, as plenty of boomers are looking for love.
And in all fairness, we’ve been teased with The Golden Bachelor for years, with the networking even looking to cast the show back in 2020, before all of the COVID-19 madness began, and the new series idea ended up shelved for just a few more years.
Not to mention that The Bachelor’s core audience — those who have watched the show since the beginning or close to it — are likely seniors now and could enjoy a series with a cast closer to their age.
As it stands, Byron Velvick is the oldest Bachelor lead at 40 years old when he took over on Season 6 of the series back in 2004.
One Bachelor, many ladies
There are still a lot of questions left unanswered about The Golden Bachelor, including who the lead will be. We know it will be an older, single gentleman, but so far, no announcement has been made about who that man may be.
The network said, “One hopeless romantic is given a second chance at love.” Also, the new lead and his bevy of beauties hoping to find love will all be over 60.
We also don’t know who the ladies will be as no announcement has been made yet. We hope to learn about the cast soon as ABC works to build anticipation about the upcoming new series.
The official ABC announcement described the women cast for this series: “The women arriving at the mansion have a lifetime of experience, living through love, loss, and laughter, hoping for a spark that ignites a future full of endless possibilities.”
Could this new Bachelor spinoff be more heartwarming and have more depth than its predecessor? It certainly seems so.
As far as the host of the show goes, that also hasn’t been made official, but we’re assuming it will be Jesse Palmer, as he has taken over for all the Bachelor Nation shows now. Jesse was instrumental in recruiting for The Golden Bachelor.
When does The Golden Bachelor premiere?
Just like The Bachelor, The Golden Bachelor will be a Monday night show — though it will air a bit later than most of us are used to.
According to the ABC schedule, the new series will air right after the next season of Dancing with the Stars, which means it’s getting a start time of 10/9c. That might feel a bit late for the older crowd tuning in to enjoy watching their peers look for love.
So far, the network hasn’t released the exact start date, but it should be on a Monday in September, with Bachelor in Paradise airing on Tuesdays.
There’s still a lot to learn about The Golden Bachelor and who the cast will be. And we’re certain that details will continue to be shared as the network works to hype this new spinoff and possibly even draw more viewers to Bachelor Nation.