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The Bachelor franchise is getting old.
After 21 long years, the focus has shifted from young hopefuls searching for true love to savvy influencer types seeking to boost their sponsorship opportunities. And the market is flooded; The Bachelor, The Bachelorette and Bach in Paradise are competing with Married at First Sight, Love Island, Indian Matchmaking, Jewish Matchmaking, and Fboy Island.
Gerry Turner will be the first-ever senior lead of the USA ABC’s The Golden Bachelor.Credit: ABC USA
There is dating behind a screen (Love is Blind), dating whilst nude (Naked Attraction), dating for people with autism, (Love on the Spectrum), dating as a parent (My Mum Your Dad) and dating to end your engagement (The Ultimatum).
But there is one demographic that has been hitherto unrepresented: the demographic that uses the word ‘hitherto’, and doesn’t watch much reality TV. Senior citizens.
But now, for the first time, this group is getting its own dating show. The Golden Bachelor has been announced in the US, and he is 71, deeply tanned, and searching for a partner with whom to share the sunset years.
As a middle-aged woman, I’m psyched for The Golden Bachelor, as are many of my cohort. For the first time, we will see people our age and older – instead of our children’s age – on a dating show. Our enthusiasm, however, may not be shared by the twenty to thirty-somethings who make up the traditional Bachelor franchise audience. Most young adults regard late-in-life dating with disinterest at best, and mild horror at worst. The participants aren’t as cute, the banter is less meme-worthy, and no young person wants to be reminded of Mum – or, god forbid, Grandma – having sex.
The grandfather from Indiana is searching for a partner with whom to share the sunset years.Credit: ABC USA
Still, the producers have given it a red hot go with the inaugural Golden Bachelor, Gerry Turner, a retired restaurateur from Indiana. Gerry is handsome, a grandfather, and – best of all – a widower. He is a catch all round, but it is his widowhood that is the jewel in his Golden crown.
A widower has baggage, of course, but his baggage is far more palatable than that of the aging divorcee. He may harbour cherished memories of his late wife, but this just proves his capacity to commit. He has endured tough times and grief, he isn’t muttering about his ‘crazy ex’, and he hasn’t gone through a fiscally ruinous divorce. And when he is also attractive, buff, and financially secure, he truly is the needle in the haystack.
If Turner wasn’t the Golden Bachelor, he would have a line of women at his door with homemade casseroles and offers of comfort. He is an outlier amongst elderly single men, which is why it has reportedly taken years of casting calls to find him.
It is the rarity of the Golden Bachelor that may keep this new season interesting. The OG Bachelor has one fatal flaw, and that is the myth of scarcity. Twenty or thirty women compete desperately for the attention of one single young man, when there are thousands of eligible young single men outside the gates of the mansion. But a hot, older bachelor is as rare as hens’ teeth, and the competition will be brutal.
I spent nine years after my divorce searching for my own mature bachelor, and whilst I didn’t find a Golden Widower, I did end up with a lovely, divorced Silver Fox. And I can tell you from experience, the Senior Bachelorettes will have a myriad of horror stories to share.
They will be divorced or widowed themselves. They will have encountered man-babies looking for a new wife to care for them. They will have met bewildered and bitter divorcees crushed by their wife’s abandonment. They will have dated men whose adult children treated them with contempt and suspicion. They will be traumatised and exhausted and yet still, miraculously, hopeful. Many will see Gerry Turner as their very last chance to find love. Some of them might actually be right.
Of course, the Golden Bachelor will have his own dating challenges. He may compare the women to his beloved ex-wife, and feel nostalgic, or disappointed, or disloyal.
He may introduce the finalists to his adult kids and find that they dislike, or disapprove of, his choice. He may have physical issues, as older people often do, like sleep apnoea, or a bad back, or, um, other. Or he may propose to his finalist, get down on one knee, and be unable to get back up again.
Love stories in later life can have dramatic twists and turns. The Golden Bachelor may be just what this ageing franchise needs.
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