‘The Golden Bachelor’ Has Been in the Works for More Than 3 Years

ABC’s smash hit dating series The Bachelor just grew up and apparently, a series like The Golden Bachelor had been in the planning stages for more than three years.

Producers announced the latest Bachelor Nation spinoff that features a more mature bachelor in his “golden” years. Instead of helping a 20 or 30-year-old bachelor find love, the series will feature a man in his early 70s, who was recently widowed.

The new series makes sense considering that the franchise has a wide age appeal. But producers have been working on the show for more than three years. Why did it take The Bachelor producers so long to launch The Golden Bachelor?

‘The Bachelor’ producers tested the concept of a ‘Golden’ series before the pandemic

The Bachelor producers were already toying with doing a Golden Bachelor series before the pandemic shut down the world. ABC even launched a teaser, “Now casting seniors looking for love,” Variety reports. And while the teaser caused a stir and speculation that the series was coming, all mention of a possible Golden series went dark when the coronavirus (Covid-19) struck.

But producers didn’t want to give up on the concept. The original series was originally supposed to air in the fall of 2020. That was a time when new productions were carefully dipping their toe back into filming. And while The Golden Bachelor didn’t start filming, ABC’s Rob Mills told Variety the stories they heard were too powerful to not tell.

Producers remained optimistic that the new series will ultimately air

“Some of the casting interviews we got, they were just so touching,” Mills, said. “It’s such a different way of doing ‘The Bachelor’ because these people are just at a totally different place in their lives. There is an interesting thing about people who have hit the other end of the spectrum, who’ve lived their lives, they’ve raised their kids, some have been widowed or divorced and maybe some have never been in love. We thought that would be an interesting dynamic through the Bachelor prism.”

He expressed optimism that the show would ultimately be greenlit. “It’s everything you love about The Bachelor, but everybody loves senior citizens because they have different love stories to talk about,” Mills said. “It was really fascinating, so I have no doubt it will happen someday.”

As the pandemic dragged on, The Bachelor producers kept The Golden Bachelor on the table, while growing the existing franchise.

At the time Mills continued to be optimistic. “God willing, we return to some sort of normalcy in the world; we will obviously want to get back to Bachelor in Paradise because that will have been off for a year, but then I think we will absolutely want to get back to this,” he said. “We absolutely want to get it done, but we want to do it right, do it safely and not at the expense of the other Bachelor cycles. So, it’s on hold, but I have to say, we had never seen a response like we’d seen here.”

Who is ‘The Golden Bachelor’?

Gerry Turner will be the first-ever Golden Bachelor. The 71-year-old restauranteur is ready to give love another chance after his wife Toni died in 2017. The couple were married for 43 years.

With the support of his two daughters, Turner revealed what he’s looking for in a new partner. “I’d love it if I found a partner who is high-energy,” he said on Good Morning America. “Someone that maybe plays pickleball. Someone that maybe plays golf.”

The Golden Bachelor will air on Monday nights on ABC. No specific date has been announced.