‘The Golden Bachelor’ Season 2 Leads to More Disappointment as Mel Owens Fumbles a Fan Favorite
Mel Owens has thus far been a disaster casting for The Golden Bachelor, a dating competition that showed significant promise just a year ago. Fans weren’t sold on him initially, hoping to see a The Golden Bachelorette contestant land the job instead of an unknown. Mel then made it clear that the fans’ gut instinct was correct. He made horrific comments on a podcast months before filming was set to start. Now, he’s fumbled a fan-favorite. Is ABC regretting the decision to move forward with the former NFL player?
Mel Owens probably should have never been the second golden bachelor
Mel Owens’ life in the public eye got off to a pretty bumpy start. After being named the second-ever lead of The Golden Bachelor, Owens sat down for a podcast interview. That podcast was supposed to be about football, but, understandably, his role on the show came up. That is where Owens went wrong. He made sexist and ageist comments that rubbed most of the Golden Bachelor viewers the wrong way. He made it clear that he was not after women his own age, which is what the show was all about from the start. Then he did and said nothing for months.
Eventually, as filming got underway, he offered a public apology, but it wasn’t really an apology. Owens told Glamour that he didn’t realize his comments were hurtful, and claimed he had been out of the dating game too long to realize public perception had changed. In short, he suggested that in his day, being rude and actively seeking out women 20 years younger while dismissing all women near your age without meeting them was socially acceptable.
The public apology was almost as bad as his comments. Strangely, he kept his role as the lead of the show. The NFL star turned lawyer should have known better, but ABC really should have known better. Owens had no business being the lead on this show, and the writing was on the wall. He’s proven it once again this week.
He just fumbled a fan favorite
Mel Owens’ bevy of beautiful women was pretty varied. The 25 ladies competing for his attention came from across the country and had interesting jobs and family lives. Lily Reeves, who went home in week 1, is Tom Hanks’s sister-in-law. Robin Rocha, who was sent packing in week 4, owns a vineyard, and Peg Bunson was a bomb tech. Still, fans were head over heels for Carol Freeman-Branstine, the self-appointed manager of her nephew, Los Angeles Dodgers star Freddie Freeman.
Carol opted to self-eliminate in week 5. She left after a lack of alone time led to a serious disconnect with Mel Owens. Carol noted that she hadn’t had a single one-on-one date with Owens and, at that point, felt fairly certain that he wasn’t the one for her. She is probably correct. Still, we can’t forget how truely surprised Owens was that Carol was opting to call it a day, rather than hang around and wait for him to show some interest in her. He seemed genuinely surprised, which further proves that the man, in his mid-60s, is kind of clueless about women.
The series is now heading into its Hometown Dates episode. By this far into the season, there would normally be a ton of spoilers, including rumors about who Owens ultimately picked. The spoilers this year have been slow to come, which further underscores how utterly uninteresting it all has been. It also suggests that Owens probably isn’t with the lady he ultimately picked as his winner. Only time will tell, but season 2 of The Golden Bachelor lacked all of the charm of season 1. Better luck next time, we suppose.
