The Golden Bachelor

The Golden Bachelor is an American dating reality television series that premiered on September 28, 2023 on ABC.^[1] It is a spin-off of The Bachelor featuring a cast of senior citizens as the contestants and a single man.

The Golden Bachelor
Genre	Dating game show
Presented by	Jesse Palmer
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	10 (including 1 special)
Production
Production company	Warner Horizon Unscripted Television
Original release
Network	ABC
Release	September 28, 2023 (2023-09-28) – present (present)
Related
The Bachelor franchise

The series starred 72-year-old Gerry Turner, a retired restaurateur and widower from Hudson, Indiana.^[2] It concluded on November 30, 2023, with Turner choosing to propose to 70-year-old Theresa Nist; the finale would be the most-watched episode in the Bachelor franchise since 2021.^[3] ABC aired the wedding as a live special, The Golden Wedding, on January 4, 2024.^[4] They divorced three months later.^[5]

In February 2024, ABC announced that it had ordered an equivalent spin-off for The Bachelorette, The Golden Bachelorette, for its fall lineup in 2024;^[6] Joan Vassos—a contestant who had dropped out of The Golden Bachelor due to a family emergency—was announced as its star.^[7]

Production

Filming and development

In January 2020, a casting call was issued for men and women aged 65 and older, for an edition of The Bachelor starring senior citizens.^[8] The series was initially set to air in the fall of 2020 as a part of the 2020–21 TV schedule, however, the series was delayed until 2023 due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, and was replaced by the sixteenth season of The Bachelorette which was also delayed.^[9][10]

On May 16, 2023, ABC officially commissioned the first season of The Golden Bachelor.^[11] On July 17, 2023, Turner was announced as the inaugural lead of the series.^[2]

As a result of the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike, the series aired on Thursday nights followed by the ninth season of Bachelor in Paradise instead of on its originally intended Monday-night scheduling, to fill timeslots left vacant by scripted shows.^[1]

Filming began in August 2023 in Los Angeles, and concluded in Costa Rica.^[12]

Former Bachelorettes Kaitlyn Bristowe and Trista Sutter, and then-incoming season 28 Bachelor Joey Graziadei all made guest appearances this season.^[13][14]

Casting and contestants

Notable contestants include Patty James, mother of season 25 Bachelor Matt James, Renee Halverson-Wright, author and former Chicago Honey Bears cheerleader, and Susan Noles, ex-wife of retired baseball player Dickie Noles.^[15][16][17]

Contestants

The 22 contestants were announced on August 30, 2023.^[18]

Name	Age	Hometown	Occupation	Outcome	Place	Ref
Theresa Nist[19]	70	Shrewsbury, New Jersey	Financial Services Professional	Winner	1	[20]
Leslie Fhima[21]	64	Golden Valley, Minnesota	Fitness Instructor	Runner-Up	2
Faith Martin[22]	61	Benton City, Washington	High School Teacher	Week 6	3	[23]
Ellen Goltzer[24]	71	Delray Beach, Florida	Retired Teacher	Week 5	4–6	[25]
Sandra Mason[26]	75	Doraville, Georgia	Retired Executive Assistant
Susan Noles[17]	66	Aston, Pennsylvania	Wedding Officiant
April Kirkwood[24]	65	Port St. Lucie, Florida	Therapist	Week 4	7–8	[14]
Kathy Swarts[27]	70	Austin, Texas	Retired Educational Consultant
Nancy Hulkower[28]	60	Alexandria, Virginia	Retired Interior Designer		9
Christina Kempton[29]	73	Sierra Madre, California	Retired Purchasing Manager	Week 3	10–11	[30]
Edith Aguirre[31]	60	Downey, California	Retired Realtor
Joan Vassos[32]	60	Rockville, Maryland	Private School Administrator		12 (quit)
Jeanie Howard[33]	65	Estill Springs, Tennessee	Retired Project Manager	Week 2	13–15	[34]
Natascha Hardee[19]	60	New York City, New York	Pro-Aging Coach & Midlife Speaker
Peggy Dercole[35]	69	East Haven, Connecticut	Dental Hygienist
Marina Perera[36]	60	Los Angeles, California	Educator		16 (quit)
Anna Zalk[19]	61	Summit, New Jersey	Retired Nutritionist	Week 1	17–22	[37]
Maria Trice[19]	60	Teaneck, New Jersey	Health & Wellness Director
Pamela Burns[29]	75	Aurora, Illinois	Retired Salon Owner
Patty James[15]	70	Raleigh, North Carolina	Retired Real Estate Professional
Renee Halverson-Wright[16]	67	Middleton, Wisconsin	Author
Sylvia Robledo[29]	64	Los Angeles, California	Public Affairs Consultant

Call-out order

Order	Bachelorettes	Week
		1	2	3	4	5	6	7/8
1	Edith	Faith	Theresa	Ellen	Sandra	Faith	Leslie	Theresa
2	Ellen	Ellen	Nancy	Kathy	Leslie	Leslie	Theresa	Leslie
3	Sandra	Theresa	Leslie	Faith	Ellen	Theresa	Faith
4	Leslie	Joan	Joan	Sandra	Faith	Ellen Sandra Susan
5	Marina	Natascha	Edith	Leslie	Susan
6	Christina	Leslie	Ellen	Nancy	Theresa
7	Joan	Christina	Sandra	Susan	April Kathy
8	Natascha	Edith	Susan	April
9	Peggy	Nancy	Christina	Theresa	Nancy
10	Pamela	April	Faith	Christina Edith
11	Kathy	Sandra	April
12	Nancy	Jeanie	Kathy	Joan
13	Theresa	Kathy	Jeanie Natascha Peggy
14	April	Marina
15	Renee	Peggy
16	Maria	Susan	Marina
17	Anna	Anna Maria Pamela Patty Renee Sylvia
18	Susan
19	Patty
20	Sylvia
21	Jeanie
22	Faith

  The contestant received the first impression rose

  The contestant received a rose during a date

  The contestant received a rose outside of a rose ceremony or date

  The contestant was eliminated

  The contestant was eliminated during a date

  The contestant was eliminated outside the rose ceremony

  The contestant received a rose during a date but quit the competition

  The contestant quit the competition

  The contestant won the competition

Reception

The season premiere of The Golden Bachelor was the highest-rated debut for an unscripted ABC series in nearly two years.^[38][39] The two hour-plus finale reached 6.1 million viewers and was the most-watched episode of the Bachelor franchise since the March 2021 finale of The Bachelor season 25 featuring Matt James.^[3]

The day before the finale aired, an exposé was published by The Hollywood Reporter claiming that Turner was in a long-term, live-in relationship after the death of his wife, contrasting with the persona he presented on the show. Additionally, there were discrepancies regarding his employment.^[40]

The series holds a 73% approval rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, based on 15 critic reviews with an average rating of 6/10.^[41] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 64 out of 100 based on 5 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.^[42]

Episodes

No.	Title	Original air date [43]	Prod. code [43]	U.S. viewers (millions)	Rating (18–49)
1	"Week 1"	September 28, 2023 (2023-09-28)	101	4.36[44]	0.6[44]
2	"Week 2"	October 5, 2023 (2023-10-05)	102	4.27[45]	0.6[45]
3	"Week 3"	October 12, 2023 (2023-10-12)	103	3.93[46]	0.5[46]
4	"Week 4"	October 19, 2023 (2023-10-19)	104	4.09[47]	0.5[47]
5	"Week 5"	October 26, 2023 (2023-10-26)	105	4.42[48]	0.5[48]
6	"Week 6"	November 2, 2023 (2023-11-02)	106	4.77[49]	0.6[49]
7	"The Women Tell All"	November 9, 2023 (2023-11-09)	N/A	4.89[50]	0.5[50]
8	"Week 7"	November 16, 2023 (2023-11-16)	107	5.26[51]	0.7[51]
9	"Week 8: Finale and After the Final Rose"	November 30, 2023 (2023-11-30)	108	6.09[52]	0.8[52]

Special

No.	Title	Original air date [43]	Prod. code [43]	U.S. viewers (millions)	Rating (18–49)
10	"The Golden Wedding"	January 4, 2024 (2024-01-04)	N/A	5.21[53]	0.6[53]

Australian version

In late 2024, it was rumoured that an Australian version has been commissioned for the Nine Network. This will be the first Australian iteration of the Bachelor franchise to not be aired on Network 10, who have aired the Australian versions of The Bachelor, The Bachelorette and Bachelor in Paradise.^[54] In October 2024, the series was confirmed by Nine at their 2025 Upfronts, with Samantha Armytage to host the series and produced by Warner Bros. International Television Production Australia.^[55][56]

References

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External links

• Official website