Reality TV’s Biggest Dating Show Is Making A Wild New Change
The Bachelor is getting a senior citizen-themed spin-off this fall called, The Golden Bachelor.
Pop in your dentures and lean back in your favorite reclining chair, ABC has announced that the senior citizen season of The Bachelor is finally here! According to a write-up in Variety, the long-awaited variation on the classic reality dating show will be called The Golden Bachelor, and will feature one lucky aged gentleman in the throes of love and lust with a coterie of potential suitresses. This is a significant variation from the usual format of the series, which has featured near-exclusively 20-30-year-old bachelors and bachelorettes in the past.
While The Bachelor has been critiqued in the past for its portrayal of unattainable beauty standards, The Golden Bachelor will almost surely turn the heads of those interested in seeing a whole new generation competing to earn a rose at the end of each episode. Of course, ABC could still pull a fast one on us and feature a century-old man preserved perfectly in ice like Chris Evans‘ Captain America. The new season is set to air in the Fall of 2023, with casting announcements for the bachelor and his ensemble of potential bachelorettes promised to arrive any day now.
Executives have teased the idea for The Golden Bachelor for years, with many viewers taking to the internet to express their interest in the concept, which previously seemed to only be possible through a humorous lens such as the fake television shows on 30 Rock. Of course, with new television series such as MILF Manor bringing absurd premises to the forefront of the television landscape and the newfound demand for unscripted reality programs amid the Writers Guild of America strike, now seems like the perfect time to finally get the ball rolling.
ABC describes the series as showcasing love between members of a generation that has been criminally underrepresented in modern television over the last several decades, with the unannounced leading man being referred to as a hopeless romantic in need of a second chance. Though viewers may be tuning in to The Golden Bachelor initially for the novelty, many will likely feel compelled to continue their emotional investment in the series due to the significant connections forged by the contestants, brought on by their lifetime of experience, which makes the frivolity of the usual Bachelor series seem trivial by comparison.
The Golden Bachelor will air Mondays at 10 PM, after Dancing With The Stars, with a new season of Bachelor In Paradise set to arrive Tuesday nights, rounding out ABC’s schedule with a ton of reality shows in response to the WGA strike. Given the rise of unscripted series that came as a result of the last writer’s strike in 2007-2008, it comes as a pleasant surprise to see that the new slate of shows are at least relying on innovating a tried and true premise rather than utilizing random novelty to stir up viewers. Fans of The Bachelor have been waiting for this series for so long they’re nearly eligible to sign up as contestants at this point, so this is a huge win for them.
