When ABC announced there would be the first ever Golden Bachelor, I could not believe it. A spinoff of ABC’s “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette,” is the first ever love show where a 72-year-old is searching for a second chance at love. I genuinely had so many questions of how the show would run, how old the women would be and who the Golden Bachelor would be, but I was so excited to watch.
Fans found out, in July, the Golden Bachelor would be 72-year-old widow Gerry Turner. Once I found this out, I was even more curious as to who the women would be on the show. Finally, on Aug. 30, ABC announced the 22 contestants competing for Turner’s love; ranging from 60 to 76 years old.
As we got closer and closer to the Sept. 28 premier, Bachelor Nation fans were more curious and excited than ever — including myself. I was especially interested because of the switch from a normal two-hour long episode, to now being only one-hour long.
As Sept. 28 finally came, I was finally ready to see how this first ever “Golden Bachelor” would work — and to be honest, I was a little nervous that it would end up being really cringy watching a 72-year-old find love on national television, but it was honestly so pure to watch.
The episode started off by getting a background on Turner and on what led him to this point in his life. It was really sad, yet sweet, to see how emotional he got when speaking about his deceased wife. Honestly, this gave me everything I needed to know about him and how dedicated he was to finding that same love again.
Finally we got to meet the women! As 22 women met Gerry one-by-one, it was really interesting to see how each of them tried to win his attention. A few that stood out to me were: Faith — 61-year-old high school teacher — because she came in on a motorcycle and practically swept Gerry off of his feet, Theresa — 70-year-old financial services worker — because she wanted to show Gerry her “birthday suit” and April — 65-year-old therapist — because she came with some sass that will definitely spice up the season.
Once host Jesse Palmer told Gerry he had met all the women, it was so cute to see how genuinely excited he was to learn more about them.
During the majority of the episode, Gerry was meeting with all of the women to learn more about them and their past. There wasn’t too much drama, which was something I was curious to see when I learned about “The Golden Bachelor.”
The big excitement of the evening was Faith receiving the first impression rose — which is the first rose handed out of the season because Gerry felt an immediate connection. I honestly was not surprised Faith received this rose, from the second she got off the motorcycle I could tell that Gerry felt a strong connection.
Finally it was time for Gerry to hand out roses at the rose ceremony — the sun was literally rising in the windows. It’s safe for me to say nothing too exciting happened at the rose ceremony, especially due to the fact that I don’t remember most of the other women’s names. Gerry handed out 16 roses, leaving six women to go home.
It was interesting for me to compare “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette,” to this first episode. Normally in “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette” we see women on this show just for Instagram followers, but just in this first episode I could see how genuine the women are and how most just wanted a second chance at true love.
I am really excited to see where the season takes Gerry and all of the women — especially since the season previews look like the most “dramatic season yet!”
This story was written by Sophie Goldstein. She can be reached at [email protected].
