‘Bachelor’
spinoff, now airing Thursdays, features retirees in their 60s and 70s, many looking for a second or third chance at love.
The season will include the usual touchstones of the franchise: physical contests, moonlit suppers, cuddles in hot tubs, and tense elimination rose ceremonies — where the bachelor hands out red roses as he narrows the field of potential partners.
And yes, there will also be fantasy suites, where Turner will get the opportunity to spend the night with each of his top three finalists outside the view of prying cameras.
The series is a love story years in the making. Producers of the veteran franchise say there has been consistent demand for an edition with older contestants. Plans were progressing before being shut down by the pandemic. Now that lockdowns have eased and more people are willing to be in close quarters, the series is back on track.
Even though the sexual sizzle may be a little calmer in this iteration of the franchise, executives believe “The Golden Bachelor” will have an appeal beyond its loyal fan base.
“This is a show for Bachelor Nation, but there is a contingency of lapsed viewers who have been asking during the 20-year history of ‘The Bachelor’ for an older love story,” said Rob Mills, executive vice president of unscripted and alternative entertainment for Walt Disney Television. “We’re hoping for a broader audience than we normally see.”
The focus is likely to be more on romance than in previous seasons of “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette,” where several cast members appear to have been more interested in using the exposure to boost their social media profile than in finding a partner. The narrator in a trailer for the show turns the idea of contestants as influencers on its head, telling viewers that Turner “posts his thirst traps in a leather-bound album” and “his DMs have postage.”
Mills is certain that Turner has the true star quality to launch the spinoff. “We were looking for someone who has done a lot of living, a person who you could not help but root for. It was one of
those ‘we’ll know it when we see it’ searches.”
Though excited with the prospect of finding a life partner, Turner has another key objective.
“The women and I are committed to showing the world that you still have energy and vitality in your 60s and 70s,” he said. “And guess what? You get a lot of wisdom. Some of us aren’t smart, but we’ve seen a lot of stuff. That’s a theme that I hope gets carried through the show.
“It’s a huge responsibility, but also an easy responsibility to carry out. It cuts through a lot of the garbage that may be necessary or appear to be necessary to a younger generation.”
Being thrust into the middle
of a multimillion-dollar, heavily produced franchise does not appear to have fazed Turner; he projects a soft-spoken natural charm and likability that outshines the majority of the hard-bodied hunks in “The Bachelor” portfolio. His relaxed warmth and good-nurtured humor was spotlighted in a taped profile that aired during a live “Bachelorette” episode. In the video, we see him driving an
ATV in an open field and playing pickleball, and interviews with his daughters described him as a “fun guy” who is “personable and lovable.”
In an interview several days after production for the show began and he was introduced to the women vying for his affections, Turner was upbeat and relaxed. The memory of the first night of the show’s taping was still vivid.
“That was one of the finest moments of my life — watching the women get out of the limo,” Turner said. “Their excitement was contagious. There was a first-impression rose that I gave out that night, but I wish I had six or seven.”
But he became a bit overwhelmed by the hectic pace that followed the introductions.
“It’s been a whirlwind,” he admitted. “The activity is coming at me much faster than I expected. I tried to ramp myself up but I didn’t do a good enough job of it. There’s wonderful women here that I have had the pleasure to know but I’ve needed to get to know them in a hurry. That was unexpected. I thought there would be more time for in-depth and casual conversations.”
He added, “You have 22 blank slates. Or to use another metaphor, I’m basically reading 22 novels at the same time, and I have to go from book to book and remember the first pages.
It’s quite a challenge intellectually but even more of a challenge emotionally.”
Concerns about whether he would compare the new women in his life to Toni initially crossed his mind but eventually melted away.
“I like banana cream pie, and I like chocolate cake, and to compare the two just isn’t fair,” he said. “This is an entirely different phase of life, and to have the same goals and criteria would be a mistake.”