The first season of The Golden Bachelor â a spin-off of The Bachelor featuring contestants 60 and over â premiered on September 28, 2023 on ABC.
This season features 72-year-old Gerry Turner, a retired restaurateur and widower from Hudson, Indiana. It concluded on November 30, 2023, with Turner choosing to propose to 70-year-old Theresa Nist. ABC aired the wedding as a live special, The Golden Wedding, on January 4, 2024. They divorced three months later.
Filming began in August 2023 in Los Angeles, and concluded in Costa Rica.
As a result of the 2023 Hollywood labor disputes, 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.
Notable contestants included 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. Former Bachelorettes Kaitlyn Bristowe and Trista Sutter, and then-incoming season 28 Bachelor Joey Graziadei all made guest appearances this season.
Concetta "Chippy" PotenzaâÂÂaunt of comedian and ABC late-night host Jimmy KimmelâÂÂmade a cameo as comic relief in the first episode, appearing as a fake "23rd contestant" trying to meet Turner, and sleeping through the rose ceremony.
The day before the finale aired, an exposé was published by The Hollywood Reporter claiming that Turner had been 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.
Joan Vassos, who departed the show due to a family emergency, later became the lead for the first season of The Golden Bachelorette in 2024.
The 22 contestants were announced on August 30, 2023.
Joan Vassos was the lead of the first season of The Golden Bachelorette, in which she got engaged to Chock Chapple.
April Kirkwood, Faith Martin, Kathy Swarts, Leslie Fhima, Nancy Hulkower, and Natascha Hardee appeared on season 10 of Bachelor in Paradise. Hardee, Hulkower, and Kirkwood were eliminated week 4. Fhima was eliminated week 5 alongside Gary Levingston. Martin was eliminated week 6 alongside Kim Buike. Swarts was eliminated week 9 alongside Keith Gordon.
Noles appeared on the first season of the Hulu show Got to Get Out.
The season premiere of The Golden Bachelor was the highest-rated premiere in the Bachelor franchise since 2021. ABC stated that the premiere had the highest Live+3 viewership of any Bachelor episode since The Bachelorette season 16, the highest key demographic (18âÂÂ49) viewership in the franchise since a Bachelor in Paradise season 7 episode in 2021, and was the network's most-streamed non-scripted program on Hulu. The season finale was seen by an average of 6.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched episode of the Bachelor franchise since the March 2021 finale of The Bachelor season 25 featuring Matt James.
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