I Was All In On The Golden Bachelor, But Going Into The Golden Bachelorette I'm Feeling Pretty Burned

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As we approach the fall season of the 2024 TV schedule, one of the most highly-anticipated series that’s going to be part of the weekly watercooler talk is the first season of The Golden Bachelorette. It’s no secret Gerry Turner’s journey was a huge hit for ABC. I felt like everywhere I turned, people in my life were either getting on the The Golden Bachelor train or I was convincing them to. It was the right move to revive the franchise, but as the premiere of the spinoff draws closer, I’m finding myself weighing whether or not I’m going to put my heart on the line for Joan Vassos’ Bachelorette journey.

I have about a month to decide, as the series will premiere on September 18 on ABC. Let me air out why I was all in on The Golden Bachelor and why I’m feeling pretty burned going into The Golden Bachelorette.

I Was Over The Bachelor Franchise When The Golden Bachelor Came Around

Now, I wouldn’t consider myself a long participating member of Bachelor Nation, but when I did end up watching the series for the first time (through a couple of friends), I went all in. It was just too much fun to see how a group of men or women deal with pining over one single person looking for love and all the beats of each season. However, in many of the seasons I have watched (if not all of them), the couples never seem to last very long, giving the original format a feeling like it’s going through the motions for television and doesn’t really have much real stakes to it.

Plus, at this point, so many of the contestants often seem rather young and immature to get married, and the same petty things happen over and over. Or once they become “celebrities,” I feel like they cash into that and forgo what the show is supposed to be about: love! Watching the original Bachelor series has felt a bit to me like being in a toxic relationship, because it’s full of highs and lows, but never really delivers on what it is advertising. But I felt differently when I decided to give The Golden Bachelor a shot.

I Was All In On The Golden Bachelor For How Refreshingly Real It Felt

Right from the first few minutes of turning on The Golden Bachelor, I recall being compromised to tears regarding Gerry Turner’s wholesome, yet rather tragic setup that continued to carry the entire season. While the typical Bachelor contestants are navigating the series usually in their naive 20s, I felt the show was fixing a main issue I had with the franchise by bringing in a senior citizen who has been a widower for numerous years and was looking for a partner to live out his remaining years with.

Along with Gerry Turner being an absolute delight to watch fall for these other older women, I also got a lot from the refreshing female contestants of the season just a few episodes into The Golden Bachelor. I realized that women at this stage of life rarely get any spotlight on them. It felt like an important history-making moment in television that I wanted to see more of. Plus, the show did an excellent job of discussing the grief and loss real people were dealing with, not only from Gerry, but many of the women he was dating. I was drawn in by the genuine connections being formed that felt like an outlier in reality TV as a whole.

After Terry’s Divorce I’m Not Sure Elder Contestants Fix The Show’s Main Problem

When Gerry picked Theresa in the finale and got engaged, I wasn’t over the moon about the pick, but I was happy for Gerry and the journey I watched him and the contestants go on. While I stand by love for The Golden Bachelor Season 1, I’m just so bummed it didn’t last very long. After an unhinged live wedding special, I was shocked to hear the news that Gerry and Theresa were getting a divorce just three months later. But in a lot of ways, the writing was on the wall due to Gerry being based in Indiana and Theresa’s whole life being in New Jersey.

While The Golden Bachelor fixed the maturity problem I have with the main series, it didn’t learn from another major issue with how they handle contestants. The show seems to cast people from all across the country when it’s very uncommon for people to move to a completely different state for their partner, especially when they are senior citizens who would oftentimes want to be close to their family and friends they have established across six or seven decades.

Now I’m Worried About The Golden Bachelorette Burning Me Again

So when it comes to Joan Vassos’ season of The Golden Bachelorette, the new lead has spoken candidly about not wanting to leave her family for a man she chooses on the show. While Joan may be upfront about this with the bachelors on her season, there’s a part of me now that is untrusting of these elder men perhaps concealing their true wishes of not wanting to leave their homes (wherever it may be) in hopes of becoming celebrities on national television, and she could be getting her heartbroken in front of the world.

I would have been a lot more on board for The Golden Bachelor if the first season had ended in a successful relationship, but now I’m just sus of the whole thing. If I’m going to tearing up week to week about a deeper version of the dating series, and it turns out to be another short lived relationship simply because the casting department cannot find more local picks, I’m going to be so bummed! What’s the point of the Bachelor franchise promising its singles to find love when someone’s simple needs around a relationship – like not wanting to leave their family – isn’t met?

It’s just not fair to anyone involved, except that it makes good television. Sure, I’ll be tuning in, but my soft heart is stressed. Love in the end is about a leap of faith, as they say, so I’ll do it for you Joan, but I also really want to believe it's more than just another reality series that it seems to me to be!