The Golden Bachelor has officially announced its star, 71-year-old Gerry Turner.

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ABC announced Gerry, a widowed father of two girls from Indiana, as the upcoming star of The Golden Bachelor, which is set to air on Monday nights at 10PM ET/PT this fall, during Monday's episode of Good Morning America.

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"It's never too late to fall in love again," Gerry said on GMA. "It feels amazing [to be the Golden Bachelor]. It's still sinking in."

When asked what he's looking for in a woman, Gerry said, "I would love to find a partner who is high energy, and someone that maybe plays Pickleball or someone that maybe plays golf."

Gerry said his dating advice for senior citizens would be, "Don't give up; there's always possibilities."

Gerry had married his high school sweetheart, Toni, and they were together for 43 years. The pair welcomed two daughters together, but in 2017 -- just six weeks after she retired -- Toni became sick and passed away.

"She got robbed," Gerry said in tears. "Every day that goes by, that's the thought that I have... I have her picture on a dresser in my closet. Every morning, I give her the nod."

Gerry admitted that "for a while," he had "a hard time figuring out" if his late wife would be okay with him starring on a reality dating show.

"But we always told each other, 'When one of us goes, we want the other one to be happy,'" Gerry shared. "She's up there rooting [for me]. She's saying, 'Yeah, Gerry, do this!'"

Gerry's daughters had apparently nominated Gerry for The Golden Bachelor and urged him to sign up for it. Once ABC picked Gerry for the role, he recalled how they "started screaming" and cheered for him.

GMA aired a Zoom chat between Gerry and The Golden Bachelor host Jesse Palmer in which Gerry was asked to be the show's new star.

"Well hell yes, I would!" Gerry exclaimed, later adding how he "wouldn't discount" the possibility he may film a wedding special down the road.

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In a promo for The Golden Bachelor that was released via The Bachelor's official Instagram account, Gerry -- wearing a sharp suit -- is checking himself out in a mirror.

"He posts his thirst traps in a leather-bound album," a man narrates of Gerry in the video clip.

"His DMs have postage. He gets the Early-Bird special any time he wants. If you call him, he'll answer the phone. He doesn't have gray hair; he has wisdom highlights. Florida wants to retire and move to him. He's Gerry!"

The Golden Bachelor will air after new two-hour episodes of Dancing with the Stars' 32nd season on ABC.

Official fall premiere dates and complete casting for the two reality TV series will be announced at a later date.

On The Golden Bachelor, Gerry will be given a second chance at love and will search for a partner with whom to share "the sunset years of life," according to ABC.

"The women arriving at the mansion have a lifetime of experience, living through love, loss and laughter, hoping for a spark that ignites a future full of endless possibilities. In the end, will our Golden man turn the page to start a new chapter with the woman of his dreams?"

The Golden Bachelor, which is being produced by Warner Bros. Unscripted Television in association with Warner Horizon, has been in the works for quite some time.

ABC's desire to film a senior edition of The Bachelor or The Bachelorette was first teased in early 2020, but the coronavirus pandemic seemed to delay producers' plans.

However, ABC executive Robert Mills assured fans in May 2022 that the long-mentioned spinoff would eventually come to fruition.

"The senior citizens show is definitely going to happen at some point," Mills told Variety at the time.

"The response to that is so massive every time we put up a casting call, so I think it's definitely coming sooner rather than later."

Mills added, "For us, we really feel a responsibility to find the right person to be that senior Bachelor. So, we're looking. COVID obviously put a major wrinkle in everything, but we are really looking back in earnest at it."

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Mills hoped The Golden Bachelor would answer the following question: "[If you have] one great love in your lifetime, can you have another?"

Mills called that idea "really interesting" and "not something" producers usually get to explore on The Bachelor franchise.

Mills concluded that "Senior Bachelor" was "really high on" producers' list.

A casting notice for the seniors project had originally appeared online in January 2020, disclosing that "producers of The Bachelor" were looking for single men and women age 65 or older.

However, the casting notice didn't reveal what network was attached to the show or whether it would be an actual spin off of The Bachelor franchise.

And then a commercial break that aired during Peter Weber's season of The Bachelor in February 2020 featured former The Bachelor host Chris Harrison saying in a voiceover, "Looking for love in your golden years?

"We're looking for eligible seniors who want their shot at love," Chris continued. "To nominate someone or apply, go to abc.com/casting."

Upon visiting the show's casting page at the time, producers called the "exciting" new project a "new dating show for seniors" and were looking for older "active and outgoing single men and women" who were looking "for a committed relationship."

After the episode of Peter's season aired, ABC reality chief Robert Mills tweeted, "#Bachelornation give us your Grumpiest Old Men, give us your Goldenest Girls. #TheBachelor."

"To be clear," he added, "this is [age] 65 [and up]."

In addition to The Bachelor, The Bachelorette and Bachelor in Paradise, ABC also aired The Bachelor Winter Games in 2018 and The Bachelor: Listen To Your Heart in Spring 2020.

In 2018, ABC and The Bachelor producers also attempted The Proposal, a 10-episode reality series which wasn't officially considered a Bachelor spin off but essentially condensed an entire The Bachelor season into each episode.

The series was also hosted by Jesse Palmer.

Each episode of The Proposal featured 10 suitors competing in four pageant-style rounds to win the heart of a bachelor or bachelorette who was concealed from them.

Once the field was narrowed to two suitors, The Proposal lead finally showed him or herself to the contestants and had to decide which person to propose marriage to.

ABC did not renew The Proposal for a second season and the series did not return in 2019.

The new senior citizen project also isn't the first time The Bachelor producers have attempted to apply The Bachelor's format to a different demographic pool of participants.

In 2010, they also produced The Cougar for TV Land.

The Cougar featured a 40-year-old woman -- the "cougar" -- choosing a boyfriend from a group of men in their twenties and was hosted by actress Vivica A. Fox.

The show even filmed at a mansion that looked similar to the famed The Bachelor mansion in Malibu, CA.

TV Land did not renew The Cougar for a second season.

The Bachelor creator Mike Fleiss also executive produced More to Love, a dating series that starred a plus-size bachelor attempting to woo plus-size bachelorettes. The series aired on Fox in 2009 and ended with an engagement.

Former Fox reality chief Mike Darnell billed More to Love as the "first dating competition show in television history that reflects what most real single men and women look like, which makes it instantly relatable to the vast majority of people in the dating pool."

NBC's reality show history also includes a couple of attempts to create a reality dating show featuring older participants.

In 2003, NBC aired Who Wants to Marry My Dad?, which ended with 48-year-old Don Mueller proposing to 40-year-old Christena Ferran.

Who Wants to Marry My Dad? was renewed for a second edition which aired on NBC in 2004 and concluded with 47-year-old Marty Okland getting engaged to 39-year-old Stacy Leutner.

In 2007, NBC also aired Age of Love, a reality dating show that starred Mark Philippoussis, a 31-year-old professional tennis player from Melbourne, Australia.

However unbeknownst to Philippoussis, his group of 13 women ranged in age from 21- to 48-years-old.

Age of Love ended with Philippoussis selecting a 25-year-old and was not renewed by NBC.

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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski

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