ABC has announced its long-awaited The Bachelor spinoff for senior citizens, The Golden Bachelor, will air in Fall 2023.
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As part of ABC announcing its 2023-2024 fall primetime schedule, the network revealed The Golden Bachelor is finally happening and will air on Monday nights at 10PM ET/PT this fall.
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The Golden Bachelor will air after new two-hour episodes of Dancing with the Stars' 32nd season.
Official fall premiere dates and casting for the two reality TV series will be announced at a later date.
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On The Golden Bachelor, one hopeless romantic is 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?"
ABC's The Golden Bachelor announcement appears to be part of the network's strategy to air more unscripted television this year after the Writers Guild of America launched a strike against the major Hollywood studios on May 2 for the first time in 15 years.
Similar to what occurred when the last Writers Guild of America strike began in late 2007, reality TV shows are expected to become vital programming for networks and streaming services in the coming months as scripted shows cease production due to the strike.
The last writers strike began in November 2007 and ended more than three months later in February 2008. Television networks attempted to fill their schedules with numerous replacements that included everything from imports of non-American scripted TV dramas to a variety of additional unscripted programming like the first-ever winter season of Big Brother.
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In addition to the debut of The Golden Bachelor and the return of Dancing with the Stars from Disney+, ABC's fall schedule will also include new seasons of Bachelor in Paradise, Shark Tank, and numerous news and game shows.
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.
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However, ABC executive Robert Mills assured fans in May 2022 that the long-mentioned spinoff would eventually come to fruition.
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"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."
Many Bachelor Nation fans have been rooting for The Bachelorette 19 star Gabby Windey's beloved and supportive grandfather to star as the senior Bachelor.
Gabby's grandpa came across witty, warm-hearted and a hopeless romantic during Clayton Echard's The Bachelor season, which wrapped its broadcast run on ABC in March. He stole hearts again as he helped Gabby find The One on her The Bachelorette season.
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"I would be crazy to say that we didn't notice all the affection and interest in Gabby's grandfather, so you never know," Mills said.
"Everyone wants to see him find love. Gabby's grandfather really gave the thesis of what that show should be, which is that he found that great love -- we saw that he still wears the ring, so by the way, he might not be ready for something like this -- and then, there is the question of having one great love in your lifetime, but can you have another?"
Mills called that idea "really interesting" and "not something" producers usually get to explore on The Bachelor franchise.
"Or, finding someone who has never been in love," Mills suggested. "That would be interesting, too. If we can find the person and the story that allows us to answer that, that's when we'll do it."
Mills concluded that "Senior Bachelor" is "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 spinoff of The Bachelor franchise.
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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."
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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 spinoff but essentially condensed an entire The Bachelor season into each episode.
The series was hosted by Jesse Palmer, who now hosts The Bachelor franchise.
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 wouldn't mark 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.
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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.
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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.
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELOR' FRANCHISE COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER?? (PHOTOS)
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