‘The Golden Bachelor’ Gives a 71-Year-Old Retiree Another Shot at Love

The ABC network rolled out the gold roses and aging tropes in introducing its first ever Golden Bachelor on Monday. 

Following in the footsteps of the network’s hit Bachelor and Bachelorette franchises, The Golden Bachelor features a 71-year-old widower and grandfather from Indiana named Gerry Turner who is looking for a second chance at love. Of course, the network couldn’t help making a few age-related quips in the promo while introducing Turner, which you can see below.

“He posts his thirst traps in a leather-bound album. His DMs have postage. He gets the early bird special anytime he wants,” the ad goes on, adding that his grey hairs are actually wisdom highlights and making a Florida retirement joke. 

Sigh.

Well, the show can only go up from there, right?

The good news is that Turner himself seems like a likeable enough guy. The network’s bio of him notes that he is a retired restauranteur who “lives in his dream house on a beautiful lake in Indiana” and is “often busy hosting barbecues, playing pickleball, cheering on his favourite Chicago sports teams, four-wheeling, and spending time with friends and family at restaurants and local haunts.”

Turner had two daughters with his high school sweetheart, Toni, whom he married in 1974. Gerry and Toni also shared two granddaughters, but Toni passed away, sadly, in 2017 after 43 years of marriage. 

The bio adds that, “Turner is ready to put himself out there and find a love that will stand the test of time in his golden years.”

Turner himself told Good Morning America on Monday that his daughters not only gave him their blessing to do The Golden Bachelor — but they actually also pushed him to do it.  

He also noted, during the interview, that he believes his late wife, Toni, would be happy that he is on the show. 

“I have her picture on a dresser in my closet. Every morning I give her the nod, ‘So what do you think about this?’” he explained. “For a while it was like I was having a hard time figuring out if she would be okay. But we always told each other, when one of us goes, we want the other one to be happy.”

He added that he’s hoping to give his golden rose to a woman who is energetic and competitive and who shares his love of various sports.    

The reaction to the reveal of the series, which has been in the works since 2020, was generally positive on social media, though many have questioned how old the ladies on the series will be (including some skeptical folks who worry that they’ll cast women who are a little too young for the eligible septuagenarian). 

There’s no word on the rest of the cast, but ABC had noted in a past press release that “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” — all of which suggests an age-appropriate cast and no Hugh Hefner-esque hijinks on the horizon.

The Golden Bachelor is currently slated for an autumn première on ABC and Hulu.

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