Bachelor Nation will quickly be again in primetime within the 2025 TV schedule, with the upcoming premiere of The Golden Bachelor Season 2. Gerry Turner’s seek for love on the small display screen final season resulted in divorce reasonably than a happily-ever-after. The showrunner vowed that Season 2 main man Mel Owens is not going to be just like the second coming of Gerry, and that is fairly simple to imagine after Owens generated controversy over the summer time. Now, ABC is hyping Season 2 with advertisements throughout industrial breaks, and the cuteness would possibly win me over… if solely I would forgotten about these ageist feedback from 66-year-old Owens.
I sat down to look at Dancing with the Stars reside on ABC on September 16, which meant sitting by way of commercials. I tuned most of them out, however my ears perked up each time I heard an advert for The Golden Bachelor Season 2 begin enjoying. The way in which clips are lower collectively for the advertisements level in the direction of a fairly typical season, and the ladies truly struck me as extra enjoyable than Mel Owens. It is solely potential that I am biased in opposition to rooting for him, nonetheless, due to what the brand new main man mentioned about “reducing” any girl on The Golden Bachelor over the age of 60.
The previous Los Angeles Rams linebacker is 66 years outdated himself! Talking on the Within the Trenches podcast months in the past, Mel Owens opened up about what he informed the Golden Bachelor producers about his preferences:
They requested me, like, ‘What’s your preferences?’ So I simply mentioned ’45 to 60,’ simply being sincere, proper? After which the method went and I used to be chosen. After which we had lunch with the chief producer. I mentioned, ‘In the event that they’re 60 or over, I’m reducing them.’
Is it any surprise that his feedback went viral? Often a Bachelor Nation lead at the least waits till a season begins earlier than giving franchise followers some ammunition, however the podcast launched again in June, nearly 4 months earlier than The Golden Bachelor‘s fall return to ABC (and streaming subsequent day with a Hulu subscription). That is not even all he mentioned! Owens went on on the time:
I do know they’re gonna be stunning, I do know they’re. However I had no say in them. I had no résumé. However they requested me what’s my profile. Nicely they gotta be match, as a result of I keep in form, work out and stuff. And I informed him, ‘Attempt to steer clear of the substitute hips and the wigs,’ , that type of stuff.
What a charmer, proper? Unsurprisingly, there have been some very sturdy reactions to his feedback, with host Jesse Palmer acknowledging the headlines and followers referred to as on Owens to “do higher.” Even the co-hosts of The View weighed in (and did not maintain again), and the ladies of The Golden Bachelor Season 2 will reportedly react on-screen. Check out an instance of the type of industrial that ABC was airing throughout Dancing with the Stars:
The promotion is not hinting at one thing going improper, so my curiosity in The Golden Bachelor Season 2 with Mel Owens goes so far as questioning how ABC goes to deal with the ladies figuring out about what he mentioned. The youngest of the 23 ladies vying for his coronary heart is 58, whereas the oldest is 77. Many of the remainder of the ladies are of their low-to-mid 60s.
In case you’re all for watching Mel Owens’ journey because the second Golden Bachelor, tune in to ABC on Wednesday, September 24 at 8 p.m. ET for the premiere.