“The Golden Bachelor” will return to ABC and Hulu, with a new leading man in NFL veteran-turned-lawyer Mel Owens.
After the inaugural season of “The Golden Bachelor” broke ratings records for the franchise, ABC has renewed “The Golden Bachelor” for a second season, which will debut in the 2025-26 broadcast season. ABC announced the news Tuesday during Hulu’s unscripted event in Los Angeles. An exact premiere date has not yet been set.
“The Bachelor” spinoff series found its second ever “Golden Bachelor” in Owens, a 66-year-old from Detroit. After Owens graduated from the University of Michigan, he was selected as the ninth overall pick in the 1981 NFL Draft by the LA Rams. After retiring from football, he became a lawyer in Orange County, Calif., where he focused on cases for those seeking justice for sports-related injuries.
During his time in Orange County, Owens met his first love and had two sons with her. When his marriage eventually ended, he focused on raising his sons and coaching their extracurricular sports teams. Per ABC, Owens is now ready to rediscover a love rooted in the simple joys of companionship, and is seeking a teammate who shares this vision for their golden years.
The news comes over a year and a half since “The Golden Bachelor” debuted its inaugural season in September 2023, led by Gerry Turner, who got engaged to Theresa Nist on the show and eventually tied the knot to her on a telecasted “Golden Wedding,” though the pair eventually divorced.
“The Golden Bachelor” scored an average viewership of 10.4 million across ABC, Hulu and other platforms in its first 35 days, ranking as the No. 1 most-watched season of an ABC unscripted series since “The Bachelor’s” 2019-2020 season.
The next fall, ABC debuted “The Golden Bachelorette,” which was led by Joan Vassos, who dated Turner on “The Golden Bachelor.” With Vassos being selected from the women on “The Golden Bachelor,” casting Owens is a departure from traditional “Bachelor” casting, which typically would have seen a man from Vassos’ season of “The Golden Bachelorette” be selected to lead “The Golden Bachelor” Season 2.
Despite not finding a lead from Vassos’ season, the “Bachelor” franchise is still keeping their “Golden” cast members involved, with “The Golden Bachelorette” alum Gary Levingston and “The Golden Bachelor” alum Leslie Fhima both set to appear in the upcoming “Bachelor in Paradise” season this summer, which will feature a mix of “Bachelor” and “Golden Bachelor” cast members.
Behind the on-screen drama, “The Bachelor” franchise has been undergoing some shifts, with showrunners Claire Freeland and Bennett Graebner exiting amid reports that the pair was creating a toxic work environment. “The Golden Bachelor” is produced by Warner Bros. Unscripted Television in association with
Warner Horizon.
“The Golden Bachelor” Season 1 is now streaming on Hulu, with Season 2 coming to ABC and Hulu in the 2025-26 TV season.
Source: The Wrap / Digpu NewsTex