‘Golden Bachelor’ Boss On Finding Gerry Turner, Casting Women, More

Last week, “The Golden Bachelor” premiered, launching a new twist on an old franchise that has everyone talking.

The show premiered to strong ratings, with 7.7 million viewers watching on ABC, in delayed viewing and streaming on Hulu, delivering the strongest debut performance from a “Bachelor” series since  the Nov. 10, 2020, telecast of “The Bachelorette.”

The spinoff has been long in the making, and wouldn’t have been greenlit had ABC not found its perfect leading man — which it did in Gerry Turner, a 72-year-old grandfather and widower from Indiana, who will be dating numerous women at the same time on national TV for seven more episodes.

Turner’s journey to find love again will air Thursday nights as a marquee show of the strike-affected broadcast season. “The Golden Bachelor” marks a new era not only for the franchise, but also a new day in reality dating competitions, which historically have focused mostly on 20-and-30-something contestants looking for fame and Instagram followers. But just because the cast is more mature, don’t expect the “Bachelor” formula to change too much — in other words, yes, you can expect to see Turner in the fantasy suites.

Here, Rob Mills, the executive who oversees “The Bachelor” franchise at Walt Disney Television, spills to Variety about all things “Golden Bachelor.”

Who is the audience that you’re trying to reach with “The Golden Bachelor?”

People love love stories, and I think that this feels like a real universal love story. If we’ve done our job right, this should be absolutely a four-quadrant, with something for everyone.

When measuring success for this franchise, how much do linear ratings matter in comparison to Hulu viewership — or social media chatter and pop culture relevance?

Everything is equally important. This is a franchise that requires 24/7, 365 days-per-year maintenance and watching and caretaking, because it is designed not to just be a television show, but a phenomenon — and something that is part of our culture. It is something that is supposed to be a shared cultural experience. It is really important for this show to be at the forefront of pop culture.

It certainly shows in the ratings, and you feel it — when people aren’t talking about it, the ratings go down.

How long was the casting process to find Gerry Turner, your lead?

We started casting for this before the pandemic. And then, once the pandemic hit, it was all about how can we even get the regular show on the air, so this really was put on the back-burner. But the casting has been going on for four years — not just for the Bachelor but for older people looking for love, so we’ve had a pool of men and women, and we were sort of ready to go — and we picked Gerry.

How many people did you see before selecting Gerry?

I don’t know the number, but it was probably at least in the double digits. The fascinating thing about this process was everybody had a very different idea of what a Golden Bachelor is, because we hadn’t done it yet. You saw speculation amongst fans of the show in the run-up to Gerry’s announcement, like, “Is this going to be somebody who’s in his 40s and his 50s?” I actually think most people did not think it meant 70s.

Did you always think the show would star someone in the 70s?

I personally always envisioned it this way.

What types of people did you look at in casting, before selecting Gerry?

We had seen a lot of very different people. We had seen widowers like Gerry, we had seen divorcees, we had seen people who had never been in love. It was fascinating. Obviously with Gabby Windy, last year’s Bachelorette, when we met her Grandpa John, there were people who said he should be the Golden Bachelor. So there were a lot of different types of people before finally landing on Gerry.

How did you know Gerry was your perfect lead?

There was a lot of thought put into it, because you’re not going to get a second chance. You only get one first impression of what “The Golden Bachelor” is, and I think it was really just like anything — you just had to get that feeling. Watching Gerry and hearing his story, you just say, Gosh, this guy.

First of all, he’s had a great love in his life, so you know he’s capable of another one. And you see how brutal that was for him to spend decades building a life with someone and get to the point where you’re finally ready and about to fulfill your dream, and to have that taken from you so swiftly — it was just impossible not to look out for him.

How did you select the women to date Gerry?

The casting was done similar to how “The Bachelor” used to be cast back in the day when the suitors didn’t know who the Bachelor or Bachelorette was, so we simply cast people who were going to be a good match for Gerry, and people who had great stories that were looking for love. It wasn’t like we had people apply to date Gerry. We just kept this pool open, and we kept asking and asking for people to apply. And then when we actually announced the show in May for the fall schedule, we saw a big influx of people who were nominated to apply for the show.

Did you always know that the age range for the women would be in their 60s and 70s, or was it all going to depend on who you cast as your lead?

Once we had Gerry, everything else fell into place. It’s what Gerry wanted for this to work. He really asked for this age range.

Were there any changes made on the show that were specific to the age of the cast?

Not really. We didn’t want to replicate Charity and Dotun’s bungee-jumping date, so there’s not one of those massively dangerous dates. But what you will see is similar to “The Bachelor” with those big, over-the-top dates that you’d never go on any other time in your life except on “The Bachelor.”

How will fantasy suites play out?

I will say there will be fantasy suites, but I will leave everything else to your imagination. I will definitely say that all of America will be talking.

How will hometown dates be different?

It will be the same in that they will go to the the suitors’ hometowns. But instead of meet the parents, it’s meet the kids and meet the grandkids.

Are the kids and grandkids harsher with the judgement than parents?

No, but I think it’s different. With the parents, it’s, “Are you good enough for my child?” And with the children, I think sometimes it’s very hard because what is it like having somebody new brought into the equation? In Gerry’s case, their father was with their mother for so long.

Were there any stipulations with travel?

It was the same as other seasons. This season is an eight-episode run, and they are one hour, so there is travel, but not as much in an hourlong format — so any changes like that had nothing to do with age.

Why is “The Golden Bachelor” only an hour and airing for a shorter season, compared to “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette?”

We didn’t want people to say, “I would love for this to be an hour, but two hours feels bloated.” In success, we can expand.

Are you already thinking or working on any plans for future iterations? Will we see a “Golden Bachelorette?” Or is this a one-off?

I would say probably very, very far in the back of our minds, we’re thinking of that, but it really has been an all hands on deck 24/7 to make this a really special eight weeks — even if it’s the only time we ever do it. Certainly, when Alex Michel was the first “Bachelor,” nobody said, “Oh, this is the beginning of a franchise.” But you just knew when you saw the interest. When we saw Trista [Sutter, the first-ever star of “The Bachelorette”] heartbroken, we knew there was a need to tell her story, and that we were going to do “The Bachelorette.” And I think that’s really what this will be. I think we’re open to anything, and I think one of the learnings we’ve found that pertains to the whole “Bachelor” franchise is just go where the story is.

Historically, we’ve seen a lot of drama and gossip in the mansion among the cast. Does life experience make these women more mature, or does drama still exist in the house?

I would say it exists, but in a very different way. When you’re living in a house with so many other people, it’s impossible for everybody to get along, so there is drama, but it’s not the same drama. I would say I don’t know if anybody was arguing over shrimp.

Well, we know that age does not equate to less drama. We’ve all seen “The Real Housewives.”

It’s not “Real Housewives” drama. I think what I found really interesting is that we weren’t expecting that these women would really form a bond. I think they felt the gravity of this felt very historic for them, not only for themselves, but I think they really view themselves as giving hope to anyone in a later stage of life. So I think that regardless of any sort of squabbling that went on, it was always put aside and they all were rooting for each other. I think it was very special for them.

What was the sleeping arrangement in the mansion? Are the women really all roommates and sleeping in bunkbeds?

It was exactly the same as the as “The Bachelor.” They are all living together in several bedrooms in the mansion. And nobody complained. I think for a lot of them, it was so crazy and they probably thought this was never going to be a thing — in some ways, it’s like they are going back to summer camp.

What do the women do all day at the house?

You know, they have a lot more life experience to draw from, so there’s a lot more entry points for for conversation. They really all built some incredible bonds. They do a lot of cooking. They hang around the pool. They dance. They had fun. It’s a different time in their life, and a lot of the worries that people have early on their life about career and such, they don’t have those — so in some ways, I would say they had more fun.

If not for the need for more unscripted programming during the strikes, would “The Golden Bachelor” have been on the schedule this fall?

It was planned to be when it was right, and Gerry’s tape came in and it was just undeniable. I think a barrier was that if this was going to be put on as strike programming, we weren’t going to do it. This had to be right. I think this would have gotten on this fall regardless because it was his story and his honesty was just everything. From him to the women, this just feels like it was destined.

“The Bachelor” franchise has moved from its historic Monday nights to Thursday nights on ABC’s schedule. What went into that programming change?

When we originally announced this show, we had announced it at 10 p.m., after “Dancing With the Stars,” which felt like the right thing because “Dancing” is a hugely, broadly popular show. But 10 o’clock also felt like it probably was too late, so we looked at the opportunities for 8 o’clock and we looked at everything. There really is no night without reality, and of course on Thursdays, we share with “Big Brother,” but it felt like that night was probably the best opportunity.

What went into the decision to make Thursdays a “Bachelor” night with “Golden Bachelor” leading into “Bachelor In Paradise?”

I felt like it could be interesting to pair this with “Paradise” because “Paradise” is only once a week this season. And maybe we’ll get some new or lapsed viewers to “Paradise” — and I would also say do not sleep on “Paradise” because it is a really strong season. There might not be a ton of overlap for some of the “Golden Bachelor” viewers, but I do think if you enjoy “Golden Bachelor,” you’re going to enjoy “Paradise,” so it’s exciting to be able to put those two shows together. Also, one of the the ancillary things is that the shows go to Hulu the next day, and the fact that they will go up on a Friday, and you will have all weekend [to watch], probably more people might be more incentivized to do that then. It’s definitely going to be something we’re going to watch very closely.

It’s no secret that everything on network television has been at steady decline over the past several years, but is there a reason why ratings have been down in recent seasons for “The Bachelor” franchise? Is it just viewing habits? Is it “Bachelor” fatigue? Is it casting? What do you attribute declining ratings to?

In some ways, it’s probably all of the above. I think it’s very easy just to say that this is the way of the world and things are just going down. This is a show where you really have to be thinking about the characters in the story more than anything else, and in Charity’s season, we got back to that. I was really gratified hearing from people that watched how much they loved all these characters and that they were invested in Charity’s love story, and whether it was Joey or Dotun or even somebody like Brayden, it really felt like people started caring about the contestants more, which was great. It felt like it had been a long time since we had seen that. And now, we’ve seen it with the reaction to Gerry and his story, and we’ve seen it with people excited about Joey [Graziadei, the next star of “The Bachelor.”]. I think that excitement is going to bring lapsed viewers back. It definitely feels like we’re set up for a big year in Bachelor Nation. This is a very special franchise that means a lot to people. When you give them stories to be invested in it, they come.

The show’s growing pains have been both in front of the camera and behind — your longtime host, and then creator of the franchise left amid scandal. How do you think that those changes have impacted the show, and do you feel like the franchise has found its footing again after a rough few years?

Do I think it’s turned a corner? Absolutely. I’m proud of how far we’ve come, but don’t think we’ve come far enough. So we’ll keep going.

How best can you tease how Gerry’s journey ends on “The Golden Bachelor?”

I would say we started with one journey and ended with 23 journeys. It really becomes about everybody. Whether or not Gerry is with someone or engaged, every single person that did this show got something out of it.

This interview has been edited and condensed.