Reality TV
Golden Bachelor Fans Want The Silver Bachelor Next
The show could feature contestants in their 40s and 50s.
By all metrics, The Golden Bachelor has been a smashing success — not only for Gerry Turner and Theresa Nist, who are getting married in January, but for ABC as well. According to Deadline, the highly anticipated season finale reeled in the best viewership numbers the franchise has seen in nearly four years.
Naturally, fans are hoping for The Golden Bachelorette and, then, Golden Bachelor in Paradise. But why stop the spinoffs there? Over on Reddit, fans are rallying for The Silver Bachelor: a show that would platform singles in their 40s and 50s, as Redditor u/hearthstone_dragon suggests.
Why The Bachelor Needs A Silver Spinoff
Bachelor Nation fans showed their support in the comments of u/hearthstone_dragon’s Dec. 12 post. “I love me a silver fox,” wrote one user. “Why not?” said another, adding that Bachelor in Paradise “shows the younger crowd aren’t the best candidates” for lasting connections.
Indeed, The Bachelor has featured many contestants in their early 20s — which isn’t inherently a problem. But the age group isn’t famous for making (and keeping) lifelong commitments.
Screen Rant crunched the numbers and found that the oldest Bachelor, Byron Velvick, was 40 years old during his season. The youngest, Bachelor Nation’s beloved Jesse Palmer, was 25! (Now 45, Jesse would be the perfect candidate for the proposed Silver Bachelor, but he’s married and expecting a child with his wife, Emely.)
The Data Backs It Up
The franchise is missing a huge opportunity to explore middle-aged people’s love lives. A recent study published in the Journal of Marriage and Family found that between 1990 and 2019, the rate of first marriages in midlife (defined as 40 to 59 years old) increased dramatically by 75% for women and 45% for men.
While many of The Golden Bachelor suitors were widowed or divorced with established families, several singles on The Silver Bachelor could be considering marriage for the first time — which would be an interesting narrative people don’t often get to see on screen.
ABC Is Listening...
Fortunately, The Silver Bachelor feels like a real possibility. Deadline reports that ABC and Warner Horizon are “eyeing how the franchise can expand to include contestants of all ages, rather than continuing to skew toward people in their 20s and early 30s,” citing sources.
Bridgette Theriault, who co-heads unscripted programming and development at Warner Bros., told the outlet that she’d “absolutely love” spinoffs of The Golden Bachelor. Let the manifesting begin!
