Bachelor Nation will soon be back in primetime in the 2025 TV schedule, with the upcoming premiere of The Golden Bachelor Season 2. Gerry Turner's search for love on the small screen last season ended in divorce rather than a happily-ever-after. The showrunner vowed that Season 2 leading man Mel Owens isn't going to be like the second coming of Gerry, and that's pretty easy to believe after Owens generated controversy over the summer. Now, ABC is hyping Season 2 with ads during commercial breaks, and the cuteness might win me over... if only I'd forgotten about those ageist comments from 66-year-old Owens.
I sat down to watch Dancing with the Stars live on ABC on September 16, which meant sitting through commercials. I tuned most of them out, but my ears perked up whenever I heard an ad for The Golden Bachelor Season 2 start playing. The way clips are cut together for the ads point towards a pretty typical season, and the women actually struck me as more fun than Mel Owens. It's entirely possible that I'm biased against rooting for him, however, because of what the new leading man said about "cutting" any woman on The Golden Bachelor over the age of 60.
The former Los Angeles Rams linebacker is 66 years old himself! Speaking on the In the Trenches podcast months ago, Mel Owens opened up about what he told the Golden Bachelor producers about his preferences:
They asked me, like, ‘What’s your preferences?’ So I just said '45 to 60,' just being honest, right? And then the process went and I was selected. And then we had lunch with the executive producer. I said, ‘If they’re 60 or over, I’m cutting them.’
Is it any wonder that his comments went viral? Usually a Bachelor Nation lead at least waits until a season starts before giving franchise fans some ammunition, but the podcast released back in June, almost four months before The Golden Bachelor's fall return to ABC (and streaming next day with a Hulu subscription). That isn't even all he said! Owens went on at the time:
I know they’re gonna be beautiful, I know they are. But I had no say in them. I had no résumé. But they asked me what is my profile. Well they gotta be fit, because I stay in shape, work out and stuff. And I told him, ‘Try to stay away from the artificial hips and the wigs,’ you know, that kind of stuff.
What a charmer, right? Unsurprisingly, there were some very strong reactions to his comments, with host Jesse Palmer acknowledging the headlines and fans called on Owens to "do better." Even the co-hosts of The View weighed in (and didn't hold back), and the women of The Golden Bachelor Season 2 will reportedly react on-screen. Take a look at an example of the kind of commercial that ABC was airing during Dancing with the Stars:
The promotion isn't hinting at something going wrong, so my interest in The Golden Bachelor Season 2 with Mel Owens goes as far as wondering how ABC is going to handle the women knowing about what he said. The youngest of the 23 women vying for his heart is 58, while the oldest is 77. Most of the rest of the women are in their low-to-mid 60s.
If you're interested in watching Mel Owens' journey as the second Golden Bachelor, tune in to ABC on Wednesday, September 24 at 8 p.m. ET for the premiere.
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