Spoiler alert! This story contains the eliminated contestants from the most recent episode of The Golden Bachelorette, with other possible spoilers. Episodes are available to stream with a Hulu subscription if you need to catch up. And if you want The Golden Bachelorette Season 1 spoilers, you can see who is rumored to win Joan Vassos' season.
Joan Vassos made history on September 18, with the first season of The Golden Bachelorette kicking off on the 2024 TV schedule. After self-eliminating from Gerry Turner’s season of The Golden Bachelor in order to care for her daughter, the 61-year-old from Maryland is back to lead her own spinoff, embarking on a journey to find love again after losing her husband of 32 years to pancreatic cancer in 2021. Twenty-four men introduced themselves to Joan on premiere night, so she’s got quite a few breakups to go through before finding her second true love.
We’re here to help you keep up with all of those eliminations, tracking every rose ceremony, every date gone wrong, every tearful goodbye in The Golden Bachelorette’s first season. Whatever the reason for the dismissal, we’ll break it down right here, updating this article every week after the episode airs. Without further ado, take a look at the latest men to get sent home from Joan Vassos’ season:
Night 1 Rose Ceremony: Six Men Fail To Receive A Rose After Pulling An All-Nighter
The sleeping arrangements on The Golden Bachelorette sound pretty terrible, but there was no sleep to be had on that first night in Bachelor Mansion. The 24 contestants jockeyed for time with Joan Vassos until well after the sun rose the next morning, hoping to make enough of an impression to earn a spot in one of those bunk beds. In the end, Joan eliminated a quarter of the original cast, sending home:
- Bill Hernandez
- David Huff
- Ken O'Brien
- Pablo Gonzalez-Juana
- RJ Johnson
- Thomas Haughney
Unfortunately, we didn’t get enough time with these men to really get to know them. Probably getting the most screen time during The Golden Bachelorette’s extended episode was David Huff, the rancher from Austin, Texas, who (naturally) rode in on a horse. I laughed out loud when his horse made an early exit, galloping away before David invited Joan to come meet the horse. “I think it’s gone,” she said.
Like Gerry Turner before her, Joan Vassos seemed overwhelmed at having to send anyone home on the first night (read: morning), as she stepped away to gather herself before returning to the obviously exhausted group. I can only imagine she was thinking back to her first night on The Golden Bachelor and how it must have felt to go through all that preparation and then have to leave immediately. Unfortunately for her, I don’t think these eliminations are going to get any easier.
Week 2 Rose Ceremony: Four Men Exit, Including Our Cannonball King
Joan Vassos eliminated four more men at her second rose ceremony, leaving 14 suitors — just over half of where she started. On the September 25 episode, we said goodbye to three more guys we didn’t get to know very well in Bob Kilroy (pictured above from left to right), Michael Stevens and Christopher Stallworth (who fans might remember as the guy who gave Joan prune juice on Night 1). And then there was Jack Lencioni.
What can one say about Jack Lencioni? He went viral for his hilarious appraisal of Bachelor Mansion on premiere night and continued to make a splash in Week 2 — literally, he was just there for the cannonballs. Jack hinted that maybe not everyone subscribed to his brand of humor, saying that some would be upset if he got a rose, but everybody sure gave him a round of applause as he made his exit. He may be gone from the mansion, but I can’t imagine he’ll be forgotten anytime soon.
Week 3 Rose Ceremony: Joan Says Goodbye To Three
It was quite an emotional week for Joan Vassos, dealing with the stress of her 92-year-old mother being sick and a wave of grief for her late husband. The guys helped her through it, but in the end, the song that Capt. Kim Buike wrote for her was not enough to earn him a rose. (Incidentally, I haven’t been able to stop singing, “We are the mansion men, the Golden season mansion men…”)
Charles “CK” King also said goodbye this week, as well as “Untreated Sleep Apnea” sufferer Gregg Lassen. Maybe now that Gregg’s gone, the guys won’t have so much trouble sleeping, but poor Pascal Ibgui is going to have to find someone else to do his laundry.
Week 4: Fan Favorite Charles Ling And Three More Sent Packing
Say it ain’t so! We cheered for Charles Ling when he became the group date kickball hero, and we cried with him when he finally got some closure surrounding his wife’s sudden death. The 66-year-old dad was eliminated in Week 4, and he’ll certainly be missed in Bachelor Mansion. However, it’s not altogether surprising that he’s not Joan Vassos’ second chance at love. His grief still seems too fresh, and he and Joan had a good friendship but no romance.
The same could be said for Dan Roemer, Gary Levingston and Gil Ramirez, who also did not receive roses on October 9.
Week 5 Elimination: No Spark With Mark
Mark Anderson finally got his one-on-one date with Joan Vassos, and while they had an undeniable connection from losing their spouses, there was still something missing in the romance department. Joan didn’t see an “us” in their future, and before the rose ceremony, she pulled Mark aside to quietly send him home. I guess we won’t be seeing Kelsey Anderson and Joey Graziadei at Hometowns!
Week 4 Rose Ceremony: Two Sent Home Before Hometowns
Joan Vassos has chosen her final four, which means that after Mark Anderson was eliminated, two more still had to go during the rose ceremony. Jonathan Rone (left), who won Prom King after not being able to attend his own high school prom, and Keith Gordon, who got the First Impression Rose on the very first night at Bachelor Mansion, will not be introducing the Golden Girl to their families.
Hometowns Rose Ceremony: End Of The Road For Jordan Heller
After Guy Gansert and Chock Chapple both expressed being able to see a future with Joan, she was left with a pretty hard decision between the two other men who introduced her to their families on Hometown dates. She ended up bidding farewell to Jordan Heller, allowing Pascal Ibgui to advance to Fantasy Suites.
Fantasy Suite Self-Elimination: Au Revoir, Pascal Igbui
With just three men remaining, emotions were running high when The Golden Bachelorette contestants boarded a cruise ship in Tahiti for overnight dates. Joan Vassos made it clear that there would be no physical tomfoolery in the Fantasy Suites, but Pascal Igbui didn’t make it that far anyway. The French hairdresser realized after a pretty intense daytime date that his relationship with Joan lacked a needed spark.
Be sure to check back to this link each week to see who the latest cast-offs are, as The Golden Bachelorette will continue each Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET on ABC and streaming the next day on Hulu, one of the best streaming services to subscribe to.
