It was a magical moment in time a couple of years ago when America fell head-over-heels for Gerry Turner and the women on The Golden Bachelor. We witnessed tough but honest conversations about grief and the invisibility that comes with aging, and we celebrated as hope was restored that love and friendship can be found at any age. Sure, some of the shine was lost when Turner and Theresa Nist divorced just three months after their wedding, but we’re about to do it all again.
The Golden Bachelor Season 2 is expected to premiere on the 2025 TV schedule this fall, and 66-year-old Mel Owens has been announced as the lead. It was a surprising move from the Bachelor Nation higher-ups, as they rarely go outside of their already-established cast to find a lead, but I actually love this move. In fact, I think they should follow suit and do it for The Bachelor as well.
Why An Outsider Was Chosen For The Golden Bachelor Season 2
When you look at Mel Owens, he definitely fits the description of someone you’d expect to be on The Golden Bachelor. He’s conventionally good-looking, and he holds a successful job as a lawyer after retiring from a nine-season career in the NFL. Franchise host Jesse Palmer provided some additional context into Mel Owens’ selection, telling US Weekly:
Mel is obviously super handsome. He’s very charming, he’s very intelligent, he’s very successful. He had this incredible pro football career and transitioned into becoming a successful warrior. I think while he’s had a lot of success professionally, there have been some hills and valleys in his personal life.
The lawyer — who’s from Michigan but lives in California — tragically lost his father, Jesse Palmer said, and his wife Fabiana Pimentel filed for divorce in 2020 after 25 years of marriage. Mel Owens shifted his focus during tough times to raising his two sons, and now that they’re apparently heading off to college, he’s ready to find someone to share his life with. Palmer continued:
I don’t think he’s necessarily looking for anything heavily extravagant. When you talk with him, what he misses most about being married and being in a relationship, it’s just having and enjoying those simple everyday moments. He’s just looking for companionship. It’s just really pure and just listening to him talk about it is really moving. So I think he’s going to be a great lead. I think he’s a great choice to be our next Golden Bachelor.
Obviously Mel Owens wasn’t amongst our top picks for The Golden Bachelor Season 2, but I’m actually optimistic about the upcoming season.
I Support Casting Outside Of Previous Golden Contestants
As much as I would have loved to see fan favorite Charles Ling look for love on TV or watched Jordan Heller find someone to take back to Chicago, I’m actually not upset that The Bachelor producers went with an outsider. The fact of the matter is they might not have had much of a choice.
Joan Vassos’ pool of suitors on The Golden Bachelorette was smaller than the cast of a traditional Bachelorette season, so right away you’ve got fewer men to choose from. Now take out the guys who have found new relationships, like Mark Anderson, who hard-launched his relationship with One Tree Hill actress Barbara Alyn Woods back in October.
You likely also have to remove any of the Goldens appearing on Bachelor in Paradise, including Gary Levingston, as that season will finish taping in May, reportedly just a couple of weeks before production begins on The Golden Bachelor 2 in June. I’m honestly not sure how many guys are left after that.
I also like that the lead this time is a divorcé. Both Gerry Turner and Joan Vassos’ spouses had passed away, and I hope that Mel Owens’ situation opens the door to the contestants being able to talk more openly about marriages ending later in life. He was married for 25 years, after all, and we’ve had previously married leads on the flagship series, so why not on The Golden Bachelor?
Bachelor Nation also has pretty strong connections to the NFL, so it’s kind of fun to dip back into that player pool again. Jesse Palmer, for one, played for the New York Giants when he appeared on The Bachelor’s fifth season in 2005. Other notable Bachelor Nation contestants with NFL ties include Jordan Rodgers, Tyler Cameron, Dale Moss and Clay Harbour to name just a few.
Why I Want A Newbie To Lead The Bachelor Season 30
The majority of the time, the new lead has been chosen from the preceding season of The Bachelorette. However, with The Bachelorette being canceled for 2025, producers for The Bachelor Season 30 — assuming there will be one; there’s no official renewal yet — won’t have that option. In order to keep things in the Nation, so to speak, they’d have to dip back to Jenn Tran or Charity Lawson’s seasons (or even further back!).
Sorry to say, but I think they’re going to have to recruit any decent, still-single men from those seasons to populate the Bachelor in Paradise 10 cast, so who even could they choose? I suppose someone who doesn’t partner up in Costa Rica could get the call, but again I ask who was interesting enough (and non-problematic enough) to lead a season?
I admit I still feel a little bit burned about how everything played out on The Bachelorette Season 21 with Jenn Tran’s cruel finale, and I’m ready to just start fresh. It seems like it’s time anyway.
The last time The Bachelor cast a lead who was not already a previous contestant was Matt James in 2020. Even then, he was originally slated to be part of Clare Crawley’s season before COVID forced the show into hiatus. He was subsequently named the lead of Season 25.
There’s plenty of change happening in Bachelor Nation right now, with a new showrunner taking over Bachelor in Paradise and The Bachelorette on indefinite hiatus. Assuming ABC continues to produce its decades-old reality dating show, now is as good a time as any to break the mold.
Bachelor in Paradise Season 10 premieres Monday, July 7, on ABC, and while a premiere date hasn’t been announced for The Golden Bachelor Season 2, it’s likely to kick off in November like the previous two iterations have. Both shows will be available to stream the next day with a Hulu subscription.
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