Back in April, ABC revealed that it was returning to the Golden Bachelor well, announcing a second season of its seniors-focused dating series—a huge hit for the network when it arrived back in the fall of 2023. (And then about half as much of a hit when it came back the following year as The Golden Bachelorette, although that still means the series posted numbers on par with the flagship Bachelor series.) For its second outing, The Golden Bachelor revealed it would be skewing a little younger than 72-year-old Gerry Turner, selecting 66-year-old former NFL linebacker Mel Owens for its title role. And then younger still for its contestants—at least, if Owens had his wishes, according to a podcast interview he gave earlier this month.
This is according to Deadline, one of several outlets that picked up today on an interview Owens gave back at the start of June to the MGoBlue Podcasts With Jon Jansen, in which the retired player and lawyer talked about the long and arduous process of being selected for the show. After having finally gotten the gig, producers on the series asked Owens—who, we’d like to reiterate, is 66 years old—what his “preferences” for candidates would be, and he made it clear he was looking to TV-date women between 45 and 60. (“Just being honest.”) Owens said he later doubled down on this stance in conversations with the show’s executive producers, despite reassurances that all the women selected for him would be “hot.” “I”—the “I” in question being Mel Owens, a man 66 years of age—”said, ‘If they’re 60 or over, I’m cutting them.'”
Owens, 66, said producers did push back against this take, reminding him, “This is not The Silver Bachelor, it’s The Golden Bachelor.” (They also apparently weren’t wild about him using football terminology like “cut” to describe sending his fellow sexagenarians home.) Talking in the interview, Owens went on to describe his ideal woman, saying she’s a “lifetime learner” (aw!) and then about five different ways of saying she should be good-looking and in shape. (The phrase “stay away from the artificial hips and the wigs” is deployed.) So, yeah: Mel Owens, our new Golden Bachelor, saying the quiet part extremely loud. (We shouldn’t judge; the man is, after all, 66.)
