How Gerry and The Golden Bachelor are going to change reality television

Cast aside any preconceptions you may have had about this show. The Golden Bachelor will be one of the most emotional, tear-jerking reality shows ever.

Unless you’ve been hiding underneath a Bachelor Nation rock, you’re fully aware by now that a 71-year-old man named Gerry will be debuting in the brand-new spin-off centred around finding elderly love. This show has been shoved in our faces ad nauseam, and the promos have been… well… interesting.

More than a quality show, The Golden Bachelor seemed to aim for shock factor and social media buzz. My interest is piqued, but this senior citizen bad boy isn’t anybody I’d let within 100 feet of my grandmother.

But hold on a minute. Despite those awful commercials, Gerry Turner flipped that narrative and sold this show simply by being his authentic self. If you stuck around for the final 15 minutes of The Men Tell All episode, we met the man who lost his wife to cancer six years ago after a 43-year marriage. After his promo aired, there wasn’t a dry eye in the audience. When he was introduced, he got the biggest ovation of the entire night and won over Bachelor Nation instantly.

It’s been many years since The Bachelor had an admirable role model at the helm but Gerry is about to change all of that.

How The Bachelor lost its way

A vulgar noun is used to describe a man whose only goal is to sleep with as many women as possible. It’s two words actually. One of the words begins with an F, the other with a B. It shouldn’t be too difficult to decipher what word I’m alluding to. This word describes several of the most recent bachelors that the producers have chosen to be the star of their show.

At one point, this show prided itself on wholesome American values. Falling in love, travelling the world together, visiting each other’s hometowns, meeting the parents. But somewhere in the explosion of social media, the inception of Bachelor in Paradise, and the fame gained from being on the show, The Bachelor lost its identity. This show was no longer about finding love, rather it turned into more of a stepping stone to stardom.

Most recently, Zach Shallcross used “sex week” to manipulate his relationships and tell adult women vying for his love that he was withholding sex from them–only to inevitably sleep with one of them, tell everybody about it, and then dump that woman just a week later. Before Zach, Clayton Echard convinced three different women he was in love with them, shook sheets with 2 of them and then promptly dumped them (simultaneously!) for the only woman who denied his advances.

Before him was Pilot Pete, who—like those other two fine gentlemen— became a villain on his show after he manipulated and dumped a woman on live television after getting down on a knee and asking her to marry him. It is a carbon copy of something done by (you guessed it) yet another slimeball Bachelor named Arie Luyendyk before him.

The Bachelor has become a train wreck in many ways and desperately needs somebody like Gerry.

How Gerry and The Golden Bachelor is going to change EVERYTHING

The moment Gerry got to sell himself to Bachelor Nation, he showed precisely why he was chosen to be The Golden Bachelor. If his handsome “Grand Zaddy” good looks weren’t enough, he also revealed his charm, humour, and wisdom about love. He had no ulterior motives in his actions and came across as genuine during his 1-on-1 sit down with Jesse Palmer.

He spoke in a way about marriage that made it seem as though it’s the most phenomenal thing on the planet—something that Clayton Echard and the others had difficulty articulating as they toyed and gaslit their suitors for an entire season. Or Matt James, who decided out of nowhere that maybe he wasn’t ready for marriage… in the final episode.

When asked by Jesse Palmer if he had any advice for anybody entering marriage, Gerry said to “look at your spouse every single day and tell them you love them.” If we weren’t already sobbing, he reminded us that one day it would be the last time we ever say it.

The single thing that sets this show apart from the traditional Bachelor franchise is there won’t be any ulterior motives for joining this show. As a 71-year-old, Gerry admitted that he hardly knows what social media is, and I would imagine that the same would go for his suitors. As far as I’m aware, there will be no Golden Bachelor in Paradise (although that would be amazing, too), and most people entering this stage of their lives aren’t looking for fame.

Since its inception, this franchise has tried to sell us on authenticity. With Gerry, I do not doubt in my mind that he’s going to give us just that.

What are your thoughts on Gerry and The Golden Bachelor? Let us know in the comments below!