The Golden Bachelor star Gerry Turner and its executive producers have dished on if viewers can expect to see drama amongst the golden ladies competing on the new The Bachelor spinoff on ABC.
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The Golden Bachelor began filming in early August, and the new The Bachelor spinoff will premiere Thursday, September 28 at 8PM ET/PT on ABC.
RELATED LINK: ‘THE BACHELOR’ FRANCHISE COUPLES NOW: WHO IS STILL TOGETHER?? (PHOTOS)
It never fails that a season of The Bachelor or The Bachelorette has bickering and pettiness to some extent, but The Golden Bachelor will apparently be different!
“The women are genuinely happy for each other,” Gerry told Entertainment Weekly during filming.
“They’re already planning an annual reunion; they’re cooking for each other. They’re helping each other with wardrobe. There is not a single person that has tried to use manipulation for their own advantage.”
A lineup of 22 beautiful bachelorettes, all ranging in age from 60 through 75, arrived at The Bachelor mansion on Night 1 to date Gerry.
While tension naturally rises on any reality TV show when multiple women are competing for one man or vice versa, these mature ladies handled the process with grace and poise.
“What we have all decided in private conversations, and even on camera, is that there’s no need to be catty here, even when the numbers whittle down,” Sandra, a 75-year-old retired executive assistant from Doraville, GA, told EW.
“We don’t need to tear each other down. Now, I don’t know how the production company likes this kumbaya, but they’ll figure it out.”
The Golden Bachelor’s producers, however, said they anticipated the betrayals and trash-talking on the senior spinoff would be at a minimum compared to seasons past.
“In doing my research for this show, I watched extensive Golden Girls episodes,” executive producer Jason Ehrlich shared.
“We entered this thinking, ‘There’s going to be hope, a lot of heart, and a lot of humor in the show.’ We weren’t really sure if there would be drama.”
Fellow executive producer Claire Freeland pointed out how “any time you have multiple people vying for the attention of one person, there’s going to be some drama that comes with that.”
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But Claire went on to clarify what type of issues or problems Gerry’s bachelorettes faced during production.
“The conflicts that they experience are about, ‘What will my grandkids think of this?’ Or ‘How will this work when I’ve got responsibilities with my own kids, or where I live?'” Claire explained. “That’s different than on the main shows.”
And Claire revealed that when frustration took over the women’s emotions, it typically resulted in laughter.
“A lot of times, I feel like I’m watching a sitcom,” Claire said.
“These women, their timing is hilarious. They don’t even know how funny it is. And of course, we’re laughing with them, not at them. It’s just such a joy in that way.”
Claire suggested how it’s refreshing that these women aren’t after followers or a career in social-media influencing.
“They’re not seeking out that kind of approval. There’s a naturalness in what they’re doing that was just hilarious,” Claire noted.
For instance, a small group of bachelorettes decided to “clean the bad aura” from The Bachelor mansion by burning a bundle of sage.
“Within the first 30 seconds, the smoke alarm was going off,” Jason recalled.
“They’re saging everyone, they saged someone who was taking a nap at the time. And the whole thing ends in the Rose Room with three or four women going, ‘Out with the bad, in with the good! Out with the bad, in with the good!’ That’s how they handled the drama.”
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As for whether there will be another “Shrimp Gate” or culinary dispute on Gerry’s season, executive producer Bennett Graebner teased how “there were some meatballs” made in the house that “caused a lot of controversy.”
“Some of the women claimed that the meatballs were responsible for their prodigious gas,” Bennett said.
“It was hotly debated because another woman claimed that it was actually the guacamole that another woman had made. I don’t know if we ever got to the bottom of it.”
For the record, Bennett said he had tasted the meatballs in question and “they were delicious.” He also said he experienced “no issues” afterward.
Because all of the women were so great, Gerry admitted in September that he often “cried like a baby” when having to say goodbye to some of the bachelorettes.
“With each Rose Ceremony, [host] Jesse Palmer looked at me with more and more concern, because it really felt like the weight of the world was on my chest a couple of times,” Gerry confessed.
“I remember walking out of the mansion during one of the Rose Ceremonies and bending over because I really felt like I couldn’t catch my breath.”
It’s likely Gerry’s hardest choices came after his hometown and overnight Fantasy Suite dates.
Gerry shared how the women’s families were “warm” and “welcoming” for the most part, except for one protective brother who had “made it clear to me that if my intentions weren’t honorable and I broke her heart unfairly, that I would pay a consequence for it.”
And Gerry gushed about how his Fantasy Suites allowed him to connect “intellectually and emotionally” with his top picks. Gerry made it known that this special off-camera time was more about establishing a deep connection rather than a physical one.
Viewers can only hope that Gerry found the woman of his dreams and selected a winner at the Final Rose Ceremony.
An actual golden rose was showcased on The Golden Bachelor set, but it has yet to be revealed if Gerry ended up giving the rose to his last woman standing.
Gerry signed up to be The Golden Bachelor after losing his high school sweetheart and late wife, Toni Turner, to complications from a bacterial infection in 2017.
The pair had been married for 43 years and welcomed two daughters, Angie and Jenny, together. Gerry also has two granddaughters, Charlee and Payton, and lives on a beautiful lake in Indiana.
Click here to read spoilers about Gerry’s The Golden Bachelor season — including his Final 2 women and Final 3 bachelorettes — or click here to see photos and details of Gerry’s 22 bachelorettes.
RELATED LINK: ‘THE BACHELOR’ COUPLES NOW: WHO DID ‘THE BACHELOR’ STARS AND THEIR BACHELORETTE PICKS ACTUALLY END UP MARRYING? (PHOTOS)
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About The Author:
Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.