Joan Vassos was wide-eyed as she stood in front of the Agoura Hills mansion that is the setting for ABC’s “The Bachelor” franchise. A large crew of technicians and producers worked nearby, preparing to film Vassos’ introduction as “The Golden Bachelorette.”
“I’m having all the feels,” she declared, waving her arms as she faced host Jesse Palmer. “I never in a million years imagined I would be back here.”
The 61-year-old school administrator stood in the same spot roughly a year ago as she met retired widower Gerry Turner, the star of “The Golden Bachelor,” the recent twist on the veteran dating franchise. She competed with 21 other older women then to vie to become Turner’s next wife.
Although Vassos and Turner had an initial spark, she abruptly exited the show in the third week to care for her daughter, who was battling postpartum depression.
Now she’s getting a second chance. The Maryland-based Vassos is back, but this time she is the center of attention as “The Golden Bachelorette,” which premieres Sept. 18. Her squad of 24 suitors ranges in age from 57 to 69, and include a retired U.S. Navy captain, a retired U.N. agency director, a rancher and an emergency room doctor.
Producers are hoping to strike ratings gold again with the sequel to the series that was one of the biggest shows of the 2023 fall season while also giving “The Bachelor” franchise a jolt of fresh energy.
But despite a heavy promotional push, “The Golden Bachelorette” is facing a more questionable reception. Just last week, “The Bachelorette” was grappling with a racially charged uproar after the series’ live finale, with many calling out the cruel treatment of its first Asian lead, Jenn Tran.
As for “The Golden Bachelor,” Turner got divorced after three months of marriage and erased much of the glow from that series, which could make some viewers wary of Vassos’ turn in the spotlight.
Her journey has already been heartwrenching. Since losing her husband of 32 years to cancer in 2021, Vassos has managed her grief with the support of family and friends. But that did not ease her fear of living the rest of her life without love.
“I felt like I was living on an island,” she said over a video interview. “I felt so alone, I thought people would set me up with guys, but that didn’t happen. It’s hard out there. The world is made up of couples. But we all deserve love.”
After online dating proved to be too challenging, Vassos took the biggest leap of faith by going on “The Golden Bachelor.”
”I feel so lucky I was chosen to do this,” she said. “I’ve learned a lot about myself and how finding love in this world works.”
If Vassos had any anxiety about becoming the new face of the popular franchise, it didn’t show during her first night of filming. She seemed jazzed to meet her new potential boyfriends.
“My late husband, John, would love this,” she said. “He was a big fan of reality TV. I’m sure he’s watching us now, saying, ‘That’s my wife down there!’”
Minutes later, a limousine carrying the first group of suitors drove up. Some of the men, who had just met each other for the first time, gasped as they spotted Vassos looking like a movie star in her glittery gown. They talked over each other: “Oh my God, there she is!” “She doesn’t even look real.” “Hey, Jordan, don’t run off with her.”
Vassos appeared delighted as the men stepped out one by one, each determined to make a colorful first impression. One man serenaded her with Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” as he approached. Another yelled, “Cue the music,” and boogied over to her. A third with a cane struggled to make the walk across the driveway.
“Can I help you?” Vassos asked. He waved her off, but then fell forward. As she walked over concerned, he started doing push-ups before leaping up with a smile.
As “The Golden Bachelorette,” Vassos said she wants to continue Turner’s message of inspiration, stressed during his season — that older people still have plenty of energy, sexual drive and physical vitality.
“I don’t want this to be about me. I want this to be about a message of hope,” Vassos said. “I love hearing stories from people who watched ‘The Golden Bachelor’ and said it gave them a new sense of hope. At our age, people expect us to take a back seat and become support for a new generation, children and grandkids. I felt guilty because I want something more than that.”
And even though the focus on older people having fun and making out attracted fans outside the core Bachelor Nation fan base, the memory of the shocking epilogue to “The Golden Bachelor” may still be fresh in the minds of viewers who might be reluctant to return to the sequel.
Turner accomplished his goal of finding a wife, proposing to financial services representative Theresa Nist at the end of the season. They rushed to get married in a live televised ceremony, dubbed “The Golden Wedding,” but their union was short-lived, ending in divorce after just three months, disappointing millions of viewers invested in their love story.
In explaining the split, Turner said the two could not agree on where they would live together. He resides in Indiana and Nist, who lives in New Jersey, was reluctant to leave her family and job.
Asked about viewers being wary of investing in Vassos’ journey after Turner and Nist‘s breakup, “The Bachelor” executive producers and showrunners Bennett Graebner and Claire Freeland responded in an email: “We’re always disappointed when one of our couples doesn’t work out. However, the Bachelor franchise is no different than life outside the confines of the TV screen: sometimes marriages last forever, sometimes they don’t.”
But they heaped praise on Vassos, expressing confidence in casting her as “The Golden Bachelorette.” “We were fortunate that so many of the women from Gerry’s inaugural season were worthy of being the first Golden Bachelorette,” they wrote. “We could have made a fantastic season with any one of them. However, we kept coming back to Joan. … She deserved a second chance.”
Vassos said fans should not be turned off by what happened with Turner and Nist.
“I do know that their love was very real,” she said. “You did see the disappointment in how it ended. I just feel in my heart we should give them understanding and grace. That wasn’t easy for them to split.”
She added that she is going into her journey with different expectations. “I don’t expect a person to move for me, and I wouldn’t want to leave my family and move far away,” Vassos said. “I just want to leave this journey with a significant other, someone I may or may not be engaged to. But we can pursue our relationship outside the Bachelor bubble.”
In preparing for her close-up, Vassos said she went back and researched several seasons of “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette.” “I wanted to see what was effective and what wasn’t,” she said. “I got advice from Gerry and other Bachelorettes. This was going to be the most important journey of my life, so I wanted to be really prepared.”
Vassos was in the audience for the live finale of “The Bachelorette” last week and had a front-row seat to what turned into the franchise’s latest misstep, which has added doubt about its ability to reverse its decades-old history of racism and cultural sensitivity.
Tran got engaged to Devin Strader, the owner of a freight company, in Hawaii. But when she came onstage, a visibly distraught Tran revealed that Strader broke off the engagement after leaving the show. Producers are accused of traumatizing and humiliating Tran during the staging of a reunion with Strader by playing the proposal after detailing their split.
The mood changed following the tense segment when Palmer turned to Vassos. As he hyped the upcoming arrival of “The Golden Bachelorette,” the audience gave Vassos a loud standing ovation.
As she looked around the studio, Vassos beamed: “They’re going to see a really emotional journey.”
