Gerry Turner saw his second chance at love come to fruition on Thursday night when he proposed to a very lucky lady on the inaugural season finale of The Golden Bachelor.
After a season of ratings successes, it seems the finale took the cake. More than 6M people tuned in to watch Turner get engaged, according to live+same-day Nielsen data.
That’s the largest same-day audience for the franchise since the season finale of The Bachelor in March 2021, when Matt James led Season 25. That season was embroiled in controversy, which likely boosted the finale audience. By contract, Turner’s season was received fairly positively.
The episode also managed a 0.8 rating in the 18-49 demographic, which is the best performance for the franchise since the season finale of The Bachelorette last September.
According to Nielsen, it looks like Bachelor in Paradise also benefitted from following The Golden Bachelor finale. The penultimate episode of that series stayed even with last week’s season high same-day audience of 2.24M.
The Golden Bachelor has bestowed ABC with some of the best ratings for The Bachelor franchise in years, especially in delayed viewing. Recently, the premiere set an audience record for ABC and Hulu in the 35-day window. It’s likely that this will continue with the finale, as audiences tune in across the three-day and seven-day window. Deadline will report those numbers as they become available.
ABC will be cashing in on this ratings success with the first Bachelor televised wedding in ages. Turner and his bride will tie the knot on the network on January 4.
The Golden Bachelor is produced by Warner Bros. Unscripted Television in association with Warner Horizon.
