Get your golden roses ready, reality television fans!
On Saturday afternoon, ABC confirmed that it would move forward with The Golden Bachelorette, a brand new version of the network’s most successful unscripted franchise.
The series will feature an elderly female lead and will follow in the strongly-reviewed footsteps of this winter’s The Golden Bachelor… which concluded with Gerry Turner and Theresa Nist getting engaged on the season finale.
And then married in their very own special.
The Golden Bachelorette will air at some point in 2024.
While no casting details have been revealed just yet, a press release for the program said the show will “highlight one radiant woman’s second chance at love in her golden years.”
Within hours of this announcement going viral, many social media users started a push for Leslie Fhima — who was among the final two contestants vying for Gerry’s heart before she was sadly sent home in the Golden Bachelor finale — to be named the series lead.
Heck, Leslie has already stated for the record that she would jump heart-first at the opportunity.
This confirmation does not come as a shock.
The Disney-owned network previously said the debut season of The Golden Bachelor reached 43.4 million total viewers after 35 days of viewing across linear and streaming platforms, ranking as the top new unscripted series this season among adults 18-49 and finishing as ABC’s number-one unscripted series premiere ever on Hulu.
This, despite Turner possibly being an under-the-radar A-Hole, according to some friends.
Host Jesse Palmer said a short time ago that The Golden Bachelorette was likely to receive a green light, but he didn’t divulge any of the leading contenders to take the title.
“There are multiple women that would be phenomenal Golden Bachelorettes,” he said at the time. “There’s some very deserving ladies from that season.”
In addition to The Golden Bachelorette announcement, ABC revealed this weekend that The Bachelorette has been renewed for a new season set to air this summer.
Also expected to return this fall?
Dancing With the Stars — for a 33rd season! Which is sort of bonkers.