ABC
Partway through Thursday night’s long-awaited premiere of ABC’s The Golden Bachelor, America’s first gray-haired Bachelor, Gerry Turner, cracked up the room with a joke: “Ladies, do you realize this is the latest I’ve ever been up in my whole life?”
Gerry, a 71-year-old retired restaurateur from Indiana, is the first senior to lead the franchise’s new spin-off. By all accounts, he’s already a huge hit. Thank the gods of romance for that, because longtime citizens of Bachelor Nation and newcomers alike have seemed to be rooting for this show from the beginning—even in spite of the fact that the broader franchise is starting to feel a little creaky in its second decade. Even just a couple minutes into the premiere, it’s easy to see why.
Gerry’s openness is undeniable as he tearfully recounted his wife Toni’s tragic, sudden passing after 43 years of marriage. Gerry and Toni shared a “real typical but beautiful life,” he said, and now, “I yearn for the second chance in life to fall in love again. The person who can lay down beside you at night, not have to say anything, and you feel it. That’s love. That’s what I want.”