Why Fan Favorite Wasn’t Chosen For ‘Golden Bachelor’
ABC has chosen the next Golden Bachelor but it isn’t someone from the franchise. Bachelor Nation fans debated why one of their favorites from Joan’s season wasn’t picked. Keep reading to find out more.
ABC Renews Golden Bachelor, Announces New Lead
There has been a lot of speculation from Bachelor Nation fans about the future of The Golden Bachelor spinoff. Many viewers weren’t sure if the show would return for another season after the first season ended in disaster. Gerry Turner was named the lead for the long-awaited spinoff.
His season was initially praised for being more wholesome and less dramatic than the flagship Bachelor show. Everything seemed to go perfectly for Gerry Turner. He found love with Theresa Nist. They quickly married in a TV wedding just a few months after the Golden Bachelor season finale aired.
However, the couple shocked everyone by announcing they were divorcing after just three months of marriage. Gerry later revealed he was diagnosed with cancer, and that may have played a role in the split. He recently went public with a new girlfriend a year after the divorce.
With all the drama surrounding the first Golden Bachelor season, it was uncertain if the show would renew it for a second season. But ABC announced this week at a Hulu event that Season 2 is a go. And they found the perfect lead.
But in a shocking twist, the network went without someone outside of Bachelor Nation despite there being plenty of men from Joan Vassos’ Golden Bachelorette season available.
Former NFL player and lawyer Mel Owens is the next Golden Bachelor lead.
Was Racism To Blame?
Joan Vassos had 24 men as suitors on The Golden Bachelorette. Obviously her fiance, Chock Chapple, was out of the running for Golden Bachelor. Guy Gansert and Mark Anderson are in relationships, so they aren’t options either. Gary Levingston has already been announced as a contestant on Season 10 of Bachelor In Paradise.
More of Joan’s suitors will join the beach spinoff as well. Jonathan Rone and Charles Ling were among the suitors widely considered by fans as shoo-ins for Golden Bachelor. Pascal Ibgui threw his own name in the ring when he explained why he won’t do Bachelor In Paradise.
But ABC went outside of the franchise for the next Golden Bachelor lead. Fans took to social media to speculate if racism was the reason Charles Ling or Jonathan Rone weren’t chosen. The franchise has come under fire for years for lack of diversity in the leads. The Bachelor has only had 2 Black leads in 29 seasons – Matt James and Grant Ellis.
Jenn Tran was the franchise’s first Asian-American Bachelorette lead for Season 21. But she faced racism from fans and the messy ending of her season is often blamed for ABC’s decision to put the spinoff on pause.
One fan wrote, “They won’t even have an Asian man be the The Bachelor; they’re definitely not going to have an Asian man be the Golden Bachelor where the audience skews older, whiter, and more conservative,” as a possible reason not to cast Charles Ling as Golden Bachelor.
Another added, “It very well could have been because of his race, I’d never count that out with BN.”
Why Fan Favorite Wasn’t Chosen
But a lot of Bachelor Nation fans disagreed that racism was behind the decision. They thought that Charles Ling simply wasn’t right for the role. Check out the comments on why.
- “I don’t think he’s messy enough lol.”
- “Charles L. is cute but not the kind of cute that will inspire lust and a lot of women fighting over him. That’s probably all it is.”
- “Production would chew that man up and spit him out. I don’t want that for him.”
- “I don’t see how Charles has the presence to be a lead. Too quiet and shy.”
- “Because the Bach is all about drama
- ”Charles was so precious but he also cried about his late wife almost every single episode.”
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Do you think Charles Ling would have been the next Golden Bachelor? Share your thoughts in the comments.
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