It sounds like “The Golden Bachelorette” could be right around the corner.
When it comes to focusing on a female lead, “nothing would make us happier,” executive producer and showrunner Bennett Graebner said during a Producers Guild FYC panel for “The Golden Bachelor” on Monday night. Newly engaged duo Gerry Turner and Theresa Nist, as well as executive producers and showrunners Claire Freeland and Jason Ehrlich were also on the panel in New York.
During the “Golden Bachelor” finale, Turner, 72, and Nist, 70, got engaged after he sent home a devastated Leslie Fhima. Following the breakup, viewers have rallied on social media for Fhima, 64, to become the first Golden Bachelorette.
At the panel at the Times Center, when “The Golden Bachelorette” was brought up, the audience began chanting different names from Turner’s season, including Fhima, Faith Martin, Ellen Goltzer, Joan Vassos and Sandar Masson.
If it does happen, it would likely be someone from the first season.
“There are so many incredible women from this season,” Ehrlich said. “That would be really hard not to [pick from]. There are just so many, and you can picture what that would look like in several different ways, and it’s all exciting and fun.”
Freeland added, “I’m here for ‘Golden Paradise.'”
It’s not a surprise that ABC and Warner Bros. TV would want to tackle another season of the “Golden” spinoff following the success of Turner’s season. The season finale, which aired on Nov. 30, reached more than 6 million viewers, scoring the biggest audience of any “Bachelor” franchise episode since March 2020.
Next, they will air Turner and Nist’s Jan. 4 wedding, set to air live on ABC and streaming the next day on Hulu. However, it “wasn’t always the plan” to have a TV wedding, Turner said.
“We had to think about it and it really wasn’t the original plan to do that, but when we really thought hard about it, we said, there are so many people who have been affected by this show,” Nist noted. “We wanted to bring them along with the culmination of it and bring them into it and really still try to make it this very intimate experience, but then bring them into this intimate experience. We don’t feel like we want to just drop all these people who are so affected by the show.”
For the producers, the day after the engagement happened, they jumped at the idea to have the wedding air on TV.
“We hit the ground running and we still are,” said Ehrlich. “We are moving fast and furious to make this really a celebration of the both of you and a celebration the franchise as well.”
Watch the full conversation above.
