Most details about The Golden Bachelor are still shrouded in mystery, but star Gerry Turner is spilling a few secrets — including the potential ages of his contestants.
“I think I said 60 to 70, but feel free to blur the lines,” Gerry, 71, told Variety on Thursday, August 10, when asked about the “general age range” he gave casting directors.
Gerry, who hails from Indiana, said that he also gave producers a few briefs about what he was hoping to find on the show. “They’d ask several questions and some of the things that I said were I’d like someone who enjoys activity [such as] golf or pickleball or some sport and they use that to stay fit,” he explained.
Aside from those parameters, Gerry wasn’t interested in participating in the casting process because his past attempts to find a partner haven’t been so successful.
“My wife’s been gone six years — of that six, I’ve dated about four [years], and I wasn’t very good at casting for myself, so I’m happy that I don’t have that job,” he quipped. “I think that the process that they’ve used in the past and they’ve refined will bring some really fantastic candidates.”
ABC announced Gerry as the first ever Golden Bachelor in July. The news came after a search for senior contestants went on for years, leading some fans to wonder whether the spinoff would ever really happen.
“It feels amazing and it’s still sinking in,” Gerry said on Good Morning America last month, adding that he’s hoping to find a “high-energy” partner.
Before his entrée into reality TV, Gerry was married to his high school sweetheart, Toni, who died in 2017. In July, he told “Bachelor Happy Hour” podcast cohosts Joe Amabile and Serena Pitt that he thinks Toni would be “very pleased” by his participation in the show.
“I have a picture of her in my walk-in closet, so every night I’m in there and I see her picture. It’s the only one now that I have in the house and in the mornings, I see her picture and you know, we talk,” he explained. “I’ll make a brief comment — or sometimes that talk is silent. But here, lately, in the last couple of months, you know, my question for her is always, ‘So, what do you think of this? Am I doing the right thing?’ And I really have strong positive feelings about it. I think she would be very happy.”
The couple shared two daughters, Jenny and Angie. According to Gerry, his daughters and granddaughters are all “very excited” about his upcoming Bachelor Nation debut. “They send me a lot of positive reinforcement,” he told Variety.
Production on The Golden Bachelor is currently underway, with former Bachelorette Kaitlyn Bristowe filming a date with Gerry’s contestants earlier this week. The spinoff premieres on ABC this fall.
