Shortest Marriage in Franchise History: Was the 'Golden Bachelor' Sunk By an Unflattering Report?
For many television watchers, all things related to “The Bachelor” are appointment viewing.
(For many others, it’s a terrible show that commercializes and trivializes marriage, but that’s a separate rant for a later time.)
But one thing many fans of the show have a hard time explaining is why they invest so much emotionally into a show that ends with a sham of a marriage that, more often than not, has a clear and concise expiration date.
The most recent, and ballyhooed, spinoff of “The Bachelor” was “The Golden Bachelor” — a take on the show that focused on those qualified for an AARP card.
For the unaware: “The Bachelor” is a reality dating competition where the titular “Bachelor” (or “Bachelorette” or “Bachelor in Paradise” or “Golden Bachelor”) dates multiple suitors in hopes of finding true love.
T-minus 24 hours… pic.twitter.com/y02ij3OZdI
— The Golden Bachelor (@GoldenBachABC) November 16, 2023
It’s as contrived and asinine as it sounds to the average person, but for reasons that are still unclear to this writer, it’s a wildly popular show.
Just look at the number of spinoffs the original show, itself boasting 28 seasons on the air, has produced:
- “The Bachelorette” – 21 seasons
- “Bachelor in Paradise” – 9 seasons
- “The Golden Bachelor” – 1 season
And it’s that last show, which has re-sparked interest in the brand in general, that has caused quite a stir with an increasingly common end result of all these shows: divorce.
But this “golden” divorce has also earned itself a rather ignominious achievement in that it’s the quickest divorce in franchise history, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
72-year-old Gerry Turner and “Golden Bachelor” winner Theresa Nist publicly announced to “dissolve” the marriage after just 100 days.
And while, as stated above, that end result is becoming more common — and fast, too, apparently — there is one curious wrinkle to this marriage dissolution, and that’s the aforementioned Hollywood Reporter itself.
The outlet published a self-described “exposé” on Turner in late November 2023 that effectively accused the septuagenarian of having a shady past and lying about a number of topics.
For instance, THR discovered that Turner’s publicly available work history greatly deviated from the story presented on the show that he retired at 55.
Interestingly, the outlet also noted that Nist, when announcing the split, said that she had no issue with the conflicting accounts of Turner’s past.
Despite the sham of a “marriage,” Turner’s alleged quest for love (and certainly not fame and notoriety) was a smash hit for ABC.
Over 6 million viewers reportedly tuned in for “The Golden Bachelor” season finale, per THR, and the ratings bonanza was enough to convince network executives to give “The Golden Bachelorette” a chance.
Still, at a certain point, how can fans be asked to continue to invest so much real emotion into a show that appears to deal exclusively with manufactured emotions?
At the rate these end results are going, “The Golden Bachelorette” marriage may not make it a month.
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