The Bachelor plans to keep milking its Golden cash cow

The Bachelor franchise was in something of a shambles before The Golden Bachelor came along, suffering a racism scandal and behind-the-scenes misconduct issues and the kind of contestants who don’t join the show for the “right reasons.” “The biggest producer of the show is the audience, and we were just starting to see from the audience that they were either leaving or not enjoying the show because I think they felt the heart was gone,” ABC’s unscripted chief Rob Mills tells Deadline in a new report. “So we had to take a good look in the mirror and say, ‘Has the show lost its heart? And how do we get it back?’ I think there was a little bit of trust that we lost with the audience.”

Deadline’s report on how producers course-corrected the flagship series (The Bachelor/ette) is wide-ranging, but what really changed the game is, of course, The Golden Bachelor, one of the year’s biggest reality TV success stories. Making a “Bachelor, but they’re kind of old” show somehow reinvigorated the franchise, so of course the network is now contemplating how to make more Golden Bachelor. Apparently “active discussions” are currently taking place about Golden Bachelor spin-offs, but Mills says they have to “thoughtfully consider” what comes next.

“We’d be stupid not to say, ‘What are other stories we can tell with these people?’” he says. “Gerry was a story that in two seconds, everybody knew it, could relate to it, and rooted for him…The Bachelor, when it’s really working, should be the thing everybody is talking about.”

The appeal of The Golden Bachelor (or perhaps the horror of it?) is that the older contestants came across as more genuine in their quest for real love than the younger ones have in recent years. “It sounds so cliche; we just needed the reality to be more real,” Mills said.

How do you put more reality in reality TV? Inclusivity is one way, as the franchise is now actively working on improving diversity in a more authentic way. And diversity of age worked out so well that now ABC and production company Warner Horizon are apparently “eyeing how the franchise can expand to include contestants of all ages, rather than continuing to skew toward people in their 20s and early 30s,” according to Deadline sources. Homecoming King Bachelor, Mid-Life Crisis Bachelor, Bachelor In Nursing Home… the possibilities are endless!