The Golden Bachelor: Meet the Star of ABC’s Senior-Focused Dating Series

Gerry Turner is about to make Bachelor-verse history.

ABC revealed on Monday that Turner will lead the first-ever season of The Golden Bachelor, an upcoming dating series centered on seniors looking for love.

Turner, a 71-year-old grandpa from Indiana (whose first name is pronounced as “Gary”), was unveiled as The Golden Bachelor‘s leading man on Monday’s Good Morning America broadcast, where he said it’s “still sinking in” that he’ll be the star of the show. He also shared that his wife of 43 years, Toni, fell ill and passed away in 2017, but he trusts that she’d be supportive of his new journey to find love.

“She got robbed,” Turner said through tears. “Every day that goes by, that’s the thought that I have… We always told each other that when one of us goes, we want the other one to be happy.”

The Golden Bachelor was officially ordered to series in May, more than three years after ABC first hinted at a senior-focused dating show via a February 2020 casting call.

“On this all-new unscripted series, one hopeless romantic is given a second chance at love in the search for a partner with whom to share the sunset years of life,” reads the official logline. “The women arriving at the mansion have a lifetime of experience, living through love, loss and laughter, hoping for a spark that ignites a future full of endless possibilities. In the end, will our Golden man turn the page to start a new chapter with the woman of his dreams?”

The Golden Bachelor will air Mondays at 10/9c this fall, as part of ABC’s fully unscripted lineup; it will follow two-hour broadcasts of Dancing With the Stars, which is headed back to its original home on ABC for Season 32.

Meanwhile, Season 20 of The Bachelorette (starring Charity Lawson) is currently airing Mondays at 9/8c.

Watch a first promo featuring Turner below, then drop a comment with your first impressions!