The Golden Bachelor is preparing to kick off its second season on Wednesday with former NFL player Mel Owens leading the charge.
The retired linebacker-turned-lawyer Owens, 66, was announced in June as the season two star of ABC’s dating show spinoff. He takes the reins from the show’s inaugural lead, Gerry Turner.
Born in Detroit, Michigan, to a tight-knit Midwestern family, Owens is a graduate of the University of Michigan. Following graduation, he was selected as the ninth overall pick in the 1981 NFL draft by the Los Angeles Rams. Athleticism ran in the family — his late father, Walt Owens, was a Negro League Hall of Famer.
After nine seasons with the team, Owens retired from football. He eventually transitioned into a career in law and moved to Orange County, California, where he specialized in helping those seeking justice for sports-related injuries.
It was around that time that he met his first love, and together they welcomed two sons. After years of marriage, they got divorced in 2020, and Owens has since focused on raising his sons and coaching their extracurricular sports teams.
“Now, after several years as a devoted dad, Owens is ready to rediscover a love rooted in the simple joys of companionship — sharing life’s everyday moments, making plans for the future, and growing stronger together as a couple,” reads his official bio.
“As the Golden Bachelor, he’s eager to meet someone who shares this vision and finally find that perfect teammate he’s been waiting for in his golden years.”
Shortly after he was announced as the series lead, Owens faced backlash for controversial remarks he made about not wanting to date anyone over the age of 60.
“If they’re 60 or over, I’m cutting them,” he said on the In the Trenches podcast, while adding that he specifically told the producers of the ABC reality dating show he only wanted women who were between the ages of 45 to 60. “Just being honest,” he added.
“This is not The Silver Bachelor, this is The Golden Bachelor,” Owens continued. “They’ve got to be fit, because I stay in shape and work out and stuff. And I told [producers] to try to stay away from the artificial hips and the wigs.”
Season two of The Golden Bachelor premieres with a two-hour special Wednesday, September 24, at 8 p.m. on ABC, followed by weekly episodes airing in its regular 9 p.m. time slot.
The Golden Bachelor, a spinoff of ABC’s hit Bachelor series, first premiered in 2023 to great success. Season one averaged 10.4 million viewers after the first 35 days across platforms, making it the strongest average for any ABC unscripted series since The Bachelor’s 2019 and 2020 seasons, according to the network.
It welcomed then-71-year-old Turner as its first septuagenarian looking for a second chance at love. On the show, he dated 22 senior-aged women before going on to marry Teresa Nist during the franchise’s first on-screen wedding.
Two months after tying the knot, however, the couple announced they were divorcing.
“Theresa and I have had a number of heart-to-heart conversations, and we’ve looked closely at our situation, our living situation, so forth and — and we’ve kind of come to the conclusion mutually that it’s probably time for us to — dissolve our marriage,” Turner said on Good Morning America at the time.
Nist admitted that being unable to find a home together, after looking in both South Carolina and New Jersey, had contributed to their breakup. Despite their relationship not working out, she expressed her gratitude for everyone who supported them along the way.
“I don’t think we can tell you how many people told us that it gave them so much hope,” she added. “We want none of that to change for anybody.”
From Turner’s season came the inaugural Golden Bachelorette lead, Joan Voss. During her season, which aired in 2024, she met and got engaged to Chock Chapple. The pair is still together and remains active on TikTok, sharing glimpses into their life as a couple.
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