“The Golden Bachelor”: A PR Love Story

by Carsyn Smiling. 

The Golden Age 

The hit reality television series “The Bachelor” first aired in 2002. The show typically consists of a young, single “bachelor” who eliminates prospects week by week with hopes of finding true love and ending the season with a fiancée. The show gained so much popularity producers were able to create spin-offs such as “The Bachelorette" and “Bachelor in Paradise” to create a dating franchise. 

“The Golden Bachelor” is the most recent spinoff that features 72-year-old widower Gerry Turner. Turner and his 22 potential partners are looking for their second shot at love in their golden years. 

Bachelor Nation 

The franchise’s combination of love and reality TV hooked hopeless romantics everywhere. Newsweek journalist Jamie Burton explained how “The Bachelor” franchise peaked with 25.9 million viewers in 2002. However, in recent years, consistent viewership has taken a hit. Burton reported that under 3 million viewers consistently watched the latest season, which aired in January 2023. 

In contrast, “The Golden Bachelor” has already seen immense success. A Variety article noted how “The Golden Bachelor” had a total audience of 7.7 million and broke records on Hulu as the network’s most-watched premiere ever on the streaming service. 

Rebranding The Rose 

There could be a plethora of reasons for the spinoff’s great success. It could be that people want to see real love. In other shows within the franchise, this desire is often replaced with competitors chasing fame rather than love. 

Recently, multiple TV series have rebranded to make shows more enticing for a wider variety of viewers. “‘Rebranding’ is a marketing strategy, where the objective is clear — developing a new, differentiated identity in the minds of consumers, investors, competitors, investors and other stakeholders,” Shree Lahiri, senior editor at Reputation Today, said. One aspect of a rebrand is reaching your new audience effectively. 

The “The Golden Bachelor” team grabbed viewers’ attention through various social media platforms when Turner was first announced and obtained nearly 300 impressions. Through effective campaign promotion, the show has been teased since 2020, but was officially announced in May 2023. 

Turning A New Leaf 

With the new spin-off, the franchise is able to effectively keep its original fan base while also tapping into a group of citizens that are typically forgotten about, seniors. The key demographic for other franchise spinoffs is usually 18-to-49-year-old women. 

Over the past 20 years, the franchise has gained a bad reputation of its seasons rarely ending in love. Only five couples have remained together from “The Bachelor.” 

However, “The Golden Bachelor” promises to be different from its predecessors. Viewers seem to have bought into this spinoff in a different way than other shows in the franchise. “The Golden Bachelor” resonates with its viewers who want to see true love come to life. The show provides hope that it is never too late to fall in love. 

Whatever the reason behind the rebranding, Bachelor executive Rob Mills acknowledged in a Variety interview that "it really has been an all hands on deck 24/7 to make this a really special eight weeks — even if it’s the only time we ever do it.” 

In public relations, it is crucial to reach your target audience and be able to alter your strategy over time to maintain audience interest. “The Golden Bachelor” does an effective job at rebranding. In all aspects of this rebrand, I would give “The Golden Bachelor” the final rose. 

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