The Golden Bachelor star Mel Owens will be kept busy trying to get to know 23 bachelorettes when the second season of ABC's seniors edition of The Bachelor premieres tonight.
|
ADVERTISEMENT
|
ABC had previously released the names of 25 women who could appear on Mel's The Golden Bachelor season in July.
The 23 women appearing on The Golden Bachelor's second season range in age from 58 to 77 and include a former model, a full-time mom, a retired biomedical engineer, a librarian, a retired firefighter, a yoga instructor, and a cosmetic dentist.
Earlier this summer, Mel -- who was announced as The Golden Bachelor's Season 2 star in April -- became the subject of speculation that he would be replaced as Season 2's lead after he made controversial ageist comments about his potential cast of Golden bachelorettes and admitted he wanted his cast of women to only be between the ages of 45 and 60.
"I said [to an executive producer], 'You know, if they're 60 or over, I'm cutting them,'" Mel said during a June appearance on the "MGoBlue" podcast with Jon Jansen.
Many The Bachelor franchise viewers then expressed outrage about Mel's "ageist" and "superficial" remarks on social media.
However ABC still decided to stick with Mel, who was previously married to a woman 20 years younger and has two children with her, and The Golden Bachelor season began filming in California in July.
After filming began, Mel did a media interview in which he attempted to do damage control for his earlier comments.
"Those [comments] were a mistake by me. It's unfair. It's insensitive," he told Glamour magazine.
"And I want to earn it back. I have to earn it back every single moment that I'm on the show... The spirit has no age. It's true. And also, you can change. That's the key. It is not too late to change."
Click the BEGIN GALLERY link below to view photos of Mel's The Golden Bachelor bachelorettes and learn more details about them!
About The Author: Steven Rogers
