Who Should Lead ‘The Golden Bachelorette’? (POLL)

'The Golden Bachelor' contestants Susan Noles, Leslie Fhima, and Sandra Mason
ABC

Gerry Turner started another love story on The Golden Bachelor, and now it’s one lucky lady’s turn. ABC announced yesterday that The Golden Bachelorette, another boomer-skewing spinoff of Bachelor, will arrive on the network this fall following another edition of The Bachelorette this summer.

Further details are scant — fans know neither cast info nor an exact premiere date — but ABC did say that The Golden Bachelorette “will highlight one radiant woman’s second chance at love in her golden years.” Episodes will premiere on ABC and be available to stream the next day on Hulu.

Bachelor Nation shouldn’t be surprised that The Golden Bachelorette is a go, considering Season 1 of The Golden Bachelor reached 43.4 million total viewers after 35 days of linear and streaming availability, according to ABC. The network also touted that The Golden Bachelor’s debut season — in which Turner fell for Theresa Nist — also ranked as the No. 1 new unscripted series this season among Adults 18–49 with a 0.84 rating. It also ranked as ABC’s best-ever series premiere on Hulu.

And in January — the same month that ABC aired Turner and Nist’s nuptials in a live special titled The Golden Wedding — casting producer (and former Big Brother winner) Rachel Reilly Villegas posted a casting notice for The Golden Bachelorette.

One strong candidate for The Golden Bachelorette is Golden Bachelor runner-up Leslie Fhima, who said on the Bachelor Happy Hour podcast in December 2023 that she’d do things differently than Turner if she were the one handing out roses.

“I for sure would never tell anyone I love them until I’m on that platform with them, and I know it,” she said. “I just wouldn’t do that.”

Fhima also gave advice to future contestants in that podcast interview: “Try to be yourself as much as possible, something I wasn’t able to do fully the entire time,” she said. “Be open to the process. … Don’t hold back. This is a process where it’s not dragged out in a normal timeframe. … If you feel something, say something.”

But is Fhima the person you’d want to be the first Golden Bachelorette? Let us know in the poll below.

The Golden Bachelorette, Season 1 Premiere, Fall 2024, ABC