Are you familiar with the TV show The Golden Bachelor?

Last fall the American dating reality television series debuted and was very successful, with some 4 to 6 million Americans tuning it on weekly.   The bachelor was Gerry Turner, a 72-year-old retired restauranteur and widower from Indiana.

Turner spent 9 weeks getting to know 22 women and finally selecting Theresa Nist as his sweetheart, love of his life, and bride to be.

The two were married on January 4, 2024, in La Quinta California, very close to my abode in the winter months.  The ceremony was shown live on ABC TV.

Some 3 months later, the two newlyweds announced that they were getting divorced!

This fall the second season of the show will air.  This time it will be The Golden Bachelorette.  Recently Joan Vassos was selected for this role.  She is a 61-year-old, grandmother, school administrator from Rockville, Maryland, and was one of the females seeking Gerry Turner’s attention on last season’s show.

Some 20+ men will be on the show and in the hunt to be selected by her as her husband to be.   Filming for the show has already begun.

You may ask, why is Neil telling me about this show, The Golden Bachelor?

The answer is that four months ago I was recruited to be on the show.  Or, more accurately I was asked if I would be willing to audition for the show.

My answer was yes, I would be willing to throw my hat into the ring of potential suitors for a Golden Bachelorette.

So, for the last four months I have been going through a process to determine whether or not I would be selected to be on the show.

Bottom line, I was not selected to be on this coming season’s show.

However, the story of how I was recruited and the process I went through you may find interesting.  Let me share with you how this happened and what it entailed.

Last March, I was standing by the bar of a local restaurant listening to really good live music.  I had a ginger ale in one hand as I watched a few of the patrons dance to the beat of the music.  I had a smile on my face.

All of a sudden, I am being approached by a well-dressed, imposing 6-foot-tall African American woman.  She says to me “I love your hair.”

I responded with “Thank you.”  After a short pause I added “You are not the first person to tell me that.”

She then introduces herself and asks if I would be willing to audition for The Golden Bachelor TV program.  “Tell me more,” I responded.

She begins to tell me about their plans for a second season of The Golden Bachelor.  She says that they are looking for gentlemen for the show that will feature a Golden Bachelorette for the first time.  She pulls out of her purse a printed brochure which has the details of an audition to take place in three days.  She turns to leave, saying to me “I hope you will come.”

When I get home that night I take a good look at the brochure.

The fact of the matter is that I had never seen even one episode of The Golden Bachelor.  In fact, I don’t believe I have ever seen any of the dating reality shows that have populated our TV viewing over the last 60 years.  These have included The Dating Game, Love Connection, The Bachelor, Too Hot to Handle, The Circle, Love is Blind, Bachelor in Paradise, Are You the One, Flavor of Love, Joe Millionaire, and others.

The brochure said that there would be an audition from 12pm to 4pm this coming Saturday at an outdoor amphitheater located in the shopping mall called The River in Rancho Mirage California.

At this time in my life, I was not involved in a relationship with a significant other.  In fact, I was not involved in a relationship with any woman.  To be brutally honest, I had not had a date in months.  So, let’s just say that I was open to a different approach to finding the woman of my dreams.

My attitude was let’s see what this is.  The location of the audition is only a 20-minute drive from my winter home in the California dessert.  It will be — at a minimum — a new adventure. Worst case, I say to myself, it will be potential fodder for a blog.

That Saturday I arrive at the amphitheater, register, get a name tag, and am told that I will be called up to the stage at some point in the next hour.  The amphitheater is filled.  A few hundred people are sitting on different levels of the curved amphitheater.

 

Pretty soon I hear my name being called over the loudspeaker along with four other gentlemen.  I stand up and proceed to the stage where the five of us are lined up facing the audience.  The next thing I know is that a very attractive, diminutive African American woman, outfitted in a screaming yellow tight-fitting dress, approaches me, with microphone in hand.

She asks my name and proceeds to introduce me to the crowd of onlookers.  I receive polite applause.  She then proceeds to ask me two impromptu questions.  The first was “What would be your most romantic date?”

I answer “I live on a houseboat in Seattle.  Sitting on the deck of the houseboat, holding hands, calmly taking in the sunset.”

She then asks me “what would be your worst date?”

I think for a second and then answer “I’d like to turn the question around.  Most women do not want to go to the movies with me, because I cry in every movie no matter what genre it is.”

This brings quite a reaction from the crowd.  Some laugh, some moan, some groan, some clap, and many smile.

My audition is over.  I walk off the stage.  As I am leaving and returning my name tag, the woman at the desk says to me “you will be back.”

Sure enough, next week I receive a call from the show’s staff saying that I have made it into the second round of the audition.  The second round consists of completing a lengthy questionnaire online.  More than 50 questions.

Some of the questions were to be expected such as where I have lived, where I got my schooling, was I ever married, do I have children, have I ever committed a crime, had a DUI, declared bankruptcy, been in the service, what countries have I visited, ad infinitum.

But some of the questions were different and some were unusual, at least for me.  They asked me who my favorite woman was on The Golden Bachelor last season.  My answer was that I did not have one, since I have never watched the show.

Another question was am I available for the entire summer for shooting the episodes to air in the fall.

Some of the other questions were….

• If you have been married in the past, why are you no longer together?
• Are you genuinely looking for love and why?
• Why would you want to find love on TV?
• What are your relationship dealbreakers?
• Do you have any tattoos? If yes, what are they? And where are they located on your body?
• Do you have a bucket list? If so, what’s on it?
• How many serious relationships have you been in and how long were they?
• Why did those relationships end?

Two weeks later I receive an email that I have passed the second round, and that I am now in the third round.

The third round consists of me having to send in 15 pictures.  The pictures are supposed to show them who is Neil Peterson.  They want pictures of your whole life.  Just 15.  But pictures that tell the story of whom I am.

This was challenging to say the least.  Nevertheless, I somehow dug out some pictures that I thought captured me at various stages of my life and sent them along.

Three weeks later I receive a phone call that I have passed the third round and that I am now in the fourth round.  The fourth round consists of an hour long zoom meeting with two of their program staff which is scheduled for two weeks out.

We do the zoom meeting.  The interesting thing about the zoom call for me was that wanted to see not just my face, but they wanted to see my whole body.  For a portion of the zoom call, they wanted me to stand far enough away so that they could get a look at how I look standing up.

I thought the zoom meeting went well but who knows.  They inform me that the next step is for the show to decide who will be the Golden Bachelorette for the coming season’s show.  Three weeks later the press carries the story that Joan Vassos has been selected.

A couple of weeks later I get a call from the head of the show’s talent recruitment team to tell me that I have not been chosen for the show, but that they are real interested in me for possible future shows.  She sounded sincere.

I of course asked why I was not selected.  She said that they decided that there was too great an age gap between the Bachelorette they had selected and me.

And that is the end of the story.   Another chapter in this crazy life that we are living.

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