Former football player Mel Owens, 66, has been named the next star of The Golden Bachelor. ABC, Disney, and Hulu announced the news at Hulu’s Get Real House event to promote reality shows today in Beverly Hills.
Although the new hunk has been unveiled, no premiere date has yet been announced for The Golden Bachelor Season 2. Parade has learned that the show is set to air in the 2025-2026 season on ABC.
The first Golden Bachelor featuring Gerry Turner, now 73, was a huge ABC hit in fall 2023, and fans expected the male senior show to come back soon. But many believed that after now 62-year-old Joan Vassos starred on The Golden Bachelorette last fall, one of her castoff contestants might become the second Golden guy. As fans know, Joan self-eliminated from Gerry’s season and then went on to her own starring reality role. However, producers decided on a whole new play for the second Golden Bachelor, choosing a fresh face for the senior franchise with Owens.
According to the press release, Owens was raised in a loving and close Midwestern family in Detroit, where he showed athletic prowess early. Owens graduated from the University of Michigan. From 1977 to 1980, he was a football linebacker for coach Bo Schembechler’s acclaimed Michigan Wolverines team. Owens went on to the NFL, getting chosen in the 1981 NFL Draft by the LA Rams and playing for the team for nine seasons.
“I was trying to knock dudes out,” Owens has said about his career of making sacks. The athlete has also talked about creating an “aura” of confidence in everything he does.
Related: ‘Golden Bachelor’ Gerry Turner Gives Health Update on Cancer Journey
After retiring from football, Owens moved on to a career in law, becoming an attorney and residing in Orange County, California. He specializes in workers’ compensation, sports law, sports injuries and disability benefits.
His ABC bio reports that, as a lawyer, Owens has dedicated himself to helping others, “particularly those seeking justice for sports-related injuries. It was during this time that he met his first love, and together they had two sons. While life took an unexpected turn with the passing of his father and the end of his marriage, Owens channeled his energy into being the best father he could be, focusing on raising his sons and coaching their extracurricular sports teams.”
According to the bio, Owens has recently been concentrating on being a dad after his divorce, is now “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. 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.”
Owens has had a lot going on in his life. In addition to his athletic and legal careers, he also became a businessman in Los Angeles, producing a clothing line called “Evolution Wear.” The hunk also headed up a nationwide restaurant reservation hotline in the 1980s called 1-800-LETS-EAT. An adventurous man, he reportedly loves to travel. Owens has enjoyed trips to Egypt and Spain, where he ran with the bulls in Pamplona. The fit former football player also competed in the Los Angeles Marathon in 1987.
Related: ‘Golden Bachelorette’ Joan Vassos Reveals Why Her Wedding Plans Have Been Put on Hold (Exclusive)
ABC hopes the new Golden Bachelor will be a ratings bonanza like its predecessor. Turner’s Golden season averaged 10.4 million viewers after the first 35 days across platforms. However, as Parade extensively reported, Turner’s season ended in a hot mess.
Turner and his show pick, Theresa Nist, tied the knot in a televised Golden Wedding. But they later stunned fans when they announced in April 2024 that they would be divorcing after only three months of marriage.
“Theresa and I have had a number of heart-to-heart conversations, and we’ve looked closely at our situation, 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.
However, the other senior Golden star, Vassos, is still going strong with her show choice and fiancé, Chock Chapple, 60. They’re getting to know each other, traveling together, and are in no rush to get married.
Here’s hoping new senior reality guy Owens won’t wind up in a fractured fairy tale and get his happily ever after!
