Can The Bachelor go back to its ‘glory days’? More importantly, should it?

“What do we do with The Bachelor?”

That was the big question posed by Beverley McGarvey, the local executive vice president and chief content officer at Paramount (which owns Network Ten, home of the reality-TV dating franchise), at the end of last year.

Osher Gunsberg, host of Ten’s The Bachelor.Credit: Ten

In an interview with MediaWeek, she identified both The Bachelor and The Bachelorette as key areas for improvement and spoke about the need for “pivots” that might bring the franchise “back to its glory days”.

It’s rare for a big exec to be so frank about a network’s failures. But the subject has become hard to avoid. In 2021, both shows posted some of the lowest ratings in the franchise’s nine-year history.

This is despite the widely celebrated casting of Brooke Blurton (the first Indigenous and bisexual Bachelorette) and the fact that viewers in some of Australia’s largest cities were stuck in lockdowns while the shows were on air last year.

The upcoming season is clearly make or break for The Bachelor, and fans are now starting to get a taste of what’s to come. But nearly 10 years since the show first premiered in Australia, is it actually possible to pivot back to the “glory days”? And what does that mean when you’re talking about what has traditionally been one of the least diverse shows on Australian TV?

What we know so far

With filming now under way on the Gold Coast (as opposed to Sydney where it’s previously been filmed), a series of photos have leaked, suggesting a few interesting developments.

First: there’s not one, not two, but three men on the scene. They are Melbourne basketballer Felix Von Hofe, restaurant manager-turned-life coach Thomas Malucelli and drummer Jed McIntosh– all of whom currently have their Instagram accounts set to private, a requirement for those appearing on the show while it’s being filmed.

When approached by The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, Network 10 did not confirm or deny the casting of these men or provide any further clarity. However, they did say an announcement would be made soon.

The most likely conclusion from the evidence so far is that the upcoming season will feature three Bachelors. This would be a throwback to the 2020 run of The Bachelorette — which featured sisters Elly and Becky Miles looking for love – but an odd one, considering the similarly mediocre ratings for that season.

But there are a couple of other options, too. With a casting callout asking for both men and women earlier this year, many theorised the show might be getting its first bisexual Bachelor.

Others have speculated The Bachelor and Bachelorette seasons are being combined in some way. Both of these scenarios would result in a mixed gender cast, which was a first during Blurton’s season in 2021.

Can The Bachelor claw back its audience?

That last option would certainly be the most exciting – and excitement is exactly what this franchise needs.

When The Bachelor premiered in Australia in 2013, it was one of only a few popular dating shows on offer. In the pre-Netflix era, The Bachelor was a glitzy alternative to The Farmer Wants a Wife. But when compared to the endless high-concept dating shows available on streaming services today, it’s really lost its shine.

Who wants to see another season where a cardboard cutout of a man takes various blonde women out for picnics when you can watch people dating while disguised as dolphins and devils or having their relationships ripped apart by Nick and Vanessa Lachey?

That’s not to say The Bachelor should turn gimmicky or cruel (although it’s worth noting the enduring popularity of Married at First Sight, which can be both). But it does say something about the importance of establishing a striking premise – and having a strong, diverse cast of characters to back it up.

In recent seasons, The Bachelor has improved the diversity of its cast, which has been hugely beneficial and sorely overdue. But that wasn’t the show’s only problem.

The premise and tone of The Bachelor hasn’t changed in nearly a decade, as the world of dating and dating reality TV has flipped on its head.

Let’s hope for something more exciting than three men taking blonde women for picnics instead of one.

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