When Channel 10 decided to revamp The Bachelor by giving us not just one but three white, suit-wearing men looking for love, I didn’t have too much confidence in the premise. I mean, isn’t one straight man enough?
But despite The Bachelors receiving the lowest television ratings in the show’s history, it seems that Channel 10 is still backing the franchise and preparing to film another season for 2024.
You’ve got to admire the confidence!
According to TV Blackbox, Warner Brothers have begun advertising for Sydney-based casting producers to work on a “returning large scale reality dating show”.
Along the bottom of the advertisement were two red roses, causing industry figures to believe it was a reference to The Bachelors or at the very least, a spin-off such as The Bachelorette or Bachelor In Paradise.
The ad states that they’re looking for workers from the end of April or beginning of May to the end of June.
The Bachelor franchise has been on a steady decline for a while now.
At its peak in 2018, The Bachelor was bringing in close to one million viewers a night. But The Bachelors only premiered to 309,000 viewers, with the finale only bringing in 358,000 viewers.
Those are pretty low numbers for a series that not only had a dedicated following, but a shiny new concept too.
Although it seems kind of nuts bringing The Bachelors, or one of it’s spin-offs, back for 2024, Channel 10 has fired back at the reports that it was a ratings failure.
A spokesperson told TV Blackbox that the series performed better than what had been reported. And according to The Daily Mail, they said The Bachelors was Channel 10’s top performing program in their key advertising demographics and on their on-demand platform 10Play.
Look, I’ll be honest.
The Bachelors was actually much better than I thought it was going to be.
I liked how having multiple blokes and even more gals made it just a smidge more realistic than the usual format. I also got a kick out of Jed McIntosh being rejected.
But despite the upgrade, The Bachelors left a lot to be desired. Maybe I’m too used to the incessant drama of Married At First Sight, or Love Island Australia, but I can’t help but think it’s time to move on from The Bachelor.
Or at the very least, I hope this “returning large scale reality dating show” is another shiny new spin-off but with bachelorettes at the helm. Who knows?
All we can do is wait for Channel 10’s Upfront event when it announces what we can expect from the network in 2024.
