‘The Golden Bachelor’ Star Gerry Turner on His Cast of Female Contestants: I Told Producers ‘60 to 70, but Feel Free to Blur the Lines’ (EXCLUSIVE)

variety.com:

Elizabeth Wagmeister Chief Correspondent After years in development, ABC’s senior citizen spinoff of “The Bachelor” is finally underway — and Variety has the first interview with the leading man himself since production has begun.

Still weeks away from “The Golden Bachelor” premiere this fall, Gerry Turner, a 71-year-old grandpa from Indiana, is currently filming his season at “The Bachelor” mansion in Los Angeles, Calif., in hopes of finding love later in life.

With little details revealed about the new show, Gerry Turner (pronounced like “Gary”) tells Variety about his conversations with producers. “I’m really curious to see what is going to happen on the first night,” Turner says, in conversation last week, just days before he starting filming and met his female contestants.

Turner says he did not have a big say in casting, but explains that he gave producers “a general range of age” of women he would be interested in dating. “I think I said 60 to 70, but feel free to blur the lines,” he says. (The cast of women has yet to be revealed.) “The Golden Bachelor” is the latest spinoff in the “The Bachelor” franchise, which has aired 60 seasons since it debuted in 2002.