After the failed experiment that was THE BACHELORS it looks like 10 isn’t done with the franchise just yet.
It looks like The Bachelor franchise will return to 10 in 2024 with an advertisement for crew to work on the once-popular show.
The last series failed to resonate with views, despite a shake-up in the format which saw three leading men instead of the traditional solo Bachelor. The Bachelors premiered to just 309,000 viewers – the lowest premiere in the history of the franchise.
The show had also been pushed back from its initial air date last year and was placed over the traditional summer break in January. Although, to be fair to 10, I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here has occupied that slot as a starting point for 10’s 50-week programming strategy over past years.
With those ratings though, many media pundits (including myself) assumed we had seen the last of The Bachelor franchise for the time being.
But it looks like we might have been wrong.
TV Blackbox was sent a screenshot of an ad from Warner Brothers looking for crew for a “returning large-scale reality dating show’. At the bottom of the post are two red roses on either side.
It seems like an obvious reference to The Bachelor or one of the spinoff shows.
Unless, of course, it’s a misdirection.
But TV Blackbox believes the return of the franchise will be announced at 10’s Upfronts event later in the year.
The post is specifically looking for Casting Associate Producers based in Sydney:
With casting experience to help discover brilliant contributors for a returning large-scale reality dating show
The advertised position starts at the end of April/early May through to the end of June.
10 says The Bachelors performed better than what has been reported but there is no news at this time.
Considering how poorly The Bachelors performed this year, I am a bit surprised that Ten would potentially want to give The Bachelor franchise another go so soon. I know that Ten’s programming catalog isn’t necessarily as robust as the catalogs the other networks have, but sticking with a franchise that was rating well below 300,000 viewers, 5 city metro, in overnights doesn’t seem like a good strategy for success. That being said, it was getting upwards of 650,000 viewers once Total TV was added in, and that is a decent figure. Perhaps the franchise is being kept around as a driver of traffic to 10 Play.