Proof that even the silliest show can be significant, “The Golden Bachelor” (8 p.m., ABC, TV-PG) arrives.
For some time now, it’s been very apparent that the audience for network television has gotten older, and now consists of retirement-aged boomers. For this demographic, the habit of watching network television pretty much defined them from their youth. While the streaming revolution has upended the industry since Netflix introduced “House of Cards” a decade ago, viewers raised on “Must See TV” have stuck to their routines.
With “The Golden Bachelor,” ABC has decided not only to entertain that audience, but to portray them as well. At first glance, the results are pretty much what you’d expect.
ABC is hardly the only or the first outlet to create programming around its perceived audience. Part of the brilliance and appeal of Netflix’s “Stranger Things” series is how it seems specifically tailored to its subscriber base of young people born in the 1970s and raised in the ’80s on the movies of Steven Spielberg and the horror of Stephen King. Try to find a movie older than, say, “Goonies” (1985) in Netflix’s vast catalog, and you will be frustrated. Netflix seems to know its audience, what it wants and, more importantly, what it doesn’t.
While it seems inspired for Netflix to invite its audience members to escape to their youthful shenanigans with “Stranger Things,” the participants on “Golden Bachelor” are presented in stark “reality” and are anywhere from their early 60s to 75 years old.
Gerry Turner, “The Golden Bachelor” himself, is presented as a 72-year-old Midwestern widower. In promotional efforts, he’s sold sardonically in the style of the “World’s Most Interesting Man” spots for Dos Equis beer. The glib irony of this buildup seems to undercut his “aw-shucks” appeal.
The bevy of willing worthies (don’t dare call them golden girls) have their work cut out for them. All the clothes, makeup and other procedures can’t hide the fact that they are essentially women of a certain grandmotherly age in pursuit of romance and even sex. They all look nice in expensive outfits. Does anyone really want to see them get out of them? Even to get into the hot tub?
Put aside the indignities of aging flesh and the time-honored notion that age should bring wisdom and perspective — or at least the common sense to avoid reality TV.
Centuries of entertainment tradition cut against the effort to portray geriatric longing as anything but farce. Betty White made a career of playing the oversexed-grandma type. One reality show isn’t going to repeal bawdy theatrical traditions dating back to Greek and Roman times.
One of the participants seems hip to this central truth. She says that she doesn’t “like watching old people on television.”
The real problem with this ghastly exercise is the assumption that older viewers want to see themselves. They want what they’ve always wanted: to be entertained.
And while they may not portray bachelors, network shows already have their golden oldies in characters played by Mark Harmon, Tom Selleck and Sam Waterston.
“The Golden Bachelor” is too clever by half, and a grim reminder of what happens when the marketing department makes entertainment decisions. It’s too sad to rise to the level of train wreck.
— Hulu streams the fourth season of “The Kardashians.
— The Packers host the Lions in Thursday Night Football, streaming on Prime Video.
TONIGHT’S OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
— Little Big Town hosts the People’s Choice Country Awards (8 p.m., NBC).
— “Hell’s Kitchen” (8 p.m., Fox, TV-14) enters its 22nd season.
— The fourth season of “Lego Masters” (9 p.m., Fox, TV-PG) begins.
— “Bachelor in Paradise (9 p.m., ABC, TV-14) begins its ninth season.
CULT CHOICE
The 2016 documentary “I Am Not Your Negro” (9:10 p.m., HBO Family) profiles novelist, civil rights advocate and public intellectual James Baldwin (1924-1987).
SERIES NOTES
“Buddy Games” (8 p.m., CBS, TV-PG) … “Big Brother” (9 p.m., CBS, TV-PG) … “The Challenge: USA” (10 p.m., CBS, TV-14) … Jesse L. Martin stars on “The Irrational” (10 p.m., NBC, r, TV-14).
LATE NIGHT
James Taylor and Eva Longoria sit down on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” (11:35 p.m., CBS, r) … Jimmy Fallon welcomes Mandy Moore and The Kids in the Hall On “The Tonight Show” (11:35 p.m., NBC, r) … George Clooney, Julia Roberts and Omar Apollo appear on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” (11:35 p.m., ABC, r).
Hank Azaria, Diane Morgan and Urian Hackney visit “Late Night With Seth Meyers” (12:35 a.m., NBC, r) … Kyle Cease, Sebastian Maniscalco, Stephanie Blum and Michael Jr. appear on “Comics Unleashed With Byron Allen” (12:35 a.m., CBS).
