Barry “Bear” Myrden admits he “has been getting a lot of phone calls” recently. Ever since the infrastructure engineer was unveiled as the first Australian Golden Bachelor, plenty of people have been curious about why on earth he’d sign up for a reality TV dating circus.

Barry “Bear” Myrden waits to greet his prospective partners in episode one of The Golden Bachelor.

“I was apprehensive at first,” says Myrden, who at 61 years old qualifies as a Junior Boomer. “I wasn’t sure if it was right for me. I had never watched a Bachelor before, so I acquainted myself with it, and thought, well, it’s a really unique and positive way of getting to meet people. And so I had my three boys’ support, and I decided to jump in. What I always say to my boys is to take risks and jump at opportunity. And I’m here, I am living it myself.”

Unique is an understatement. The Bachelor is one of the great reality TV formats that has been a hit worldwide. It has been running in the US for 23 years, where the original and its spinoffs – including The Bachelorette and Bachelor in Paradise – lay claim to a reported 34 couples still being together after meeting on screen. In Australia, where it premiered on Ten in 2013 before fizzling out ignominiously in 2023, five of the couples from The Bachelor are still together (all married, multiple babies), while none of the couples matched on The Bachelorette has lasted (the only pair to make it to the altar, Georgia Love and Lee Elliott, split earlier this year). Star of The Golden Bachelor Barry “Bear” Myrden and the show’s host Samantha Armytage. Credit:Louie Douvis

Worldwide, the franchises pretty much all follow the same format: a man or woman is matched with 20 potential partners. They go on group dates and compete for “one-on-one time” before they are eliminated, one by one, at a rose ceremony after a long and, usually, emotional cocktail party. It is, essentially, the Hunger Games of dating shows, where connections are prized and the smallest slight can be deemed a catastrophe.

In The Golden Bachelor, however, there is one major difference: where the original formats all feature contestants in their 20s and 30s, this one skips an age bracket or two. Myrden is 61, while the women are aged between 51 and 66.

That means there is a lot more at stake, purely because there is more life experience on the line. Myrden is a widower – his wife Audrey died of a brain tumour about 14 years ago – and most of the women have been through a divorce or two and many have children to consider as well. It is not easy.

“We’re not fumbling through it at all,” says Myrden. “And it was very courageous for the women to put themselves out there as well.”

Surely, it’s easier to find someone in real life than on TV?

“Well, I tell you, it’s a good process,” says Myrden. “It’s a positive and I think successful process because I’ve been through the dating scene a bit and you know what? What better way to be presented with 20 lovely, beautiful, intelligent women and put on beautiful, extraordinary dates.”

Filmed at a multimillion-dollar harbourside mansion in Sydney’s Elizabeth Bay, where the candle budget looks on par with the Vatican, The Golden Bachelor is very familiar viewing. In the first episode, Myrden, a salt-and-pepper-type who still hangs onto his Canadian accent, despite having lived in Australia for more than two decades, is suited up and looking appropriately nervous. The women on The Golden Bachelor at the Rose Ceremony on the show’s first epsiode.

The women are brought in one by one – including one on horseback – and awkward first-date banter ensues. Everyone is jumpy, some of the hugs are too long and there are gimmicks aplenty, but everyone does appear genuine. And they all seem pleased that Myrden has “lots of hair”.

Importantly, though, none of the women are hiding their age. There is much discussion of menopause and hormone replacement therapy, while radio host Bianca Dye, who at 51 is the youngest on the show, happily talks about the effort needed to date as an older woman and how she looks like “a Sharpei puppy when I’m naked”. Bianca Dye meets Barry “Bear” Myrden on the first episode of The Golden Bachelor.

“This is a really powerful and large part of our society that has been neglected for too long,” says the show’s host Samantha Armytage. “And let’s not forget, these ladies in their 50s and 60s, they were the original flower children. They were the rock’n’roll set. They were wild.

“Then they had their children. Some of them have grandchildren. And now they’ve got money, they’re empowered, they know themselves. It’s a very, very powerful and interesting demographic, and it’s been ignored by television.”

This is Armytage’s second crack at hosting a dating show, after she fronted Farmer Wants A Wife on Seven, and her first solo hosting gig on Nine after she jumped ship from Seven last year.

“This is like nothing anyone’s ever seen before,” says Armytage. “Obviously, I have a bit of experience being a TV Cupid, so this was a no-brainer. When it was offered, I thought, ‘Yeah, this is, this is a really sophisticated-looking show.’ It had been No.1 in the US, so I knew it would most likely do well here.”

Compared to the blokes on the US Golden Bachelor – where the show was described as “senior citizens go on dates” – Myrden is a spring chicken. He is younger than the two US leading men: a 66-year-old divorced former NFL player, Mel Owens, and a widowed 72-year-old former restaurateur, Gerry Turner. “I look a bit younger because I’m Canadian and I’ve been frozen for half my life,” Myrden jokes. Barry “Bear” Myrden prepares to present a rose in the Golden Bachelor’s first rose ceremony

And while The Golden Bachelor is all about finding love, the majority of the show is actually taken up with saying no to 19 women.

“That was the most difficult part,” admits Myrden. “Having 20 beautiful, intelligent, courageous women in front of me and having to say goodbye to them. Samantha was my mentor, and she said, ‘Follow your heart and see where it leads you.’ And that’s what I did.”

Did he have a clear idea at the beginning who he might fall for?

“No, no, no, no, no,” he says. “I found out each and every time I was with these ladies, I got to know a little bit more about them and at the beginning, it was really tough. But, you know, getting to know them and getting to experience different things with them, I knew at the end.”

Does he know that Gerry Turner, who appeared in the first US Golden Bachelor, and who was married live on TV in the show’s season finale, ended up divorced after only three months?

“Yes, I heard something about that…”

So it’s all worked out then?

“I can’t say, you’ll have to watch…”