• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, November 29, 2024

“The Golden Bachelor” has apparently opened the door for relationship reality shows starring senior singles looking for love in later life.

The ABC love-competition show, which took the nation by storm in fall 2023, already spawned “The Golden Bachelorette,” which played out this fall on ABC.

Now, another show covering some of the same ground has arrived at Netflix. It starts streaming today -- Friday, November 29.

This one -- titled “The Later Daters” -- is not a competition show in which suitors are dismissed each week by an eligible bachelor or bachelorette until one competitor remains at the series’ end.

Instead, the Netflix show follows six single baby boomers ages 55 and up, who have not dated in years but are now entering the modern dating world.

In the show, each of the six has the support of a loved one to help them navigate the new dating world. 

The show also features a dating and relationship coach who will advise these solo seniors on how to bring their best selves to these dating situations. The coach is Logan Ury, who wrote a relationship book called How To Not Die Alone.

Certainly, nothing in the Netflix promotional materials suggests that “The Later Daters” is inspired in any way by the “The Golden Bachelor” and “The Golden Bachelorette” on ABC. 

But for anyone who is familiar with the process of developing TV shows, it is reasonable to believe that the dating lives of older people is now an attractive category.

To younger people, the participants on “The Later Daters” might seem old at 55. But the last time I looked, “seniors” were people who, very generally speaking, are 65 years old and thereby are eligible for Medicare and half-fare bus rides.

Nowhere is Medicare mentioned in the first episode of “The Later Daters” that the TV Blog previewed this week.

“The Later Daters” starts streaming Friday, November 29, on Netflix.