The Golden Bachelorette Sets Premiere Date for Joan Vassos' Love Journey as Bachelor in Paradise Readies Big Return

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ABC announced at the TCA Summer Press Tour on Wednesday, July 10, that Joan Vassos will begin her journey to find love when the first season of The Golden Bachelorette premieres on Sept. 18.

Additionally, it was announced that Bachelor in Paradise is officially setting sail for season 10 following a long-awaited return. The new season will arrive on ABC in 2025 and stream the next day on Hulu.

The network revealed in May that Vassos, 61, would step into the Golden Bachelorette role after previously competing on Gerry Turner's inaugural season of The Golden Bachelor. She left Turner's season during Week 3 to be with her daughter who had given birth.

"It's a privilege to be a mom to four amazing kids and a grandmother (they call me Jojo) to two beautiful grandchildren. But once a mom, always a mom and sometimes the timing doesn't work out with finding love," Vassos wrote on her Instagram Stories in October after her exit aired. "Everyone at home is doing great and I hope one day I will get the chance at love again."

Before the casting news became public, the Maryland native said on a May episode of the Bachelor Happy Hour: Golden Hour podcast that she hoped to find love again but didn’t want to look for it on dating apps.

"As far as my heart being completely open, I think it's nine-tenths of the way there," Vassos told co-hosts Susan Noles and Kathy Swarts. "So, I think I just need to spend a little more time in like an environment like The Bachelor environment. I so am not… like I really want to find love. I just don't want to go to the work of going on a dating website.”

Vassos said she hadn’t quite “figured out the formula yet” when it came to dating after the January 2021 death of her husband John. But the private school administrator knows what she wants in a man.

“I'm OK with a bald guy,” she said on Golden Hour. “My husband, my late husband, was bald, and I thought he was very sexy, so that's fine. Got to have all your teeth, that's good. I want somebody who's fit. I want somebody who takes care of themselves. I want somebody who is active.”

Vassos left to film her season last month and said in an Instagram Reel at the time that it felt “a little bittersweet ‘cause I’m leaving my family for seven weeks and that’s a little scary.”

The reality star hoped that spending time away from her family would pay off. “In the end, I could maybe have the love of my life and someone to share my great life with,” she shared.

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Vassos has already gotten advice from Turner, 72, on navigating looking for love on TV.

"He's a very, very good friend," she told Entertainment Tonight. "He did this so well. He kind of created the road map that we have now. There's no rulebook, and he kind of wrote it a little bit." 

The mother of four ultimately believes that “this process works.”

“I’ve seen it work for so many couples on The Bachelor, so I believe in the process,” Vassos said to CNN. “If it ends up in engagement, that’s great. If it ends up in, you and I are going to get to know each other better in the outside world, that’s perfect also.”

As for fellow Bachelor spinoff Bachelor in Paradise, fans last saw the summer show make waves in September 2023 and wrapped up that December. It had remained uncertain when the Jesse Palmer-hosted series would return.

Season 9 ended with Kylee Russell and Aven Jones continuing their relationship outside of Paradise. Kat Izzo and John Henry Spurlock as well as Eliza Isichei and Aaron Bryant got engaged.

The Golden Bachelorette premieres Wednesday, Sept. 18 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC. Bachelor in Paradise returns to ABC in 2025.