The Bachelor age gap is there again with Arie Luyendyk Jr.’s contestants

Arie Luyendyk Jr.’s contestants have been announced for The Bachelor and while we’re going to have a chance to get more into them in the days to come, there is one trend we want to point out now. As you would suspect, it’s a disappointing one.

Just like we’ve seen for any other season with a lead 30 and over, there aren’t many female contestants cast who are altogether close in age. Arie is 36; meanwhile, the oldest contestant on this season is 33. The majority of the contestants are 29 and younger, and the youngest contestant this season is 23.

Is it true that age is only a number? Absolutely, and we certainly do think that Arie could find love with anybody on this season no matter their age. What matters more is maturity and having the necessary physical and emotional connection. Yet, don’t you want to give Arie the best chance possible? The more you present a wide range of women to him with a variety of different ages and backgrounds, the more likely it is that you can make a connection than a group of 25+ women who are all a little more similar.

The issue here isn’t so much Arie walking into casting saying that he wanted women of a certain age range to be on his show; it is more indicative of just the way that The Bachelor casts itself as a whole. For every season, regardless of the leading man, we tend to see women within the same age range cast. The primary reason for this is likely just that this is the range that ABC deems to be entertaining enough for the show. They are in the range of people who are going to want to do Bachelor in Paradise and some other reality shows — they’ll fully embrace the brand. It’s also a “safe” age range for them given that they often cast without knowing who the Bachelor is. For most of the casting process this time around the sentiment among many of these ladies may have been that Peter Kraus was the lead. Peter was 31 during his season of The Bachelorette and many of these women would have fallen closer to his age.

While we’d love to see more older women on the show — heck, we’d implore ABC to do it — at the moment this just seems to be what the network likes to do. We wish that it wasn’t the case but we don’t exactly see them shaking things up in regards to casting anytime soon.

Do you think the ages of contestants on The Bachelor is a problem? Share now in the comments!

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