Who is 'The Golden Bachelorette'? Here are top candidates for ABC's newest dating show

PASADENA, Calif. ― ABC is diving back into the senior dating pool.

Fresh from the success of last fall's "The Golden Bachelor," which led to Gerry Turner's "Golden Wedding" to Theresa Nist in a live special on Jan. 4, the network Saturday unveiled plans for "The Golden Bachelorette." This fall one of the 22 senior women from the original will look for love from among a pool of older men in the new series.

But who will it be?

While a final decision hasn't been made, the leading candidates are Joan Vassos, 61, the private school administrator from Rockville, Maryland, and Leslie Fhima, 65, the Minneapolis personal fitness trainer and "Golden Bachlor" runner-up who said Gerry broke her heart by choosing Theresa. People familiar with the plans say Faith Martin, 61, a high school teacher from Benton City, Washington, is also in the mix, thanks to her passion for the dating series and survival skills: She was the third-place finisher, eliminated only after the show's hometown dates.

Joan was less lucky: Despite winning a rose from Gerry, Joan left the series in the third "Golden Bachelor" episode when her daughter faced medical complications after childbirth. While "Bachelor" series often choose the previous season's runner-up ― Joey Graziadei, the current "Bachelor," finished second in the last "Bachelorette" ― executives are intrigued by a lead who is still familiar to the audience but less well known than finalists, enabling the exploration of fresh backstories.

The age of the likely "Golden Bachelorette" leads ― more than a decade younger than Turner, who's now 72 ― means the pool of men being cast may be slightly younger than the 60-year-old minimum for "Golden Bachelor."

When "The Bachelor" premiered in 2002, ABC aired two seasons of the show before premiering "The Bachelorette" spinoff in January 2003. But there's interest in an eventual season of "Golden Bachelor in Paradise," another spinoff in which men and women from previous seasons of the franchise are thrown together in a tropical locale. So the network, and producer Warner Bros. Television, hope to quickly amass a group of candidates for that event as early as next year.

Including all viewing within 35 days on ABC and Hulu, Disney claims 43.4 million viewers tuned into the series at some point, Disney TV Group chief Craig Erwich told the Television Critics Association, in making the announcement. "Golden" also marked the most successful edition of "The Bachelor" franchise on Hulu, where more than a third of the audience had never watched a "Bachelor" season before.

Before "The Golden Bachelorette" arrives in September (sure to be promoted on ABC's Sept. 15 Emmy Awards), the network also plans a regular "Bachelorette" season this summer.