A proposal is the expectation, but …
The Golden Bachelor Season 2 is in the books, and despite Mel Owens not getting engaged to either of his final two women when the finale aired on the 2025 TV schedule, it was still by most accounts a happy ending. It was Peg Munson who accepted the final rose from the former NFL player but not a proposal and, despite that technically going against the premise of the show, I am completely on board with her explanation.
For 23 years (and a combined 53 seasons), The Bachelor and its spinoffs have existed on the premise of the lead proposing (or getting proposed to) at the end of the season. Of course, this hasn’t happened every time — and the long-term success rate of those who have gotten engaged is laughable — but it’s still an expectation amongst fans. Rather than an engagement ring, Mel Owens presented Peg Munson with a promise ring from Neil Lane, and she had a lovely way of justifying their decision, telling BachelorNation.com:
We get to write our own love story, you know? We’re 60 for godsakes — or in our 60s. We’ve earned it! We have earned it. The heavy lifting is done, so we have the right and the prerogative to write our love story the way that we want to live it, and that love story is up to us to write.
Look, no one was more skeptical about Mel Owens’ season than I was, in part due to his comments about not wanting to date women in their 60s, and overall I still don’t think Owens made himself vulnerable enough to carry a season as its lead. However, I will put my gripes aside, because Peg Munson is completely right.
They don’t owe us an engagement. I’m not sure it makes sense for people of any age to make a commitment like that to each other after such a short period of time, but the stakes certainly seem lower for the cast members in their 20s and 30s.
On The Golden Bachelor, the contestants have been through divorce or have been widowed. There are fully established families including children and grandchildren to consider. It’s easy to see how they simply may not care about what a bunch of strangers expect them to do on a reality TV show.
Runner-up Cindy Cullers seemed upset to find out so far into the process that Mel Owens had no intention of proposing at the end, and that’s valid as well. Certainly the producer-fed lines from the 66-year-old attorney like, “My wife is in this room,” were misleading. However, are we really going to fault a man for being smart enough not to rush into something he’s not ready for? Did we learn nothing from Gerry Turner and Theresa Nist?
