Joan’s Golden Bachelorette Episodes Will Be 90 Minutes Long

Even before Joan Vassos was announced as the first-ever Golden Bachelorette, viewers wanted to see the 61-year-old find love. And fortunately, ABC is modifying the format of The Golden Bachelor to help make that happen.

Starting this fall, Joan’s season will feature 90-minute episodes every Wednesday night — as opposed to Gerry Turner’s hour-long episodes.

This will be a welcome change for many viewers, who asked for longer episodes during Gerry’s inaugural run. In addition to giving contestants less time onscreen, the shorter episodes also affected the show’s plotting. As ABC executive Rob Mills tweeted, the truncated episodes meant Gerry could only invite three contestants (instead of the usual four) on Hometown dates.

Expect the pacing of Joan’s season to go differently. “The first Golden Bachelorette has an incredible story, and although we were thrilled with the results, last year we felt that there were still story elements, characters, and aspects of the show that 90 minutes can really capture the full essence of,” Craig Erwich, the president of Disney Television Group, told Deadline.

Joan, a school administrator, left Gerry’s season early to support her daughter — an example of her prioritizing family. She shares four children and two grandchildren with her late husband, who passed away after 32 years together.

“They are the most important people in the world to me obviously, and I would expect that to be the same for the person that I end up with,” Joan told CNN, adding that family needs to be a “key part” of a potential partner’s life.