The Howard County
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VOL.14, NO.12
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In part, these heart-wrenching decisions are a function of how rapidly things
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Our own Golden Bachelorette By Laura Sturza Of all the talented contestants who viewers faithfully followed on season one of ABC’s “The Golden Bachelor,” producers chose Rockville, Maryland’s Joan Vassos to be the lead in the first season of “The Golden Bachelorette.” The show is another spinoff of “The Bachelor,” a reality TV program that premiered in 2002. The franchise produces romance and relationship shows that offer unmarried contestants a chance to find love in front of millions of TV viewers. Vassos, a 61-year-old school administrator and grandmother, lost her husband of 32 years to pancreatic cancer, and first sought love on “The Golden Bachelor” last year. She had to leave that show early when her daughter had complications from giving birth (both daughter and grandchild are fine). This season, she had to make the hard decisions about which eligible bachelors stayed in the running and which went home. ABC revealed her final choice in the season finale on November 13. Vassos started off with 24 prospective fiancés, ages 57 to 69, including a retired UN agency director, an ER doctor, a retired Navy captain, a salon owner, and a fire department chief. Winnowing down the field of suitors took place at “rose ceremonies,” in which she handed out roses only to the men who she chose to remain on the show. “The rose ceremonies are so painful, and you don’t want [to hurt] these lovely men who have been so open and vulnerable, and who are maybe not love connections but are your friends,” Vassos said.
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Joan Vassos, 61, starred in ABC’s new series “The Golden Bachelorette.” The Maryland grandmother chose Chock Chapple, an insurance executive from Kansas, in the season finale. They are engaged, but Vassos has vowed to stay in Maryland.
move on the show. “You create these connections with the men really, really quickly because they share things that have happened in their lives that are life-changing events, and you don’t normally get those conversations early on in a relationship,” she said. In each episode, Vassos faced the challenge of choosing who she imagines spend-
ing her future with and doing so on national television, surrounded by a TV crew. How did she stay in touch with her feelings and listen to her heart’s desire while all that was happening? “That was really hard,” Vassos said. “Your interactions are brief, and you need See BACHELORETTE, page 20
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