ABC announces first octogenarian "Bachelorette," Ruth Bader Ginsburg
LOS ANGELES -- First, ABC announced on Monday that after 33 seasons, producers of the Bachelor series had finally cast lawyer Rachel Lindsay as its first black lead.
But just when viewers thought things couldn't get any more exciting, ABC's juggernaut franchise made history again on Tuesday when producers announced that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg would become the show's first octogenarian "Bachelorette" soon after.
"We all know that Ruth Bader Ginsburg is precisely the kind of smart, sexy, pro-choice career woman that millions of women across America will root for on her journey to find love," said an ABC spokesman.
The Notorious RGB season will air in 2018.
This announcement follows the liberal icon’s retirement from the Supreme Court bench just last week.
A promotional reel for the new season suggests viewers will see Justice Ginsburg - her body fit from jazzercize - in a totally new light. The trailer features Ginsburg lounging on a pool inflatable, vodka cocktail in hand, surrounded by shirtless young men, while the voiceover coos: “I’ve judged a lot of tough cases in my lifetime, but my greatest judgments are still ahead: which of these hunks will I deem most worthy of my time?”
In an additional twist, producers will bring in a handful of washed-out politicians to compete for Ginsburg’s adulation alongside the usual young, hunky suspects. Confirmed so far to appear are Eric Cantor, Michael Flynn, Eric Trump, and Mike Huckabee. In private, sources close to Ginsburg say that none of these contestants are expected to make it far in the competition.
Also on Tuesday, ABC shot down rumors that Anthony Weiner had been cast as the next "Bachelor," saying the former congressman's one-man campaign for the role had been "deeply unconvincing and heavy on dick pics."