Mel, Mel, Mel. What were you thinking?

The second season of the “Golden Bachelor” debuted Wednesday night starring Mel Owens, 66, as the hunky senior looking for the next love of his life. By now, the reality show’s formula is well-known: The Bachelor is presented with a lineup of eligible single women, falls madly in love and proposes to one lucky lady in the finale.

The golden twist is that these women are all age-appropriate – baby boomers born around the same time as Owens. But a few weeks after the former NFL linebacker was announced as the Season 2 star this spring, he said the quiet part out loud.

“They asked me, ‘What’s your preferences?’ So, I just said 45 to 60, just being honest,” Owens said on the University of Michigan’s “In the Trenches” podcast in June. “And then the proc

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