With the new season of The Bachelors Australia kicking off, Osher Günsberg has begun his role playing Cupid for a 10th season in a row. The host considers working on the same show for so long a privilege rather than a right.
“No-one gets to do 10 seasons of anything,” the 48-year-old tells TV WEEK. Adding The Bachelorette Australia and Bachelor In Paradise seasons as well, the tally is now up to
a whopping 20 seasons.
Osher has praised this years Bachelors for their emotional intelligence
“I’m grateful every day that I get to work on such big shows with great people who love television,” Osher says. “And I love helping people fall in love.”
This year, three eligible Bachelors are looking for love: drummer and songwriter Jed McIntosh, 25; restaurant manager Thomas Malucelli, 35; and marketing manager Felix Von Hofe, 27.
“They’re three very different men and are all fantastic,” he says. “They’re a venn diagram that barely touches.”
What amazed Osher, who’s a mental health advocate, most was the trio’s ability to tap into their feelings. “They were very vulnerable and
quite willing to go, ‘OK, what can I do differently?’ The level of emotional intelligence in the men and women is extraordinary,” he adds.
Osher relocated his family to Queensland to shoot the new series
(Credit: Getty)With the location moving from New South Wales to Queensland’s Gold Coast, Osher decided to pack up and move there with his wife Audrey and son Wolfgang for the duration of filming, declaring, “As a Queenslander, I was happy to be home.”
Home for the Bachelors during filming was a swish apartment. “It was so big, they could ride bicycles around it,” Osher says with a laugh.
But the change wasn’t just about a new look. In addition, the new location provided a fresh start for the crew, who work so tirelessly on the show.
“The last thing you want is to repeat patterns or tropes, so it helped the crew,” Osher says, with everything being different, from set design to music choices.
“Going into the 10th season, we knew we were going to have to do something special,” he says. “We needed it to look completely different. When the show first started, it was aspirational, visually.
Osher said that the show had to change to match the modern dating world, where choice reigns supreme
(Credit: Ten)This season, there are no fairy lights or candles. All the flowers are real.” Many of the reasons for the change come down to the way that finding love has evolved over the years.
“Modern dating has changed so much,” Osher says. “It was important that the show reflect the modern dating experience.”
By having three Bachelors instead of one, it added the element of choice, something that’s a major part of online dating on apps such as Tinder and Hinge.
Despite the lightweight nature of the show, Osher is proud of the types of conversations the Bachelors have with the women they’re dating – about wanting to be loved and having strong boundaries.
“We’re not a heavy-handed political TV show that exists in the intellectual corners of television,” says. “But the way that we’ve created this season
to work, it allows space for conversations to unfold.
Osher has praised his wife, Audrey, for being so helpful during his recovery from hip replacement surgery last year
(Credit: Supplied)“We make reality TV because you sit there and go, ‘You can’t write that.’ It’s actual human beings and their actual lives.”
It’s not only The Bachelors Australia that’s had a makeover, with Osher deciding to have a bit of fun and dying his hair blonde. He says it’s something he hasn’t done in 20 years.
“Last time I went blonde, my world exploded – and all that happened was I changed my hair,” he says. “So now I’m nearly 50, I could do with another one of those – let’s have another rebrand.” [Laughs]
He explains that since filming had concluded and he was no longer required to maintain a look on screen, he could take the opportunity to make a change.
“I thought this was my one chance, in the off-season, to do something different,” he says. “If they [the producers] don’t like it, I can cut it off in time to shoot again.”
Taking a moment for fun was important after the tough year the TV star has had. He had hip-replacement surgery in 2022 and was spotted in public getting about with
the use of crutches, but is recovering well.
Osher, who has also hosts The Masked Singer Australia, has taken the opportunity during downtime to dye his hair blond
(Credit: Ten)“Everything is so much better,” Osher says, adding that he no longer requires the crutches and has even managed to get back on his bicycle.
“It’s been a long road, and I’m grateful to be on the mend. There’s one person I’m more grateful to than my doctors and that’s Audrey. I couldn’t put any weight on my
leg and she’s been doing the heavy lifting.”
While Osher has been put through the physical wringer, he calls The Bachelors Australia one of the most nurturing shows on TV.
“How could we expect people to be vulnerable if the set isn’t a safe, gorgeous, friendly place?” he asks. “We’re dealing with people’s authentic emotional reactions. We need to care for those people.”
Speaking of emotions, can we expect sparks to fly this season? “By the time we say goodbye, we have two proposals,” Osher hints. “There’s so much love
on the show.”
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