Reality Check: 'Golden Bachelorette' begins filming series

Joan Vassos, the inaugural star of ABC’s upcoming “The Golden Bachelorette,” gave Bachelor Nation fans a video greeting Wednesday as she prepared to fly to California to begin shooting.

“I am getting ready to leave tomorrow,” Vassos, 61, of Rockville, Maryland, says in an Instagram video, sitting on her bedroom floor amid artfully arranged clutter and open suitcases. “And I’m packing and it’s a disaster here because I have no idea what to bring because I don’t know what any of the dates are.”

Vassos, a contestant on last year’s inaugural season of “The Golden Bachelor,” had left the competition early to help with a medical issue afflicting one of her and her late husband’s four adult children. In her video she said becoming star of the female version of the series “is all a little bittersweet because I’m leaving my family for seven weeks and that’s a little scary. But, you know, in the end I could come back and maybe have the love of my life and someone to share my great life with.”

She later noted that her family “is going to come out with me for a couple days and [will] shoot some promos … . And I’m excited about that. I’m so proud of them, and it gives me a couple more days with them, so I love that.”

In an accompanying caption, the private-school administrator wrote: “Excited, nervous, and overpacked… but, mostly ready to get this golden journey started. Feeling all the feels as I pack up to start my next chapter at the Bachelor Mansion. I’ve never been this vulnerable and grateful at the same time,” adding she was “thankful to have the most supportive friends, family and viewers a golden girl could ask for. I’m not sure what this journey holds, but if it's anything like my suitcase, it’s sure to be FULL of surprises! Here I go… .”

“Sending you so much love and support as you embark on this amazing journey, my friend,” commented Theresa Nist, winner of “The Golden Bachelor,” who married but has since divorced star Gerry Turner. “I am so incredibly excited for you!! I’ll be thinking about you and sending you only good thoughts. Now go have the time of your life, Joan!!!”

Premieres

Monday night at 8, season 3 of the PBS cooking competition “The Great American Recipe” welcomes back host Alejandra Ramos and judge Tiffany Derry along with two new judges, Francis Lam and Tim Hollingsworth … Early Tuesday on the streaming service Paramount+, the Marion County, Florida, Sheriff’s Department takes to the skies in the new “Chopper Cops” … Then from 9:01 to 10:01 p.m. on Discovery, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, including possibly your car, on the new repossession, car-crash and parking-violation series “Sin City Tow” … Early Thursday on the streamer BET+, entertainers and media personalities Tamar Braxton, Claudia Jordan, Karlous Miller, Saucy Santana, Angela “Blac Chyna” White and Nick “Swaggy P” Young live together as students at the New Orleans HBCU Xavier University on season 3 of "College Hill: Celebrity Edition” … and that night from 9:34 to 10:33 p.m., it’s season 2 for survival show “Alone Australia,” which doesn’t take place in Australia but is actually in Te Waipounamu, aka New Zealand’s South Island.

Recaps

Brooklyn’s Danny Garcia made it into the final three in this season’s penultimate episode of “Top Chef,” joined by Dan Jacobs and Savannah Miller as Laura Ozyilmaz got the ax … There will be no endless “Summer Baking Championship” for Austin Granados … and Sofía Vergara gave the Argentine dance troupe Legión a Golden Buzzer to the live shows on “America's Got Talent.”