Blogging The Bach: Maybe She Takes Baths...

Hi Rosebuds and welcome to my stream-of-consciousness ramblings about Week 5. Yes, I'm still Team Britt to be the next Bachelorette. She seemed a little strange in this week's episode, and yes, sometimes it looks like she's trying too hard (a hundred kids...) but I still like her. Plus, really, whatever the "no shower" thing is really about, somehow or other she's getting herself clean. The Bach himself says in his blog that Britt smells great, and she spends a lot of time in very close proximity to the other women, which wouldn't be happening if she wasn't clean.  



Carly was also charming this week, especially in the deleted scene I posted on Saturday. She's also the one who said, regarding virgin Ashley I, "Her mouth is not a virgin," one of the all-time best lines in Bach history. 

Former contestant Jordan, who got seriously drunk in week 2 and was sent home, made a surprise re-appearance this week, in a stunt that was orchestrated from beginning to end by producers. If you don't believe me, ask yourself this: How, exactly, did Jordan know where to go? As Sharleen reminds us at All The Pretty Pandas, at this point in most previous seasons, the show has left the U.S. for some serious international travel. (Andi's season = Marseille, Juan Pablo's season = Vietnam, Desirée's season = Munich.) Yet Jordan somehow knew not only that the show was in Santa Fe and which hotel they were at, but she just happened to walk into the hotel at the exact moment Bachelor Chris was strolling through the lobby. I have no problem with producers creating moments like this, but it does bug me when they (or Chris Harrison) expect us to believe that it all "just happened." See: wedding, spontaneous crashing of.     

Finally, have you ever wondered how the show decides where to film? The answer in one word: money. Cities, hotels, date venues, white water rafting companies etc., all pay promotional fees to be featured on the show. (For that reason alone, it's extremely unlikely that a planned date would be scrapped at the last minute for something "spontaneous" like, say, crashing a wedding.) Here's some good stuff from sfreporter.com, the website of a Santa Fe newspaper: 

From July 30, 2014: 

The city's Convention and Visitors Bureau will offer a long-running ABC prime-time reality TV show up to $100,000 to convince the show to film an episode in Santa Fe. 

The Bachelor, a reality show where a pool of female suitors compete for the love of a usually wealthy, young handsome man, reached out to the city two weeks ago about the possibility of filming an episode in Santa Fe. CVB Executive Director Randy Randall says officials from the TV show asked his office what it could offer to help them pay for the estimated $500,000 that would cost to film in Santa Fe over a period of roughly two weeks. 

Randall says he quickly came up with a plan to offer $50,000 from his agency's reserve fund, which is generated by lodging taxes and can only be spent on advertising for the city (the reserve fund has roughly $750,000 in it, Randall says). The state tourism office offered to match Randall's offer with another $50,000, bringing the total incentive to $100,000. 

From January 27, 2015: 

With just one week until the premiere of The Bachelor's Santa Fe-filmed episode, both proponents and opponents of the city and state's subsidy to get the show filmed here are taking notice.

City Councilor Ron Trujillo, one of the most vocal critics of last fall's vote to authorize extra money to lure the ABC reality TV show here with tourism dollars, has said that he's plans to watch the episode and tally how many times the words "Santa Fe" are mentioned or the city is seen during the episode. The point is to see if taxpayers who forked over $50,000 from the city and $50,000 from the state are getting their money's worth. 

By the looks of a trailer for the Feb. 2 episode, not all of the show was filmed in the City Different, as the cast is seen at Albuquerque's International Balloon Fiesta. But the words "Santa Fe" are mentioned, followed by "this place is absolutely incredible."

Still, the revelation that the show's cast and crew spent their October film stay at Buffalo Thunder Resort in Pojoaque—and not Santa Fe—caused concern from opponents of the taxpayer-funded subsidy that went to the TV show. Apparently Buffalo Thunder subsidized the TV show as well. "The rooms were all provided as part of a marketing package that the hotel gave, so they didn't pay for the rooms," says Randy Randall, executive director of the city's Convention and Visitors Bureau, also known as TOURISM Santa Fe.

The TV show did make overtures to several downtown Santa Fe hotels before going with Buffalo Thunder. But their demands, which included around 100 rooms, according to Randall, were too much for some.

The business side of The Bach is fascinating to me and and as these articles demonstrate, nothing about this show "just happens." The logistics of making things flow smoothly are formidable and require meticulous advance planning. It's done like a business, because it is one. 

Tomorrow night we'll see the return of the dreaded two-on-one date, with two of the less charming contestants, Ashley I and Kelsey. See you soon, Rosebuds!