The Bachelor TV Show Visits Santa Fe

On Monday, February 2, 2015, millions of Americans watching “The Bachelor” TV show were treated to the beauty and enchantment of Santa Fe. The entire episode was filmed in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The episode put Santa Fe in front of millions of viewers but at a price. It cost $100,000 to bring the production to Santa Fe and many of the costs, like attractions and events, had to be provided at no additional cost.

The Bachelor, which has been on the air since 2002, is a dating reality TV series on ABC where 25 women compete for the affections of an experienced bachelor. Every week, women are eliminated by the bachelor until just one remains. The eliminations take place via a “rose ceremony” where those that receive a rose are “safe” and those that don’t get one are eliminated. The show airs Monday nights on ABC.

The Bachelor is hosted by Chris Harrison. As a result of the show’s incredible success, there have been several spin-off shows and specials including The Bachelorette, Bachelor Pad, Bachelor in Paradise, Bachelor in Paradise: After Paradise, The Bachelor Winter Games, The Bachelor Presents: Listen to Your Heart, and The Bachelor Summer Games. The Bachelor also appears in many international editions.

The Santa Fe portion of the February 2, 2015 episode was filmed in October 2014. The City of Santa Fe paid $50,000 and the State of New Mexico contributed another $50,000 to lure the production. After the airing of the show, Santa Fe focused Websites received hundreds of millions of page views as people searched for more information on The City Different.

Some of the most beautiful views featured on the show occurred when the bachelor, Chris, was on a balcony at The La Fonda Hotel with some incredible close-up background views of the St. Francis Cathedral Basilica. The Santa Fe Plaza was also shown, along with many buildings and landmarks. Much of the surrounding beauty of New Mexico was also on display, like a hot air balloon ride along the Rio Grande Gorge and the Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque.

For the filming, the bachelor and his guests stayed at the Buffalo Thunder Resort & Casino. However, the rose ceremony was at The La Fonda Hotel, in the heart of Santa Fe.

The show did make one big snafu. Near the end, after a commercial break, it identified Santa Fe as “Sante Fe,” an unfortunate error that is not unusual. But overall, it was nice to see the City Different on display for an episode that had more than 8 million viewers (not including those that recorded the show for later viewing or picked it up on Hulu Plus). The show also better educated people on exactly what, and where, Santa Fe is. At least one of the ladies vying for the affections of Chris thought that New Mexico was along the beach shores of the country of Mexico and that everyone wore sombreros.

Check out this “Five Interesting Facts About Santa Fe” video and visit our Things to do in Santa Fe page to learn more about what makes Santa Fe special.

Want to move to Santa Fe? Santa Fe’s top real estate agent – Darlene Streit – can help: 505.920.8001 / [email protected]