Whitefish 'Bachelor' episode to air Monday
Who will get a rose? — it’s the question posed every week on “The Bachelor” as bachelorettes vie for the love of the handsome bachelor. Next week Whitefish will get its own rose of sorts when the TV show features the town in its latest episode on ABC.
Producers of the show selected the town and the surrounding area as the backdrop for the episode filmed here last fall. Whitefish became the destination for the bachelorettes and bachelor, Sean Lowe. The episode is set to air Monday, Feb. 4 at 7 p.m. MST.
The airing of the show to a possible 10 million viewers is expected to be its own prize for the area’s tourist industry. The Montana Office of Tourism and Whitefish Convention & Visitors Bureau partnered together to help bring the show to town.
“The benefit that businesses and the City of Whitefish will receive from The Bachelor filming locally will be tremendous in the future,” said Jan Metzmaker, director of the WCVB. “Having this exposure on national TV to showcase our fall shoulder season is immeasurable.”
Montana Office of Tourism Administrator Jeri Duran agreed on the benefits to not only Whitefish, but also the state.
“Building relationships in the TV and film industry by hosting the Los Angeles–based producers and 110-person crew offered the opportunity to showcase Montana’s spectacular setting, in addition to the partners’ ability to service large projects and productions,” she said. “This benefits future tourism, as well as public relations opportunities and other film projects for Montana.”
The early impact of the show, combined with other events, seems to have already shown up in the city Resort Tax collections for October. Collection for the month were the highest ever for that month since the tax began nearly 17 years ago. More than $128,000 was collected in October, which is about 19 percent higher than October 2011.
Last October crews came to town filming a variety of scenes in the autumn splendor. The TV show drew much attention when a concert performed by Nashville-based country music singer Sarah Darling on Central Avenue was filmed. Several other familiar locations and icons of the area are expected to appear in the show.
The Lodge at Whitefish Lake hosted Lowe and the 12 bachelorettes. It also served as the location for a romantic one-on-one dinner date by the roaring grand fireplace in the lobby.
The bachelor touches down via seaplane on Whitefish Lake and the bachelorettes arrive via an original Glacier National Park red jammer bus.
Other highlights include the bachelor and his date arriving on a mountain top on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation just outside of East Glacier via helicopter, a special one-on-one date with two bachelorettes spending the day riding horses and having a picnic at Bar W Guest Ranch and a special group date party at Casey’s Bar & Grill.
The episode concludes with the famous “rose ceremony” and cocktail party at Grouse Mountain Lodge, where the bachelorettes get their last chance to spend time with the bachelor before he hands out the roses and sends two of the girls home.