The Bachelor S27E7

Warner Bros. Entertainment / NZK Productions

The Bachelor, one of the most viewed prime-time TV shows in the US, chose Progressive Productions as its partner to shoot an entire episode of the show in two consecutive seasons, first in Vienna and a year later in Budapest. In both seasons the Bachelor and the Ladies traveled within the US for the first few episodes of the seasons, then they embarked on an international tour, which took them to Hungary this time. In alignment with confidentiality standards, this article only shares information on what is visible to any viewer watching the show.

As we were already well acquainted with the show’s production methods and are quite unique in providing full-service production in both countries, everything was given for another successful collaboration. However, it was an exciting challenge to transfer our tried and tested system from Austria to Hungary, whose industry functions quite differently and calls for a differently structured crew.

The whole visuality of Budapest perfectly fits the style of the show, as Vienna’s did last season. The city’s centuries old history is embodied by its countless grandiose buildings, the styles of which pay homage to a wide range of historical periods. The Bachelor visited the Art Nouveau Gellért Bath, the neo-Gothic Buda Castle, the Neo-Romanesque Fisherman's Bastion and, for example, the modern Bálna, to mention a few.

Budapest has many different faces, making it a hard task for any production to present the city’s complexity. However, thanks to The Bachelor’s format, the show successfully captured its diversity. With each episode being nearly an hour and a half long, there was enough time to feature more than ten emblematic locations of Budapest and nearly twice as many exciting secondary locations.

Budapest brings spas to mind for most people. It isn’t a coincidence that Budapest was given the City of Spas title, as it is the only capital city in the world that has thermal water baths to offer - and not one but nine! Among these nine spas, the Bachelor visited two: the city’s largest and oldest baths: the Széchenyi and the Gellért Thermal Baths.

It was great that we could take part in the production of one of the longest running reality TV shows in two consecutive years! These two episodes provided us with a great opportunity to show the characteristics of these two countries’ capital cities, and prove how Progressive is able to provide the same high-quality production standards in Hungary and Austria alike.