Andy DehnartAfter being considered for years, Seattle is on the verge of being selected as the next host of Bravo’s Top Chef, although another city is in contention, and it will cost the city $200,000 to $300,000. The other finalist is possibly Portland, Seattle Met suggests.
“They really want to be here, but they need to feel the love,” Seattle Convention and Visitors Bureau President Tom Norwalk told MyNorthwest.com, and by that he means, if the producers get paid enough. Really.
He said hosting the show “will take a sizable chunk of money from the leisure tourism promotion budget to really compete and be on an equal footing with another city,” which is between $200,000 and $300,000, about what San Antonio paid. That’s justifiable, according to the convention bureau’s marketing director. “So basically, we would get 12 one-hour advertisements for our city,” Ali Daniels told the site.
Producers are actively soliciting chefs for the next season, and MyNorthwest says that the selection of a city “ultimately comes down to which city is willing to pay producers enough to cover a significant amount of their production costs.”
Knowing what Texas paid $600,000 for has certainly impacted my viewing of Top Chef Texas, or at least made me more aware of the more subtle product placement in between the super-obvious in-episode advertising.