"I saw a Wheel of Fortune taping in the late '80s with my grandmother. Somebody in the audience couldn't help themselves and yelled the answer out. They escorted the offender out because Wheel of Fortune has a zero-tolerance policy on audience interruptions, reset the scores, and loaded up a new puzzle.They also filmed three days worth of shows in one afternoon. Also, I was really surprised at how small the set was. It looks huge on TV, but it was pretty tiny in person. Pat Sajak and Vanna White were a lot of fun though, they kept a rolling dialogue with the audience and contestants every time the cameras were off."
Child Candy Bully
"I was in the audience of a children's TV show back when I was little (The Wallace and Ladmo Show). At one point during the show, the producers randomly select a seat and the person sitting in it got a bag of treats (called a Ladmo Bag). My seat was selected, but as the cameras were panning around, a bigger kid sitting nearby pushed me out of my seat and sat there instead.I sat in the aisle and cried while my dad screamed at the kid and threatened to beat him up. Fortunately, show security came and after some time, everything got straightened out. They ended up giving me the treat bag and kicking out the kid who had pushed me. I'm pretty sure none of that made it on the air."
Freezing In Their Seats
"I was an intern for the Colbert Report and saw a LOT of tapings during that time. Stephen always did a quick Q&A with the audience out of character before the show.Tapings often had to stop because Stephen would start laughing uncontrollably, which was always entertaining, and during 'commercial breaks,' he and the writers or producers would confer on the next segment sometimes. The other cool thing for the audience was that he often did a duet with musical guests that didn't air, and I don't think those generally made it to Comedy Central's website, either.And yes, the studio was absolutely freezing. This was mostly to offset the lights - they do throw off a lot of heat, and if you're the talent sitting under them, it's uncomfortably warm unless the studio is kept pretty cold. I've also heard (and honestly have no idea if this is accurate, but sounds plausible) that shows with a live audience like to keep the studio cold so the audience stays alert to, you know, laugh."
Some Unlikely Roommates
"I was at a live taping for Whose Line Is It Anyway. There was an 'unlikely roommates' bit and the audience suggested Bill Cosby and Adolf Hitler. On the broadcast episode, it appears the producers nixed the idea and they had the audience suggest something else.In reality, the show stopped for about fifteen minutes after the idea was nixed, and there was a big debate between the cast and the producers. This was back when Cosby still had the 'America's Dad' image and the executives were worried that he'd sue.It backfired anyway as the cast kept sneaking in 'Cosby and Hitler' references during the rest of the episode and those made it to air."
No Deal
"I went to a taping of Deal or No Deal several years back.-All the tense decision making (Do I take this suitcase? Or maybe that one? What does my family think?) was done AFTER they won or lost. Howie told them to pretend like they didn't know what was in the suitcase and to make it look like there was tension. They had to do this 'acting' several times. I guess it's easier to shoot that way?-There's a guy sitting up in the front row that queues us when to applause and stand. We just followed whatever he did.-The whole taping was 6 hours. The actual 'game' took about 20-30 minutes to complete. The rest of the taping was getting angles right, re-shooting certain parts, etc.-You weren't allowed to have logos on shirts. If you had a logo, they gave you a shirt to wear, or you turned your shirt inside out or put it on backward.-Howie is a germophobe. A family member of a contestant tried to shake his hand and he said: 'I don't do that, remember?' He wasn't a jerk about it, I just distinctly remember that being said."
What A Great Crowd
"I've been to three tapings of Conan's show.Two out of those three times the audience was asked to stay longer because they were shooting segments of a different episode throughout the week. This might involve sitting through a second monologue, sketch, or a bonus celebrity appearance. I guess they do it when there are schedule conflicts with the guests. Personally, I don't mind as we get to stay for a bit longer, and the show is generally a lot of fun.Usually, all they do is change Conan's tie so that it looks like it was filmed on a different day. If you pay close attention you can catch when they've done this because Conan will refer to the day of the week and the audience will laugh. For example, if it's Monday but they're filming a segment for Tuesday, Conan will say something along the lines of, 'Man, this crowd is so much better than that Monday crowd!' And everybody is in on the joke. Fun times!"
The Price Is Wrong
"I was in the audience of The Price is Right. In order to be in the audience, you first send away for a free ticket. With that ticket, you get to wait in line early in the morning for another ticket with a number on it (based on the order you were in line).That ticket gets you into another line a bit later (we had enough time to go back to the hotel for a nap). That line is the 'interview' line. You go through in groups of six or so, and they ask you perfectly normal questions like:-What's your name?-How are you?-Where are you from?-Did you enjoy your flight?-What do you do for a living?Etc.The answers don't matter, they want to see how you answer. If you have enough personality and seem like someone who won't freeze up on stage, they might just pick you.So now you've got a third ticket that has your name on top in the classic Price is Right tag shape, with a number underneath. That might be your seat number (but you're reminded that at no point are you guaranteed a seat in the audience).Finally, your line moves ahead and into the studio!!! Oh man, it's cool in there. Literally. They keep the studio quite cold because of the very hot bright lights on stage.Some neat trivia bits:-When they do commercial breaks, the stage crew rushes around re-arranging the set.-There's a person standing just in front of the stage, out of view of the cameras, whose job it is to get everyone to cheer and yell. The guy we had kept making these, 'Oh my gosh! How much could this thing cost?' faces to encourage us to yell our guesses. It was super fun.During a commercial break, Drew Carey asked how we liked the temperature, was it too cold? Everyone cheers 'yeah' and I go, 'It's ok.' I was in the front row and he heard me and goes 'Well, of course. The guy in the Minnesota t-shirt says it's not so bad.'He asked me what I did for work. 'I'm a librarian.' So every time after that when he asked someone else what they did, he'd jokingly ask me, 'What's the Dewey Decimal number for that?' He was super friendly and did a great job hosting."
Uncanned Laughter
"I was there for the recording of The IT Crowd (Series 2 - Episode 2: Greatest Man In The World) - the one where Denholm Reynholm jumps out the window, the phone is set to mega vibrate, and they go to the funeral.The weird bit for us was how they recorded the episode out of order, the first scene we watched was Douglas Reynholm reacting to the phone vibrating, without the context it was even funnier. Also, the outside scenes we had to watch on TV screens so they could still collect our laughter.When you are watching a sitcom, what gives away a fake audience is when the laughter dies down so quick that it never over-laps the next joke. Watch The Big Bang Theory and you can hear when the laughter is set to shut down. In The IT Crowd, there are moments when the laughter continues longer than expected and the actors just sit there and wait.In between scenes, we had a stand-up comedian 'keeping us warm' so we didn't get bored, and I had a blast."
Of Course, Simon's That Way
"I saw Britain's Got Talent live a few years ago, there were a lot of things that I guess surprised me about how it happens.The judges only see about five to seven acts each day. Although there must be about 20 shown each audition episode, it takes so long in between to set up and clear the stage, and if people are late, all the time adds up.When the crowd stands up and claps at the end of an 'amazing' act, it's most likely staged. In the beginning, before we saw any acts, they asked us to all stand-up and cheer really loudly, as if something great was happening. They use this clip after acts go on. As well as this, they film reactions more than once and utilize the ones where there are the most people standing up.The look of surprise on people's faces when an act gets buzzed probably isn't because they're shocked, it's because the buzzers are so bloody loud! It's deafening, I kept jumping out of my seat.They change the songs that people use during their acts. There was a dance act on the day that I went to see it, and they danced to a Katy Perry song, and the audio was changed when it was aired.Rather unsurprisingly, Simon Cowell is late. We waited in the freezing cold for hours for the judges to arrive - you have to wait for the judges to arrive before being let in - because Cowell was late and he was of course, completely unapologetic. This made the show finish late. Absolute prick."
Emmy Incentive
"I went to a taping of 'Two and a Half Men,' and it was the first taping after Jon Cryer won an Emmy. Every time Jon flubbed a line, they'd parade the Emmy out to him to razz him.It was interesting seeing the process. They'd film a scene several times and we were instructed to react as if we were seeing it for the first time each time, keeping the energy up. Occasionally, they'd rewrite a joke and spring it on us after 5-6 takes where we had gotten used to the schtick. THAT usually generated a huge laugh and would be the joke that made it on to the show."
Political Drama
"I attended a senatorial debate session between Marco Rubio, Charlie Crist, and Kendrick Meek that was hosted by Cookie Carlson. We were told to keep silent during the debate, but the audience kept applauding and cheering anyway (mostly for Kendrick Meek, who ultimately won 15% of the vote). I am extremely liberal in my politics but I've continued to have a soft spot for Rubio for years because of that debate. Despite what often comes off to the contrary, I've seen that he really is a human being.After the live taping was over, the audience got the chance to ask questions that didn't get aired and all of the politicians came off as far more authentic and sincere during those questions than they did during the live debate."
BAM!
"I went to a live taping of the Emeril Lagasse's cooking show when I was maybe 11. During a break, he called all the kids in the audience down to the stage and personally handed out ice cream cones from one of the fridges on set.He was really kind and really did say 'BAM!' as enthusiastically (and as many times) as he does on TV. It was a great experience."
Where's Britney?
"I went to the live taping of X Factor in 2012 when the judges were Demi Lovato, Britney Spears, Simon Cowell, and L.A. Ried. My seats were originally nosebleeds, but I ended up being picked to be in the section directly behind the judges, two rows behind them.Britney Spears stopped production multiple times and would get up and leave randomly during taping. She would just wander off as if she forgot there was a show to film, and at one point left for around 45 minutes backstage. You could tell the other judges were BEYOND done with her that day! It was hard to tell if something was up, or if she was just a major airhead."
Sit Here, Timmy
"We went to a taping for Good Morning America on Thanksgiving. The segment involved the guests cooking a side dish for Thanksgiving dinner. They gave us all samples of what they were making so that we could eat while they cooked. The taping of the segment itself was really frantic because it was actually live and the director was going crazy behind the camera trying to get the segment wrapped up in time. They set up and broke down the set really quickly.They also did a lot of moving audience members around and placing certain people where the camera could see. They even placed one kid with a different family because his shirt contrasted nicely or something with their outfits. They just wanted everything to look nice for the camera."
Veteran Live Taper
"I've seen a few tapings. I went to see Letterman and they would touch up makeup during breaks or even record quick promos i.e. 'Tonight we've got Actor A on, don't miss it!' It also was freezing in that studio. Bruce Springsteen was one of the guests. During one break they just started playing some of their hits.I also saw Who Wants to be a Millionaire. What you don't see, or think about, is that there is NO TIME LIMIT for these people to answer their question. They cut a lot of the endless silence of people thinking. They also have very strict rules for who can be on. Everyone in the audience gets to take a quiz to see if they might be a contestant. Then those who score high enough get an interview where they see if you're TV enough I guess. I know some people got cut after saying that they liked to go out for a drink with friends and stuff like that."
Jeopardy Hijinks
"Occasionally, on Jeopardy, Alex will misread a clue, or the producers will give credit where they shouldn't have, and they'll end up replacing the clue. The judges stop the taping, the contestants all turn around and face the wall behind them, and they put the board back, replace the clue, and then Alex reads the new clue as if nothing had happened. It's really strange to watch on a modern TV show.Even though the answers are on the monitors, they still turned us around to make sure we didn't accidentally see a clue if they revealed something."
Steve Full Of Himself Harvey
"I have been to many Family Feud tapings. During commercial breaks, Steve Harvey comes out and talks about himself for about five minutes. This generally centers around how much he has gotten paid recently. This was around the time of the movie based on his book being released, so he was really stoked about that.Also, the warm-up guy comes out before taping and instructs the audience on proper 'clapatory' position while applauding, so it doesn't look like you are having a seizure on TV."
Tosh.No Mistakes
"I saw a live taping of Tosh.0. Before it starts, he runs over the agenda. They tape in three segments and each one is taped twice. If he messes up, which was only three times when I was there, the camera people go back 10 seconds or so instantaneously and redo it on the spot.It's so awesome! He just said, 'ah crap,' calmly and then went right back into his previous line like it was nothing. At one part, they had to pause and he was kinda chatting and when the camera guys said 'live!' he jumped into character on a dime. The taping only took 40 minutes. It was straight to the point with no nonsense."
Not What I Expected
"I went to The Daily Show a few years ago when Jon Stewart was still hosting. First off, getting into the studio is like trying to get on an airplane. You have to take your belts and shoes off, go through a metal detector, they searched my purse, the whole lot.If you have a camera, they will take it away and you can get it back after the show. I was with a group of 10 or so people and they wouldn't let us sit together. If there are more than four of you, they will break you up for seating.There was a comedian that came out to warm the crowd up before the show. Then Jon Stewart came out for a few jokes before starting the segments. He is surprisingly short. His chair at his desk was actually higher than the chair his guests sit in. His guest that night was Justin Timberlake. He was a surprisingly awkward man."
Secret Madonna
"I was in the audience for a live taping of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. His guests that night were Jennifer Hudson, Tilda Swinton, and Maroon 5. It was really cool to see all of them there.After the show ended, the audience was all kept there, Jay changed clothes and did a separate segment with Madonna.That interview wouldn't be seen for a couple weeks. It would be inserted into the show right before the Super Bowl, where she was performing. They spoke like the game was only a couple days away, and Jay thanked us for being in on the big lie."
