Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Locked thread
HenryJLittlefinger
Jan 31, 2010

stomp clap


I want to know what it's like being in the audience of a live tv show.
How do you get tickets?
Is there a conduct briefing before filming starts (i.e. "Those of you in this section don't make faces because you're in view of the camera. Pee breaks every 20 minutes and you can't leave before then. If you got kids you have to sit in this section.")?
Are there still laughter and applause signs?
How long does filming actually take?
I noticed the live audience on Top Gear all stands up. Do they get to sit down, or do you have to stand up for the duration?
On shows where some of it's prefilmed (SNL, Daily Show, etc), does the whole audience watch that segment for 3 minutes while the host just stands there straightening their tie?

What shows have you been on and what's it like?

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

HUGE SPACEKABLOOIE
Mar 31, 2010


As you might imagine this is going to vary quite a bit depending on the show

Tickets: Check the show website, or possibly the studio. Warner Bros for Ellen, CBS for James Corden, etc.
Before it starts: A lot of shows have someone on hand to explain how everything will work and possibly keep the audience engaged while sets get moved and stuff
Laughter and applause signs: Yeah on some shows
Filming time: Totally depends on the production
I've never seen a show that was standing only. If they need a shot of something they'll ask the audience to do it but there should be seats
SNL will usually have clips up on monitors around the audience area which would play then the host would come back over commercials.

The other thing to remember is that depending on the show, you may be watching them film all or parts of multiple episodes. Stuff like Judge Judy or some of the game shows will film 5 or 6 sets of actors or guests or whatever in a single go. Talk shows like Ellen will usually just be a one off.

Earwicker
Jan 6, 2003

HenryJLittlefinger posted:

I want to know what it's like being in the audience of a live tv show.
How do you get tickets?
Is there a conduct briefing before filming starts (i.e. "Those of you in this section don't make faces because you're in view of the camera. Pee breaks every 20 minutes and you can't leave before then. If you got kids you have to sit in this section.")?
Are there still laughter and applause signs?
How long does filming actually take?
I noticed the live audience on Top Gear all stands up. Do they get to sit down, or do you have to stand up for the duration?
On shows where some of it's prefilmed (SNL, Daily Show, etc), does the whole audience watch that segment for 3 minutes while the host just stands there straightening their tie?

What shows have you been on and what's it like?

I was in the audience for the Daily Show once as well as some standup comedy special by John Oliver for HBO (this was years before his current show). There were no laughter/applause signs, I assume because the shows were funny enough that they weren't necessary. I don't remember a formal "conduct briefing" per se but both shows had a warmup set by a comedian who was not in the main act. In the Daily Show, Jon Stewart came out after the first warmup set and joked around with the audience for about 10 minutes, and he established a couple inside jokes with the audience that he could come back to during the main show. The filming doesn't take much longer that the show itself, though in the case of the John Oliver special they filmed the whole thing twice, the second time had a slightly different roster of comedians but many of the same ones, who told the same jokes, which was a bit strange. Everyone still laughed at them the second time. There are no pee breaks, you really aren't supposed to get up at all, at least on those shows. The John Oliver one had cameras sweeping over the audience constantly but the Daily Show didn't film the audience at all. Both shows had nice seats.

CannonFodder
Jan 26, 2001

Passion’s Wrench

HenryJLittlefinger posted:

I want to know what it's like being in the audience of a live tv show.

I noticed the live audience on Top Gear all stands up. Do they get to sit down, or do you have to stand up for the duration?

Top Gear was a special case where in the first few seasons there wasn't nearly as much of a crowd, so the audience just mingled around and stayed quiet. Since the audience was small the producers never bothered to put seats into the converted aircraft hangar where filming took place. Later on the audience grew tremendously but stayed standing room to fit everyone. Also with moving cars around before and after segments it's easier to move standing audience compared to seating areas.

Crabby Abby
Apr 26, 2006

I'm the graph in the OP
I was in the audience for the filming of the first TopGear US pilot back in 2008. I was a big fan of the UK version so I signed up through http://on-camera-audiences.com/ as soon as I heard about the US pilot. We first went to a staging area where they gave us a bit of the briefing, then we walked to the actual studio area for filming. Maybe it was because it was a pilot, or maybe it was because I was always too far back in the crowd, but half of the time I couldn't really tell what was going on. We stood for the entire time and by the end my feet were killing me. I can't recall exactly, but I'd say the whole thing took 4 or 5 hours.

Problem!
Jan 1, 2007

I am the queen of France.
I want to know what it's like to be in the audience for a game show like Jeopardy or Wheel of Fortune. Is the audience far enough away from the contestants that they can't hear people in the audience blurting out answers? What if someone yells out the answer loud enough for them to hear? Do the contestants get a re-do?

Cais
Jul 10, 2006
unicycler
I was on the Price is Right last year. I got tickets through on-camera-audiences and my roommates and I showed up the appointed day. We had the priority tickets which meant as long as we showed up on time we were in - after they cut the line, they filled the rest of the folks in from standby (maybe 15 people tops.).

Once you're in, you sign your life away and an intern gives you your nametag. You must use your first name, no nicknames or middle names. You take a green screen photo that you can buy if you want. After a while, they take about 20 people at a time where you talk to a producer. He basically just asks you where you're from and what you do and that entire interaction is how they choose contestants. Once you're past that, more waiting and a metal detector before they finally load the show. This is probably 4 or 5 hours into your day.

They did have the announcer as a warmup comedian basically, getting the crowd into the mood. Once the show starts its so loud you actually can't hear your name - an intern holds up a giant sign with the name written on it. I got called first, so I went on down immediately. Drew came out basically the same time he does on the show. You guess the first prize and that person plays the game and the rest of us got micced up. They tape at almost the same speed as the actual show. Games and prizes get changed out really quickly.

After you play your game they have seats for you, you don't rejoin your party. After the show they take you backstage and you sign your life away again. Basically understanding that you owe taxes and a breakdown of what you won. I won a trip, so I had to book it through a travel agency and we're going in September. Most of the other prizes showed up quickly. Some were sent Amazon prime, others from their warehouse. I won skis but they never asked for sizes they just sent a random pair. Taxes came out of my cash winnings so I didn't have to pay much. It was an awesome experience and in ten years I can win on the show again.

HenryJLittlefinger
Jan 31, 2010

stomp clap


Thanks everyone, this is exactly what I have been wondering about. It fascinates me.

Crabby Abby posted:

I was in the audience for the filming of the first TopGear US pilot back in 2008. We stood for the entire time and by the end my feet were killing me. I can't recall exactly, but I'd say the whole thing took 4 or 5 hours.

That's exactly what I imagine when I watch it, and I kept telling myself, "No way in hell they do that, surely there's a bunch of chairs in the next room over." Sounds unpleasant.

tazjin
Jul 24, 2015


I was in the audience of some kind of one-off comedy event in Köln, Germany. I don't remember the details. We got the tickets from my uncle (:rip:) who starred in some low-budget TV show for a while.

What I remember is mostly that some guy was priming the audience a couple of times as it was a recorded show and not a live broadcast. They announced that the star was coming on stage, played the intro music, did effects and whatnot and then it was just an announcer who came up and told people to be more enthusiastic about certain bits, and what kinds of reactions they'd like to see.

The actual show was pretty uneventful, but it was done without breaks and you couldn't just walk out and get back in.

After it was done they had everyone in the audience sing a song that was supposed to be sung by the audience in a previous show, but the recording for that didn't turn out good enough.

Yeah that's basically it, don't expect too much from it.

photomikey
Dec 30, 2012
I worked for an NBC affiliate for some years, then a CBS affiliate, and I have done work for and/or dated people at various networks, production companies, or affiliates. I've seen a fair amount of shows, both taped, live-to-tape, and live.

The accounts presented above are accurate to all of my experiences. The only thing I wanted to add that surprised me at the time is for talk shows (like late night shows) with a band... when Letterman (Leno, Ellen, etc) finishes the bit and the band strikes up, then after 5 seconds of music they go to commercial break... 1) the commercials don't run in the studio, but the break is timed exactly in real time. So if the break is 3 minutes 35 seconds long, the band plays for 3:35 and then does 5 more seconds to bring the show back in. I'd always assumed it was just a :10 song or stinger or whatever to take us to break, then in the studio they'd go "OK, everybody ready??" and do another 10 second song and go for the next segment - but no, it's in real time. And it's a real song. Not anything you've ever heard, but there are words, and the person singing (who you never/seldom see on TV) comes out in the audience and stuff to try and keep everybody dancing and amped up.

At Leno they made a really big deal after the warmup act and before Leno comes out that they don't stop tape. Whatever happens, they don't stop tape, they just roll with it. I went backstage after and was talking to the producers, and I asked if that was true, and they were like... it has to be pretty bad. Like trainwreck bad. Sometimes we bleep stuff out, or sometimes we cover a shot of something, but to stop tape... it's a big deal.

stubblyhead
Sep 13, 2007

That is treason, Johnny!

Fun Shoe
Sounds like a challenge.

kedo
Nov 27, 2007

About sixteen years ago I was visiting LA with my family and at every major landmark we'd see a bunch of studio folks (probably interns) walking around handing out free tickets to watch a TV show being filmed. We decided it would be interesting to see how it all worked, so we ended up being in the audience for a taping of The Martin Short Show. It was an extremely short lived show, and for good reason.

We were told to arrive at the studio about an hour or so in advance. After waiting outside in line for a short time, they let us in and immediately began sorting us into seats based on appearance. They didn't want any obvious blocks of people (so if there was a big tour group wearing the same colored t-shirt they would scatter them), and they simply would not stand for shorts or skirts in the front row (red blooded Americans can't stand to see bare legs, by god), so most of the larger groups were broken up into twos and threes. There was hardly anyone wearing pants because it was southern California in the summer, but they still somehow filled the front row. My family was all in shorts so we ended up together somewhere in the middle of the crowd.

They had several APPLAUSE and LAUGH signs and made ample use of them throughout the show. There were also three or four crowd control folks whose entire jobs involved frantic arm movements like "waving my arms up and down with my palms up, c'mon cheer! NO LOUDER!" or the "I'm cutting off my own head, that means shut up!" maneuver. There was a comedian featured on the show the day we were there, so he came out before filming started and cracked a few jokes to warm up the crowd. However generally we were expected to laugh or cheer on command and then shut up. Overall the crowd's reactions were not spontaneous in any way.

When Martin Short finally came out it was an absolutely massive non-event. Hardly anyone in the crowd noticed, and he did a quick "oh hi," wave to the audience before sitting down and ignoring everyone besides the cue card guy for the rest of the show. It's no wonder the show was cancelled after one season as it was amazingly dull. They were going for a late night model talk show with celebrity guests, a band and guest performers, but everyone we saw was C level at best. The banter was dry and uninteresting, and the crowd reaction was extremely forced.

The comedian was the only good bit. He did a set during the show which was pretty funny, and then after the whole thing wrapped up we were asked to stay a little longer so he could do a second set because they wanted to be able to splice in more jokes if they needed. Once he finished his second set, one of the producers told us we were done, that Martin would not be signing autographs, and that we could visit the studio gift shop if we wanted on our way out. That was that.

All told it was a semi-interesting but mostly boring affair that I probably wouldn't repeat anytime in the future.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Tears In A Vial
Jan 13, 2008

In the UK, you can just check a couple websites and book tickets to whatever is on at the time. They're all free. The catch is they release like twice as many tickets as they have seats, so half the queue gets turned away, meaning you generally need to get there super early.

I saw Jimmy Carr's game-show Distraction, a couple episodes of QI, the pilot episode of Would I Lie To You (Then called Pants on Fire), the pilot episode of some IT Crowd style sitcom set in a video game shop (It never made it past the pilot), Are You Smarter Than a 10(?) Year Old, and a few other things, I also went to a recording of a radio broadcast comedy, which was much the same. It's generally a good evening out. There's usually a warm-up act, like a comedian or something.

None of the shows I went to sorted by appearance, but the shows I saw weren't the kind to do sweeping shots of the audience really.

Tears In A Vial fucked around with this message at 02:15 on May 26, 2016

  • Locked thread