Chances are I have been all over your television without you realizing it. If I haven’t yet, then I soon will be. In my short time in Los Angeles, I’ve been in the studio audience for an incredible 17 television show tapings! It’s my favorite LA activity! There is something magical about being on the famed Hollywood lots and something amusingly surreal about seeing TV stars up close or as close as security will allow.
The shows I’ve been to are: The Conners (three times!), Jimmy Kimmel Live!, The Kelly Clarkson Show, The Talk, The Voice, The Masked Singer, Byron Allen presents the Comedy and Music Superfest, We the People with Judge Lauren Lake, The Prank Panel, Lopez vs. Lopez, Extended Family (twice!), America’s Got Talent, Raising Damon, and Frasier. Note: tickets to all of these shows were free!
Jimmy Kimmel Live! was the first taping I attended and my least favorite experience. Not because there was anything wrong with the show, but because the audience coordinator sat me in what I can only assume was the “ugly” section of the studio. Although I had a front row seat, my area—unlike the others— was not lit. I sat hidden in the shadows for the entire taping. Even worse, the cameras and crew were stationed directly in front of me, obstructing my view while ensuring that I would never be on TV. I had to crane my neck to catch glimpses of Jimmy Kimmel and his guest that afternoon, Kathryn Hahn. I later learned that dressing up just a bit got me the best seats at tapings. By “dressing up,” I simply mean putting on a blazer—over a button down shirt, a polo, or just my bare, hairy chest. Gross. This worked at The Voice, The Talk, The Kelly Clarkson Show, Byron Allen presents, The Prank Panel, and America’s Got Talent.
The Talk is the only live-to-air taping that I’ve been to. It was live for the 2pm east coast audience which meant they taped at 11 am on the west coast. That show amused me because we, the studio audience, had to sit and wait for commercials to pass just like the people watching at home. I met an elderly couple who frequent The Talk because of the sweet swag the show gives out to the audience. They weren’t wrong. That day, I walked out with a $100 Walmart gift card and free Metamucil. My colon’s never been happier!
You may be surprised to learn that it can take several hours to tape a thirty minute, multi-camera sitcom. Multi-cams tape the show in a linear fashion, like a play, for the benefit of the studio audience. A single-camera sitcom, like The Office, did not have a studio audience, taped scenes out of order, and later edited them into a linear storyline for the television audience. The Conners was the fastest production; those tapings skewed closer to three hours. The longest were Extended Family, Lopez vs. Lopez, and Frasier, all of which clocked in at five hours. Several things contribute to these lengthy tapings; some are technical (cameras, lighting, etc.) some happen when the actors“go up” on their lines (meaning they forgot them) which you may have seen on blooper reels. The most interesting pauses happen when a joke doesn’t land with the audience the way the writers thought it would, meaning that it did not get the biggest laugh possible. When that happens, the writers huddle together and quickly write alternate lines for the actors to try on the next take. At Frasier, the writers fed one character a series of five alternate lines for a scene that he repeated in quick succession to hilarious effect. I can’t wait to see which one makes it into the final show! Cheesy!
A casting company paid me to be in the audience for The Prank Panel, We the People with Judge Lauren Lake, and Extended Family and I also did not know this was a job! Being in any audience—paid or unpaid— is a job because it is work! Sitcoms, for example, simultaneously record audio from the audience using microphones that hang overhead. In order for the show to work, the audience has to maintain the same level of energy for the last scene as they do for the first scene. And, keep in mind, sitcoms often shoot the same scene two or three times in a row. The audience is expected to have the same enthusiasm on the third take as they do on the first take even though they’ve already heard the jokes (unless there is a rewrite) and know what is about to happen. Behind the scenes revelation! To facilitate this, the shows use warm-up guys (not sexist—they’ve all been men) who, in concert with a DJ, entertain and energize the audience in between takes. I won the mug above at The Conners by playing a game where I correctly identified the theme song to The Partridge Family. I could write an entire blog post on how hard these guys work.
I’ve repeatedly signed my life away on non-disclosure agreements for The Prank Panel, The Voice, and The Masked Singer in order to protect the integrity of those shows, so no spoilers! The Prank Panel is an unscripted comedy series premiering on ABC this summer. They taped the audience portion of their show in four days and I worked for the show for three of those days. My longest shift was ten hours and I was exhausted by the end! It sounds silly, but spending several hours laughing and applauding on command is fatiguing. Most of these shows taped “audience reactions” either before the show started or right after it ended; this is part of the job. With cameras pointed directly at us, we were asked to smile, laugh, and clap even though absolutely nothing was happening. The Masked Singer went one step further asking us to feign surprise, delight, and disappointment at an empty stage as if host, Nick Cannon, was unmasking a singer. (Nick Cannon was long gone by then.) The shows use audience reaction clips to make the program seem more interesting for the television audience at home. An editor might insert a clip of my fake laughter to make it seem like Kelly Clarkson said something hysterical when, in reality, she may have only said something mildly amusing. And, because shows recycle these clips, I could appear in a broadcast for a show that I never attended! Hollywood!
I highly encourage you to attend a television show taping if you are ever in Los Angeles! In addition to entertaining you, watching a show come together will make you appreciate the hard work of the crew that typically operates out of sight. And pay attention the next time you watch TV because you might see my smiling face (or hear my laughter and applause) on all of your favorite shows! I’ll leave you below with some final thoughts that include shameless name dropping.
The Conners – Once, on my way into the sound stage, I saw Laurie Metcalfe getting food from a pizza truck. That’s when I realized that celebrities need to eat dinner, too. They really are just like us! // John Goodman was the giddiest I had ever seen him at the season finale taping and, keep in mind, I had seen him twice by then! He was like a little kid on the last day of school counting down the minutes until the start of summer vacation. At prior tapings, Goodman seemed more serious and in his head. He would pace around the set in between takes, occasionally pausing to glance at his script or stretch his back. But at the finale, Goodman was downright silly and kept doing things to make the audience laugh. // Fans of Roseanne may appreciate how tickled I was each time I sat in front of that iconic living room set with its familiar shabby couch and multicolored quilt. (The Conners is a spin-off of Roseanne.) Fun fact: there are book shelves in that iconic living room (with books!) that I don’t think I’ve ever seen on the show. They are built into the wall to the left of the front door.
The Kelly Clarkson Show – Notwithstanding the example I gave above, Kelly Clarkson—unscripted—is very funny! I sat feet away from where she sang her “Kellyoke” segment which is the last thing she tapes although it appears first on the broadcast. Insider info! It occurred to me that one would ordinarily have to shell out hundreds of dollars to sit front row at a Kelly Clarkson concert but I got to watch her sing for free. I would never pay that much money for anyone other than John Williams, by the way, and shame on you for not knowing who he is, I AM THE COOL ONE!!!
The Voice – I went partially deaf at this taping and not because of the musical acts; it was the mercurial, teenage girls around me who did it. They shrieked at ear-splitting decibels whenever one of the judges, Niall Horan, so much as blinked. If they weren’t screaming in delight, they were venomous with jealousy anytime Horan’s gaze lingered on another section of screeching teenagers. It was MANIC! // The set for The Voice was huge and looked futuristic; I felt like I was in the movie Tron. Thanks to my trusty blazer, I sat right next to the entrance the judges used to walk on set. I don’t watch The Voice (or any of these shows, really) so I did not remember that Carson Daly was on the show until he stepped on stage. Watching him work made me want to get a job reading from a teleprompter. I’m not saying that what Carson Daly does is easy, but…it doesn’t look hard, either.
The Masked Singer – I completely forgot that Nicole Scherzinger was on this show which is terrible because Nicole Scherzinger is too beautiful to be as forgettable as Carson Daly! Most of the audience stood in “pits” around the circular stage and I was in the pit directly in front of the judges’ table which, by now, you know was not coincidence. BLAZER! //This was another enormous set that took up the entirety of the sound stage. The theme that night was “British invasion,” so the set was elaborately decorated with things Americans stereotypically associate with the UK, like tea sets and umbrellas but, surprisingly, not Ted Lasso.
Byron Allen presents the Comedy and Music Superfest – This show taped two days’ worth of performances and turned it into a two-hour special that aired on NBC. Boyz II Men, Earth Wind and Fire, and Gladys Knight performed the night I was there! It was a party!
The Prank Panel – The pranksters and stars of this show are Johnny Knoxville, Eric André, and Academy Award nominated actress, Gabourey Sidibe. I know—Sidibe seems like a weird left turn given that she is best known for playing the titular character in the movie Precious. HOWEVER, Gabourey Sidibe—unscripted—is very funny! I suspect she would get along swimmingly with Kelly Clarkson.
Lopez vs. Lopez – I was surprised by the warmth I felt coming from the cast and crew on this set; it was noticeably different from other tapings. Lopez is a new sitcom on NBC, so perhaps what I felt was the passion behind the production- I don’t know.// George Lopez previously had a successful sitcom that ran for six seasons on ABC. The NBC show also stars his daughter (the second Lopez) and he spoke to the audience with pride about the production and the fact that the top people in charge there are all women.//After the taping, George Lopez gave me a fist bump as I walked by him. If you’re wondering whether I ever washed that hand again the answer is………YES! Many, many times! Are you crazy?! We just got out of a pandemic!
Extended Family – This new sitcom, coming to NBC in 2023-24, had the working title We Thought We Were Done when I was in the audience. Just before I posted this blog, I learned that NBC changed the name of the show to Extended Family. If you are a fan of Jon Cryer from Two and a Half Men, then this show is for you because it’s chock full of Jon Cryer doing hilarious Jon Cryer things.
America’s Got Talent – I was mighty pleased when I saw my ticket was for a seat in Row F of the Orchestra section. Using math skills, I quickly calculated that I would be sitting in the sixth row from the stage. However, when I walked into the theater, I found that rows A through D did not exist! The show had removed those seats and placed camera equipment and the judges’ table there instead. That meant that I was actually sitting in the second row just behind Sofia Vergara and her coworkers! // I still think of Simon Cowell as being the disagreeable judge on the original American Idol from whence Kelly Clarkson came. (I don’t know why she keeps coming up, either.) Back then, Cowell was known for using his scathing British wit to tear down contestants he didn’t like who were basically adolescents. He appears to be a different man now. Cowell seemed more empathetic, more patient, and overall kinder than he was on Idol. Perhaps the effects of fatherhood…
Raising Damon – This was a pilot taping for CBS/Paramount meaning there was no actual series yet. A pilot is like a test show; if the network likes it, they’ll order more episodes and use the pilot as the first episode of the series. If not, no one but the network executives and the studio audience will ever see the show. The new sitcoms (Frasier, Extended Family, and Lopez vs. Lopez) showed us the pilots for those shows before taping so that we had context for what we were about to see.// Raising Damon is a sitcom starring the hilarious Damon Wayans opposite his equally hilarious son, Damon Wayans, Jr. The question is…who is raising whom? [ba-dum-tss!] I grew up watching Wayans, Sr. on In Living Color, an uproarious sketch comedy show that also launched the careers of Jim Carrey, Jamie Foxx, and, weirdly, Jennifer Lopez. I’m not prone to conspiracy theories, but could it be that CBS picks this show up and airs it opposite NBC’s Lopez vs. Lopez, pitting father and son against father and daughter? Could television network executives really be that fiendish? I hope so because this show was hilarious! STAY TUNED!
Frasier– I was looking forward to this taping the most and I couldn’t believe that I actually scored a ticket. Hollywood was ABUZZ about the return of Frasier–for reals. The original Frasier went off the air in 2004 after an incredibly successful eleven year run on NBC. I became a fan of the show in syndication and now Frasier, following other trendy revivals, is coming back to Paramount+.// During my first background acting gig (teaser!), I met a guy who worked as an extra on the pilot episode of the Frasier revival. After first spoiling the plot, said extra then told me that the audience for that show had been filled with celebrities with just a few commoners scattered here and there probably for legal reasons. ABUZZ, I TELL YOU!// Kelsey Grammer came out into the audience before the taping which was a thrill. (By now you know where I was sitting.) He made a moving speech where he acknowledged the legacy of the show and its impact on popular culture, referring, I think, to the hilarious Frasier GIFs I use in text messages.// Frasier 2.0 is funny! Yes, I missed the original cast, but that was bound to happen due to the natural forces of nostalgia and not because there was anything lacking in the revival. Kelsey Grammer continues to be a master of physical comedy (something I wish there was more of on television) and superb writing complemented his talents on the show. I’m looking forward to watching the entire series!// At one point, Kelsey Grammer ate a slice of pizza on the kitchen part of the set (semi-spoiler) while a scene was being taped on another part of the set. It amused me that he chose to eat in front of the audience instead of hiding somewhere in back. This also happened around hour three so I contemplated jumping over the guard rail, running on the set, and snatching that slice from him! And, obviously, I considered putting Kelsey Grammer in touch with Laurie Metcalfe from The Conners so they could get together and have a–wait for it–pizza party. Ba-dum-tss?