and late night shows are filmed. There is nothing like the feeling of sitting in an audience, cheering for your favorite celebrities and watching a show unfold before your eyes. But how does one get tickets to see a free taping? Here's the how-to-guide to get tickets to tapings of shows in New York and some tips for the day of the taping.
To begin here is the low-down on some major shows that are taped in NYC: Live With Regis And Kelly, The View, The Martha Stewart Show, The Tony Danza Show, The Maury Show, Late Night With Conan O'Brien, The Late Show With David Letterman, The Daily Show With Jon Stewart and Saturday Night Live.
Before sending in any requests, it's important to learn the process. Most TV shows accept request either via online or postcard. Some shows, like The Martha Stewart Show, display online exactly what week they are accepting ticket requests for and whether the audience is full. With other shows, like Late Night With Conan O'Brien, you have to call to request tickets.
The Late Show with David Letterman has an unusual process, which involves an online ticket request followed by a phone call from the show where you have to answer a trivia question about the show. If you get the question right, you are granted two tickets. This explains why The Late Show is probably the hardest ticket in-town to get.
Saturday Night Live also has an atypical process. Viewers can only request tickets via e-mail to snltickets@nbc.com in the month of August. All entries are places in a lottery system and the winners get two tickets to a random show date.
For many of the shows, there's a substantial wait to get the tickets. For example, Live With Regis And Kelly has a twelve-month wait and The View has a nine-month wait. Only four tickets can be requested at one time for almost every show. By visiting the show's Web site, all the details on how to request tickets are provided.
You will not hear from the show on the status of your request until about three weeks prior to the taping of the show. The tickets will tell you exactly what day to show up and all the other important details like what time to show up to the studio. Normally, the show requests you to show up for the taping an hour to an hour and a half early. It's important to look your best. Don't get too dressed up, but also don't show up in a sweatshirt and a pair of jeans. Bright colors look best on camera, so avoid wearing white. Also, many shows don't permit cameras, but some will let you take pictures during commercial breaks. Again, all exact details and audience rules will be mailed to you with the tickets.
Don't want to wait for the tickets? Luckily there is one more option. Stand-by lines are a great way to try to get into a taping. Instead of waiting months to get tickets, only precious hours are needed. Each show has a different policy for stand-by tickets. Generally speaking, most involve waiting outside the entrance a couple of hours before the show. In some cases where the show is taped at night, you might have to wait to get a standby ticket in the morning and then come back in the evening for the show. In extreme cases, like for Saturday Night Live, many people sleep out the night before on the street to ensure a good stand-by ticket number. It is important to get there as early as possible. The earlier you are, the lower your stand-by ticket number will be.
Stand-by tickets don't guarantee that you will get in the taping. The show will fill the audience with people who have real tickets and then people in the stand-by line will fill whatever seats are left. Sometimes it can be 12 people and other times 30. It all depends on the day. One cool thing is that when you get a stand-by ticket for SNL, you have a choice of rehearsal or live taping. Go for the rehearsal stand-by ticket because there is a greater chance that you will get in and the rehearsal is longer than the actual show because they test the sketches out for audience response.
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