Taping Date: January 8th, 2019
Air Date: Live
Where to get tickets: https://1iota.com
On a recent trip to Hollywood, I was able to be the studio audience for The Talk. Unlike most talk shows, The Talk is aired live on the east coast. It is then shown with a delay on the west coast.
Getting Tickets
When I signed up with 1iota, the audience coordinator for The Talk, we were put on the waitlist. Several days later, I received a call to confirm our tickets for the show. The gentleman who called was very nice and friendly, and went over the rules and procedures, and then emailed me a copy of the confirmed ticket.
Parking
The day of the show, we were told to park at a parking garage about 5 blocks away from the CBS Radford lot. Once parked, we were expecting to walk to the studio, but there was a shuttle bus specifically for audience members to bring us to the studio. At the studio, we were let out at Gate 1, which is also a parking garage. If you read my article about attending a taping of Will & Grace, this is the same parking lot that we were able to park in for that taping.
Checking In
The show is filmed at CBS Radford, which is a small studio but has a lot of history. In the parking garage, we checked in, went through security, and were directed to a room to wait. This room is a special room for The Talk, inside the parking garage. The room has lots of seating, a board displaying the show’s guests, a cardboard cutout of the hosts, and a photo booth. This photo booth is free, and you can have your photos taken with a backdrop of the shows logo. This room is a nice touch for the audience to wait, as opposed to just making you stand in line. I didn’t use it but there were also bathrooms available for those waiting.
Once it was time to proceed, they called audience members in groups of 50. We were lead through the CBS Radford lot down the residential street, and lined up along the street outside the studio. This street has a number of fake house facades used for a variety of purposes, including the house used in the comedy American Housewife.
Entering the Studio
As we entered the studio, we were directed to the far end of the studio and given seats. These seats were slightly raised, and gave us a good view of the studio and the centre table where the hosts would sit. One big difference from many other shows is that cell phones are not banned from the studio here. The warm up host even gives you a specific time before the show to take as many photos as you want. They do this and then ask people not to take photos during the show. This is a very cool experience, as I’ve never known any other show to allow photos of the set.
The Live Show
As the show started, the hosts came out and the show began right away. There were several segments of talking, as you would imagine. There were also two guests – life coach Mike Bayer and actor Ken Jeong. With Mike Bayer, he was promoting a new book, and they announced that everyone would be getting a copy.
One thing that was disappointing is that the hosts did not interact much with the audience. During commercial breaks, they just sat there. The only host that interacted with the audience is Sheryl Underwood. She was funny and would speak to the hilarious warm-up comedian and some of the audience in the front. She really made the experience much more entertaining.
After the show ended, we were asked to wait, as they were filming an extra segment. First Sara Gilbert filmed a few short promo pieces to advertise the episode. Then they brought out a large glass barrel of balloons, as they would be taping a game for the next days episode. This game featured two audience members teaming up with two hosts, and the audience members seemed to either be plants or at least pre-selected. The game was sponsored by metamucil, and so it was announced that we would all be getting a free sample of Metamucil! In addition, we were getting a Walmart gift card. As the show ended and we exited, we were handed our book, Metamucil, and gift card, worth $90. An odd amount, but a very welcome surprise!
Overall, it was a fun experience. Sheryl interacting with the audience was great. The gifts at the end of the show were also a nice surprise. I was also really happy that they let us take photos of the studio. I can’t think of any other shows that allow this.
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