TV is a brilliant thing and the industry is big and booming. As a fan, there are plenty of ways to enjoy your favorite shows even from the live studio audience. Better yet, TV shows with live audiences don’t ask for a single penny in exchange for your warm energy, laughter, and possibly an audio taping of the whole audience enjoying the show.
Visiting a TV show set is like a two in one vacation spectacular. First, you get to see the behind the scenes, the cast and crew at work, and all for free, but you also get to see the show before anybody back home sees it. Frankly, that’s pretty cool. So why wouldn’t you visit a TV show set when you’re on vacation?
Most people, honestly, don’t know where to find them. The big two cities for TV show tapings are Los Angeles (big shocker) and New York City. Who knew, right? But there are a few scattered around the country such as Family Feud in Atlanta, Georgia, and others. And not all of the L.A. studios are right in the same area. The city is surprisingly big and wide spread with many of the studios located in Hollywood, Studio City, Burbank, and even a few further out in Manhattan Beach and Santa Monica. New York is kind of the same way, to an extent. So with the lower foot traffic and confusing geography, many travelers come and go without ever knowing what they were missing. Don’t be them!
There are a few sites online that can help you out with getting tickets, because there are a number of rules and stipulations with getting them. We, of course, can also get them for you so you don’t have to hassle with it yourself.
In Los Angeles:
- America’s Got Talent
- Dancing with the Stars
- The Price is Right
- Tosh.O
- Hell’s Kitchen
- Dr. Phil
- The Big Bang Theory
- America’s Funniest Home Videos
- Whose Line is it Anyway?
- Wheel of Fortune
- Jeopardy
In New York City:
- Saturday Night Live
- Live with Regis and Kelly
- Rachael Ray
- Martha Stewart
- Good Morning America
- Beat Bobby Flay
- The Chew
- Late Night with Seth Myers
- The Maury Show
- Meredith Vieira Show
- People’s Court
Tips on getting tickets:
- You have to have a printed ticket to enter the studio. You can’t show up with it on your phone.
- If you are at a hotel and don’t have access to a printer, call and have the tickets faxed to the hotel. Most hotels in L.A. and New York are very familiar with the procedure and can help you out getting tickets.
- Tickets run out quickly. The best way is to monitor sites that release TV show tickets - make sure they are reputable. TV shows only schedule taping about a month beforehand and tickets are released sometimes only a few hours before the actual taping. In Los Angeles, studios often hand out last minute tickets in front of the Chinese Theatre in the mid-morning the day of the taping as well as outside the studios. Sometimes, if you show up early enough the studios will be able to fit you into the audience. Generally though, you can get tickets several weeks before the showing just by going online.
- It’s kind of hit and miss, most of the time. There’s no one direct way of being sure to get tickets since they’re free and first come first serve. Just be patient and don’t take it to heart if you don’t get tickets the first day.
