Hi friends, welcome back! As you may know, quite a few talk shows film in NYC and I finally got my hand on a ticket to see Kelly and Mark (formerly Regis & Kelly, Kelly & Michael, and Kelly & Ryan). I was quite excited to attend the show because it’s a bit nostalgic for me. I’m a 90s kid and grew up before Netflix and DVR, so during the summer when my family spent time at our cottage, we would all watch Regis & Kelly while having breakfast. I also went to a taping with Jon’s mom and sister back in 2009 on a trip to NYC. We didn’t get seats for the live show and couldn’t take pictures, but we got to see a taping with Wilmer Valderrama so it was pretty neat. As you can see, lots of good memories related to the show. (This pic is from when we got into GMA that trip, before the iPhone days)
I wanted to see a show with Kelly and Ryan Seacrest, but they didn’t have a studio audience until about a week or so before he left the show. Now that Kelly’s husband Mark is the cohost the studio audience is back in full swing. Tickets to the show are free and through 1iota.com. This is the same website I used to get tickets to the Rockefeller tree lighting and it seems most shows are on there. I added myself to the waitlist for a few slots and got tickets for a 10am Tuesday taping. I didn’t mind not being at a live show because I preferred my 9:15am check in to 7:00am. The studio is easy to get to at 67th and Columbus Ave on the Upper West Side. I went by myself and befriended Susan and CJ, the friendly ladies ahead of me, so the half hour wait outside flew by. We went through security and waited in the hallway for the live episode to finish. Here we all are very excited!
My one complaint is that the audience from the first show got to stay, so we didn’t get great seats. A pole was in my way, but I was still excited to be there. We all got settled and then the author Judy Blume was the first guest to tape. She was promoting the new movie of her book Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. The interview aired on the following days show.
After her interview, quite a few people left so we got to move to slightly better seats. No pole was in my way this time. The crew changed the stage to be the desk in the intro and they started filming Friday’s episode. The trivia caller didn’t get a mug, but she won a $7,000 trip to Panama.
The first guest of this episode was Yara Shahidi promoting the live action Peter Pan and Wendy where she plays Tinkerbelle. Her role has no speaking lines so she said she would often be sore because Tinkerbelle has to be so expressive with body movements and facial expressions. Yara is most known for her role of Zoey on the show Black-ish and Grown-ish.
The second guest was Emilio Estevez promoting his new movie The Way starring with his dad. It’s a rerelease about the “El Camino de Santiago” in Spain. They also discussed how it was the 40th anniversary of The Outsiders.
Once the show ended, Kelly and Mark did about fifteen minutes of promos for upcoming episodes and local stations. After that it was a wrap for the day!
I enjoyed my experience at Kelly and Mark and I’d definitely go back for more tapings. It’s interesting to see the behind the scenes and all the work and people that goes into each episode. I may not have made my big break, but I had a great time 🙂
Interesting! I once worked with a guy whose brother had something to do with chart show Top of the Pops (now defunct). He got me and another colleague tickets to appear in the “dancing” audience. Easily the most interesting bit was understanding how the “live” show was made.
That sounds fun. It is interesting to see how they do things “live”. A producer had a big white board she would write questions/talking points on to make sure they stayed on track.
Absolutely
That sounds fun!
It was a lot of fun, I’m glad I went!
Looks like a fun time Lyssy. My wife has watched the show since Regis and Cathy Lee times, but I have never been a big fan. We watched the episodes you were at during our Sunday morning exercise routine. Even though I am not a fan, I could see that Kelly and Ryan had a chemistry. When Ryan left, I think the production team made a lot of concessions to keep their gold mine running, like the prerecorded Friday shows, other prerecorded shows which are basically intros with previous segments inserted. I wonder how long this iteration will continue. Glad you managed to snag some better seats. Allan
The show really has been around a long time. You probably saw my shoulders, that was the only screen time I got. I also liked Ryan because he always talked about food. It almost makes me want to watch American Idol so I can see Ryan again. I am not a fan of the pre-recored episodes, I usually skip those unless there’s a guest I want to see. I saw online people are complaining about the prerecording, maybe they’ll change that.
Awww, those were your shoulders. 😁 Ryan really rescued the show after Michael left. Regis was still the master. I kind of think Kelly would like to hand it all off and that the Mark and prerecorded episodes were the studios way of keeping it going, for now. I know, unlike Ryan, I am not enough in touch with me feminine side to appreciate all the fluff talk the hosts engage in. Maybe, they need the master of the show about nothing, Jerry Seinfeld to come on from time to time. Cheers. Allan
It’s hard to top Regis, he was the best! Ryan seems like one of the hardest working people on the planet, he’s got so many projects. It is a fluffy show, I like to have it on in the background. That’s funny, my dad has three daughters so he go tin touch with his feminine side fast 🙂 Haha they should have Jerry and Elaine do the interviews, that would be entertaining, maybe Kramer can be the special correspondent.
Growing up in Los Angeles it was all about the game shows, but I was too young to ever make it to an audience. It looks like they have “cheerleaders” in front of the seats to prompt the reactions they want? I also got a kick out of the homey-looking wall behind Kelly & Mark, especially the framed photos. Looks like the show won an Emmy if I got my trophies right – though probably not the version with Mark. The award is positioned just above Kelly & Mark so it’s always in view 🙂
I always wanted to be on the Price is Right. Yes the cheerleader is the producer of the show. I like when it’s all decorated for holidays, it’s too bad the views aren’t real. They won a daytime Emmy I believe 🙂
Such a great experience but too bad that the people from the 7.00 a.m. show were permitted to stay behind taking the best seats. Glad you managed to move to a better one without a pole later on. II’ve not heard of any of these people apart from Judy Blume but it must have been fun to attend.
I’m glad I got to go, it was a neat experience! Emilio Estevez is Martin Sheen’s son and was in a lot of 80s movies like The Breakfast Club and St. Elmo’s fire.
What a great experience, Lyssy! Getting a peek behind the scenes of a TV show would be so fun, and I’m sure Mark and Kelly are funny and a little bit crazy. I wouldn’t want their jobs, but getting to see them in action would be something I would never forget. Cool post!
It was neat to see all the behind the scenes! Kelly was very chatty with the crowd during commercials. I agree, I prefer to watch from the audience or my couch 🙂 Maybe when you visit you can snag some tickets!
So awesome that you got to be in the audience. Glad you were able to take photos too. I would watch Regis & Kelly if I was ever home sick from school, or sometimes in the summer. Even now, I’ll record an episode if there’s going to be someone on the show I want to see.
I’m surprised they were so lax about phones. Kids these days have it so easy when they’re home from school, they have any show at their fingertips haha.
Oh, how fun! And it looks like you had decent seats. What was your favorite part?
Sounds like a fun experience to see the show from a different perspective of being part of the live audience. I took my mom to the Marilyn Denis Show here in Toronto many many years ago and it was a lot of fun. Everyone in the audience got a free pair of running shoes, which was a nice surprise.
This is so cool! I felt like I was there at the taping reading your experience from it. I always wondered what it would be like going to one of these shows. Kelly and Mark seem really sweet!
I love the behind the scenes, it looks like fun! I have only heard of Kelly Ripa because when I was growing up I watched ABC here in the UK every Sunday and there was a show called Hope and Faith. I think it had Megan Fox on it too as the daughter…and I had to google it because that Mark looks like ‘the gooch’ from the show, to discover her was….I had no idea they were married in real life. Nostalgia indeed.