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 🙂
