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Yay! You're going to have a great time! If you get there about 2:30 and dress nice it's very likely you'll be in the front row. But it's only about 100 people, 5 rows of 10 on each side. There's really not a bad seat in the house.

Recap part 2

After they led the first group in and told everyone where to sit, they brought in people from the other line and filled out the rest of the seats. I think some people didn't get in because they were looking for empty seats and apparently more people were waiting outside.

The studio was really small. The area where the audience sits is about 1/3 of the entire studio. Another 1/3 is taken up by the central stage and 1/3 is left for the cameras. It was a typical set. The background looked nice but right out of camera shot the walls were all black and unfinished and overhead was the scaffolding holding all the lights.

There were 3 cameras, two on stands that they moved around and one on a boom that they used for the sweeping shots. The two cameras on stands had teleprompters which fed Julie all her lines. Those cameras also had monitors on top showing what was being broadcast. There were also a number of digital clocks that showed the time. Based on those clocks there is not much of a delay between shooting and broadcast. Maybe 1 minute or less. There were also a few wide screen monitors, one of which is the one they wheel out by Julie when she is talking to the HG's. The other one on the right from the audience perspective. There were also two monitors up high on the light scaffolding.

Once everyone was seated it was about 50 mins to go before the show. They did let people get up to be escorted to the bathroom while waiting for the show to start. I wasn't about to get up from the seat they gave me so I could come back to find someone else in it but a few people did.

Before too long a guy came out and welcomed everyone. He said a few things about how the show works and the rules and that sort of thing. Then he started talking about obscure television trivia. Really odd things like how many times was the word "sex" said on the Brady Bunch, which show was it on and who said it. Which Brady was the only boy to kiss on the show. Another odd question was about the parents in the movie Valley Girl. The stuff was so obscure I don't even remember most of it. It kind of puts you to sleep.

Then there was more waiting and he was at the side talking to some people in the audience. He was talking about various things. One interesting thing he said was about the honey comp the other day. He said it was over 100 degrees in the backyard during that comp, that it was pretty insane and that the HG's had issues after it was over. (As would most people after crawling around in honey in 100+ degree weather.) I think he said it gets up to 115 degrees out there at times.

He also told people if they have cell phones they better turn them off. I guess they did a rehearsal the day before and someones phone rang in the middle. Sounded like there was hell to pay. They said if a phone rings you are out of there.

A little bit later the stage manager came out and introduced himself. He was a pretty cool guy. I think his name was Erik. He said more stuff about the rules. One of which was no booing. He also said that the HG's don't know we are there, so we need to be quiet because the HG's are right on the other side of the wall and they didn't want them to hear us yet.

He told us about where to look during the show, which monitors we should look at, which ones we should not. He said during the show don't look at the ones up on the scaffolding otherwise you will look like a total idiot staring up on national TV. Most of the time all the monitors showed the same thing anyway. He also said not to read the teleprompter because it's "bad". I guess some people have read along in the past and mouthed the words as Julie spoke them. He said that's another way to look like an idiot. He said to try to keep your eyes on level with Julie.

One funny thing. He said the day before they wanted to find out how well you could hear applause from inside the house. So they sent alll the HG's out into the back yard and gave them pizza like they always do (his words). Then they went in the house and had the rehearsal people applaud to see what it sounded like. It was kind of fun to hear about something that production did during a lock down since we never hear anything about that. Kind of lile throwing a dog's toy out into the back yard so he'll leave you alone inside.

I asked him how far is it from the door right there to the one in the house. (I always wondered about that.) He said it was very short, that the house is right behind that wall, only a 10 foot corridor. He said last season at the finale they started to get worried when Ryan and Adam didn't come right out after Adam was announced the winner. They said it was only 10 feet and they couldn't figure out what was taking so long. Turns out they kind of broke down in there and had a hug for a bit in there and that was why it took the so long.

They had us practice some "mime" applause and practice watching his signs for applause, stop applause, etc. "Mime" applause apparently is clapping without hitting your hands so you don't make any noise.

The stage manager then came out to the stairs and showed us where Julie was going to do her opening monologue. He explained how Julie was going to turn to the left and shake a few hands. That we should all be watching her and applaud. He also told us that there would be times where they run tape and we should just watch on the monitors and enjoy the show. He asked if anyone had questions and told everyone to have fun.

There were other production people coming and going. There was probably 20 people in there besides the audience. But there isn't much room over by the cameras so there can't really be that many other people in there.

About 10 minutes before the show Julie comes out and is attended to by the hair and makeup people. The stage manager had us give Julie a round of mime applause.

(continued in part 3)