So I got to be in the audience for the first episode of Anderson Cooper’s new daytime talk show last Friday. [It aired today even though it was filmed last Friday afternoon.] And I thought it might be somewhat interesting to list some observations about the experience for anyone who hasn’t had the (dis)pleasure of being held hostage for five hours to film an hour long show that’s not live.
5. There are no ugly people on American TV: If anyone has ever spent some time watching the BBC, the thing that strikes you is how foreign television doesn’t INSIST on having great looking people do everything. They at least make some effort to show men with no hair or spare tires and women without Roman chiseled cheekbones.
So sitting in the audience for The Anderson Cooper Show I saw a much different show than the people at home did. For one thing I noticed all of the people the camera panned to in the audience were extremely good looking, while most of the people that are (“ewww”) old or heavy set or bald or (probably my cardinal sin) poorly dressed were shown from long distance angles that might as well have been filmed from a satellite. Even the people that Anderson asked a question to were good looking. [He took about five questions from the audience but only the two purposed by the best looking people were aired. The best question was asked by an overweight woman and her morbidly obese daughter and it was nowhere to be found in the final show.]
4. Gay men love train wreck women: So this isn’t so much a lesson in TV as it was just picked up by me having to wait around there for 5 hours. Gay men looooooove Amy Winehouse (and don’t exactly hate Anderson himself) and I’m pretty sure I was the only straight man in the audience which–in fairness–was about 70 percent women to begin with. Their love for Amy goes along with my long standing theory (picked up by having gay friends that love all tragic, screwed up women from Courtney Love to Lady Gaga to anyone who has ever been on reality TV) that gay men can’t help themselves in loving women with problems.
3. Amy Winehouse’s Dad talks…a lot: He dominated the conversation when the show was filmed but TV audiences could only see a little bit of that on their home screens. He talked more than anyone else on the aired episode but what viewers don’t know is exactly how much of what he said was cut out. While ALL of the other people on the day’s show (Amy’s mother, stepmother, and boyfriend) had nearly 100 percent of their words make the final cut, her dad had a good third of what he said cut out just because he tended to go very, very long. While sitting in the audience it was almost as if he pushed Anderson around and the big Coop wasn’t entirely in charge of his own show against Mitch Winehouse, but none of that was apparent on screen.
2. You will feel like a clapping seal: All of that applause you hear while watching shows as disparate as Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (which I have been in the audience for) to The Daily Show (which I will be soon) is faker than John Boehner’s tan. Sure, we might want to clap out of politeness but the big thing is that a producer comes out and relentlessly encourages you to keep clapping, keep standing while clapping, sit down while clapping, clap louder, louder damnit! After the four hours the show takes to film, you feel a little clapped out. In fact, you’re ready to shoot someone a bird.
1. Anderson is a nice guy but bring a snack when you go to his show, TV ALWAYS runs long: What looks like an hour long show on your TV and is advertised as a “two hour” long show to film actually runs about 5 hours. Anderson really does seem like a genuinely nice guy but no one is nice enough to sit, clap, and grin like a fool for hours on end on an empty stomach.
Still, the Time Warner building the show films at is nice and it’s a really nice experience to go to a filming. Unlike, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire which is a dank cave of a set that actually makes you angry (they refuse to let you use the bathroom) as it keeps going. And the only reason you’re in the audience is to try out to be on the show, first taking a written test, which I have passed three times but have still never been on the show. Oh, but we were talking about Anderson, uhhh, pretty good start to a daytime talk show but I doubt I’ll change my habit of shunning the shallow wasteland that is daytime TV. In fact, it felt a bit weird to be celebrating Amy Winehouse–the 500th poor role model for young women in the last decade–two days before September 11th’s anniversary AND in the very security tense Time Warner Building which was a probable target for a repeat attack.
This is the only website, that I actually ready the whole post. I didn’t know Anderson Cooper had a show until a little bird told me on Friday. Reading this is very eye opening for someone who has never been on a live taping of show. I like observation #5 best.
I am sharing on Twitter… oh yes, and facebook.
I had a different experance. I was at the taping of the Kathy Griffin show, which airs tomorrow. It was taped last Thursday afternoon. Arrival time was 12.15pm and after going thru checks and security we and a short time of waiting outside the studio we were in the studio by 1.15pm.
The stage manager came out, read out a few tweets from people that had been line waiting downstairs, pics were take for the website, then Anderson came out and explained the show format and took a few questions from people. He left the stage and the taping started at 1.35PM and we were out of there by 3pm, once we collected our freebies.
Oh Alamaba Liberal guess whose going hollywood. Looking foward to seeing you in front of the camera soon i hope. You should be on the daily show, bill maher, so something similar. You have a voice that make people pay attention.