Good Morning America – Being on Live Television
When I visit New York City it is usually on the weekend! TV shows like the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, The View, The Late Show and The Chew are taped during the week. There is Saturday Night Live, a tough ticket since you can only apply in the month of August for the following season or be a standby. I happen to be there on a Monday for a few hours so Good Morning America was available to go to as a live show! They started having an inside audience in 2016. I have been watching GMA since I was a teenager when David Hartman and Joan Lunden were the hosts!
To get into the show you must first register online for a ticket for a specific date. If you are lucky in a few days they email you back letting you know that you have been given a ticket but remember nothing is guaranteed. Be sure and bring your printed ticket with you or you can have it sent to your phone. You have to be willing to get up at 5:00 a.m. or earlier to get ready and go down to the studio at 44th and Broadway in Times Square to be in line at 6:15 a.m. They give you a wristband and you wait some more. Then you are taken upstairs for coat and bag check. You are allowed to bring a camera or cell phone. All phones must be silent and no flash on cameras. They may only be used before the show and during commercials.
There are approximately 100 seats in the studio and an assistant takes you to your seat around 7:30 am. The audience is on in the 8:00 a.m. hour only. On this day, the hosts were George Stephanopoulas, Michael Strahan, Lara Spencer, Amy Robach and Ginger Zee on weather. Robin Roberts had the day off. Comedian Tom Kelly warms up the audience to be exuberant and clap hard on camera! He is pretty funny picking out audience members to ask where they are from and what they do, with quick one-liners to their answers. It is a humorous way to get things started! If you are not there to have fun then don’t go!
Since this is live television, things move quickly. During commercials, sets are being moved around, cameras repositioned, makeup people checking the on-air personalities, all within a 2-3 minute span till the show is back on. When they had extra time, Michael and Lara were taking selfie’s with the audience. Michael continued to do this at every commercial break. We are already almost to the 8:55 a.m. ending. We are told to wait and would be lead out in groups. While waiting Michael Strahan makes it around the entire room to take selfies with everyone in the audience who wants one. He is warm and down-to-earth taking time to talk to everyone. That was impressive since everyone else was gone except the grips and camera people. They said he is always late to the morning meetings because he does this. People loved it and he was genuine in thanking people for coming. A great way to end a fun experience!
If you are going to NYC, go check it out! Here is the website for tickets – https://1iota.com/Show/379/Good-Morning-America and the official website for Good Morning America – https://www.yahoo.com/gma/
photos by Vicky Sullivan / Rock the Lens Photography
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