I made a trip to NYC recently after scoring tickets to the Tonight Show. I've always been a fan of the show since the days of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. It's been my favorite late night talk show for some time so I was super excited that I got tickets.
Getting tickets is tough as they sell out in seconds. I logged in at the exact time they announced they were available and went straight for the "last show of the year" and grabbed my 4 free tickets! (That is in quotes for a reason which we will get into later.)
A month later we made the trek to Rockefeller Center to catch the show... ...here's 4 reasons it sucked.
4. ITS A LOT OF EFFORT TO WATCH A FREE SHOW.
When you expect to catch a live tapping of a t.v. show, you don't expect that you have to get there 5 hours ahead of time but that's exactly what has to happen. The Tonight Show over sells their show tickets on purpose so the audience is guaranteed to be full. Well, since this happens, more people will arrive at Rockefeller than can get into the show- which means you might be turned away. If I'm going all the way to New York it better be for a reason....so we got there early. Once there you lurk around with EVERYONE else waiting for the line to start. Eventually they allow you to get in line upstairs. This is an hour and a half or so of just standing there...which I'd been doing for a while already. Around 2:45 they start taking your reservation ID and giving out wristbands and "tickets" .... (Again that's in quotes for a reason we will get into later.) Once you get this you're STILL not guaranteed to get in depending on your ticket type. From here it's waiting around until your callback time. It's nice to walk around Rockefeller but it's waaaaay too busy. We grabbed lunch but there's nowhere to sit, so I ate on some stairs like a homeless guy, along with an actual homeless guy. He was a nice fellow so I really can't say anything bad about that. Then it's back to get in another line. This is another hour wait just standing there. After a long time, you're slowly shuffled through metal detectors and put into elevators up to the studio. I hate to complain about free tickets but it's the better part of a day just to see the show. By the time I'm inside I'm just friggen exhausted.... Thanks "the Tonight Show"
3. BRUSSELS SPROUTS IN THE MAIL...(aka Jelly of the month club)
This one will sound ungrateful but I don't care- The week of shows leading up to Christmas include a segment called " Stocking Stuffers" where they give away AMAZING gifts to the audience. I've always watched previous years and was always jealous of the audience. Well this year I WAS THAT AUDIENCE!. I knew I was gonna get a great gift and was super excited considering my string of bad luck lately. ..the earlier shows in the week got iPad Air 2's, Xbox One...awesome gifts nobody I know could ever afford to get me!!. I totally couldn't wait to know what great prize we were getting......the time came. Jimmy opened the box on stage and we all learned what our super gift was.....
"Food in the mail!!!" .............................wait, what?
Yeah, a gift voucher to "Blue Apron" for a very limited number of meals sent to you in the mail with recipes on how to cook them........................................wait..................................... whaaaaat?
Yeah, I'm gonna get a 2 oz piece of raw fish and some damn squash in the mail and told to cook it, then I'll eat it if I can cook..."IF" I can cook.
Its free so I shouldn't really complain but COME ON!!!!. EVERY OTHER SHOW GOT RIDICULOUSLY AMAZING GIFTS!. and its the last show taping of the year!.. we already got screwed thanks to editing and now this. It felt like being at the office party at Facebook HQ, doing the holiday grab and getting a mug that reads "Facebook", while everyone else gets laptops and Play Stations and LED Tvs. I'm gonna get some dumb Kale, a gay onion I don't eat anyway, stupid paprika and a piece of raw beef and have no clue what to do with it. And to top that off, you give them your credit card, so once you run out of the few meals you're sent, (its no where near a free months worth of meals) you have to go through the hassle of CANCELLING it or they'll start charging you 90 bucks for a chicken leg every few weeks like "Columbia House"..... total Griswold moment........and to make matters worse. Its just a "code" you can't sell it. I think if I could at least sell it I might not be concerned, but I cant. Im stuck getting onions mailed to me....thanks "the Tonight Show"
2. THE MAGIC OF TELEVISION.
So, when tickets were released I got "the last show of the year" because let's face it....its he best show to go to. Well, when we got there we soon found out it WASN'T the last show. It was the last TAPED show but they secretly taped two shows earlier that week to air the following week. So their big gift giveaway and the best guests and the biggest holiday send off ALREADY HAPPENED. Yes I was at the last taping of the year but it was a mediocre show that nobody acknowledged was the last of the year. Jimmy had to act like he'd be back next week. At the end he just sorta left (after filming an extra bit for next week they forgot to record). There was no big send off, no big going away event for the holiday...it ended exactly like any other show, even though it was the last show. The folks who got into the hidden show earlier in the week GOT the big send off and amazing gifts and spectacular guests. It's all about expectation here. When your expecting to go to the last show of the year...remember.. this is Hollywood, this is television, the audience doesn't really matter. They will work magic in the editing room.....last show? ..Im afraid not.....thanks "the Tonight Show"
1. THE PITFALLS OF BEING IRRELEVANT
Here's somethings which sort of turned me off of to the Tonight Show all together. First off you're given a ticket earlier in the day. Tickets are given out according to age and attractiveness. Young and good looking? ....you get a letter on the back of your ticket, get in early and get to sit in the front. If you're older, like me, you get a number, and may or may not get in depending on the amount of youngins that fill up the room. It's not expressly told but it's quite obvious this is the case and sort of insulting. I'm too old to have decent seats?. I was in the very last row! We were in the front of the line to "get" tickets but when it came down to it, we werent "young enough" to be guaranteed a seat. Almost everyone in front of us got letters. We may have been the 1st or 2nd to get "numbers" for the old folk and we were given #15!!!! that means the page is assuming 14 other groups will be older than the young group but younger than us, and we JUST made it in. I felt sooooo far from anything all because some hipster NBC page, earlier in the day, prioritized me based in my age. I'm not that old, but its old enough. I can only describe it as how other races or sexes are treated. Being a white male, I don't know discrimination..well now I do, and my petty experience sucked enough to make me feel very upset for any other person ever discriminated against.
Secondly was just the fact that "we are the audience". When you watch the show at home, Jimmy and everyone else are talking you, they're looking into the camera, talking directly to you. If you're in the studio audience you just feel ignored. Jimmy isnt talking to you, hes doing a show for the people "watching at home" and you just watch him do that. We were there for only one reason: "to supply laughs and applause for audio purposes".(and to be honest I knew what parts got good laughs and applause, watching the episode later that night it was evident they still added canned cheers and laughs) I didn't feel like part of the show whatsoever. Jimmy rarely talked to us ( he did once to explain the "gift" because nobody had any idea what it was... who would?) and was always talking to "only" the cameras or having makeup reapplied during breaks. I felt like we were extras in a film shoot and told "dont look at the movie star, dont talk to them, just sit there and act like youre not doing anything". I was utterly disappointed in the entire experience. I dont really have high expectations normally but mine were very high for this seeing as I was a huge fan of the show and never been to a live taping of anything. I was sooo excited, but I went through all this effort for this? I spent a ton of money on travel and hotels just to "work" for NBC, be insulted based on my age, get screwed in the office Christmas grab and feel ignored by someone I've looked up to? ...Ive heard others talk about "The Colbert Report" and Stephen Colbert actually warms up his own audience and makes them feel quite involved... the Tonight Show does not do this at all....Thanks "the Tonight Show"
I hate to sound ungrateful or appreciative but my expectations FAR surpassed the actual experience...from the "jelly of the month club" gift to being discriminated against because I'm old ( I'm younger than Jimmy) to just being an after thought, in a way, by television. It wasn't the experience I was hoping for AT ALL.
Would I recommend going? ...Sure. You might enjoy it and you may have a different experience..plus Jimmy has soft hands.
Would I go again? Probably not... I don't even want to watch the Tonight show anymore to be honest. It's left a sour taste in my mouth. I can only compare it to Dorothy peeking behind the curtain in the Wizard of Oz, or the moment you found out Santa isn't real, or when you found out Cliff Huxtable allegedly raped a shitload of women.