Photo courtesy of Disney/ABC
This past week, I got one of the best opportunities I’ve ever gotten in my life. I got an opportunity to go to New York City to be in the audience for a taping of Live with Kelly and Ryan with one of my good friends, Mariah, and have a lunch with the titular stars. You can read more about how I got this opportunity here. This blog will serve as kind of a retrospective on the whole experience from my point of view. From the plane rides, to the limo rides, to the actual show itself, it was an experience that I would take again if offered.
This is part two of my retrospective of NYC. Part three, covering the rest of Wednesday after the luncheon, will come out soon.
Wednesday
Pre-Pre-Show
Live with Kelly and Ryan tapes every weekday morning at 9am EST. Normally, this means that if you want a shot at getting tickets to the show, you have to get up super-early and get down to the ABC studios on Columbus Avenue early enough to have a chance.
However, on this Wednesday, we were not normal people. Save for getting up at 5:30am, this morning’s taping was THE event of our trip to NYC. So, getting up at the butt crack of dawn was a necessity to get to our meeting place on time.
However, both Mariah and I ran into one snag getting ready to go: The hotel shower. Now, reader, I’ve been in many a hotel shower in my life. There have been easy showers to use, and hard ones to use. This one, though, was probably the hardest one to figure out. In this case, both of us could not figure out how to turn on the shower head. So, we turned to using a handle-like object to wash ourselves during our respective showers. Probably due to my experience level using these things, I managed to flood our bathroom a little bit. Kudos to the housekeeping staff, though: they got it cleaned up by the time we got back.
We got finished getting ready at 7:30 and headed to the meetup spot for the contest winners in the hotel lobby. At this point, we met the contest winners from Portland, Oregon, two lovely ladies who were super-nice to talk to. At around 7:45, our Disney contact, Al, showed up, welcomed us, and proceeded to check us in to walk down to the studio. Mariah and I walked past the studio on our way to Big Nick’s the previous night, so we had a general idea of where we were going.
After a good 10-minute walk, we reached the ABC studios, which also hosts Channel 7’s studios. Remember what I said about having to get to the studio early enough to have a chance to see the show? When we got there, the line was already out the door. After some finagling with security and guest passes, our group was finally allowed to go into the studio.
Pre-Show
Our group was held backstage for a little bit before the show began. That was probably due to a dress rehearsal for the day’s musical performers, Jason Mraz and Betsy Wolfe, performing “Bad Idea” from the musical Waitress. Apparently, Mraz is somehow becoming relevant for the first time since, like, 2010, and stepping into Broadway. Interesting.
As soon as they were done, we were allowed into the studio. The studio itself, like many things on television, is a lot smaller than it appears. From our seats in the second row, we were maybe 10-12 feet away from Kelly and Ryan. We were pretty lucky to get seats where we did, giving us a clear view of the set (well, with a camera in front of our faces, too, but still).
About 20 minutes before the show began, we got our Trivia numbers. For those who have never watched the show, they have a thing called “Travel Trivia” at the end of their host chat segment at the beginning of the show. Eligible audience members get a chance to win a $500 gift package of some sort (on this day, it was Cuisinart products), and the contestant selected to be called on the show picks the number near the end of the call. It just so happened that this day’s winner was the person sitting in one of the floor seats right in front of me.
After the numbers were passed out, another part of the Travel Trivia experience had to be figured out: the Trivia Dancer. This would be the person who would be dancing on stage while the prize wheel was being spun during the Trivia segment. Four women competed for the spot on this day, and got to show off their dance moves for the audience. For the record, there was no way in hell I was gonna let my extreme whiteness show up on national TV, so I did not even attempt to try out for this. Despite breaking the “no twerking before 9” “rule”, as producer Michael Gelman joked, one lady, Natasha Williams, who just so happened to be one of the contest winners, won the crowd over and became the Trivia dancer. As soon as that was over, the show began.
The Show
After the intro on who the guests of the day were, Kelly and Ryan were introduced and made their way to the main desk. It was a bit surprising that they didn’t stop by the audience for high fives this time around, like I’ve seen them do before. Just a bit odd in that regard.
Most of the host chat revolved around Ryan wondering what to do when it rains in New York. There wasn’t a whole lot of suggestions from Kelly, but she did jokingly ask if he could pick up her kids from school one day.
After a prolonged conversation about Mark Consuelos, Kelly’s husband, and a shaving-a-naked-woman’s-legs-in-a-bathtub experience he had (no, really, that WAS a thing they talked about), they got to a story that was somehow more interesting than that. Apparently, a woman was flying on Qatar Airways with her husband, and the husband fell asleep. So, the woman decided to have some fun and unlock her husband’s phone with his fingerprint. It turns out, though, that when she unlocked the phone, she learned that the husband was cheating on her. They then caused a “ruckus” that was so big, the plane had to be diverted and make an emergency landing. The whole story was just stupidly absurd, and the entire crowd loved it.
The Trivia portion was next, and the person from Idaho they called got the contest question right and got a trip! Natasha, the trivia dancer, said she was from Atlanta, Ryan’s hometown, which started a mini-conversation between the two about the area before the phone call. After this segment of the show, and before they cut to break, it was around that time that everybody watching saw our mugs on TV:
No, our phones didn’t light up with congratulatory texts (besides, who texts me on purpose anyway?), but thanks to my dad, the screenshots were on Facebook for all to see. Thanks, dad. You da best.
Here’s the part where everybody I’ve talked to about the show got extremely jealous. The first guest on the show was none other than Marky Mark himself, Mark Wahlberg. The burger magnate himself wasn’t there to talk about food, but to help promote his new movie with Will Ferrell, Daddy’s Home 2. And also about how his daughter has started dating.
After his appearance, Guillermo Diaz from Scandal, also known as A Show I Have Never Watched, was next. His appearance was moreso teasing what was happening next on Scandal, and it wasn’t anything I really cared about. I mean, some people might care about characters named Quinn and Charlie getting married, but I certainly didn’t. Mariah, who said she hasn’t watched TV in a while, would probably agree with me on that sentiment. She also hasn’t watched Live since Regis was the co-host. I might need to loan her my old TV antenna just to see what happens.
The final guest was the aforementioned performance by Mraz and Wolfe, and they knocked it out of the park. Made me want to go see a Broadway show. We already had plans for the rest of the day, so we ended up not making the trek to Broadway. And then the show was over! One of the quickest hours of my life, over.
Or was it?
It was announced in the studio shortly after the taping that there was a surprise interview for us to watch. This was unexpected. Who could it possibly be? It was billed by the producers as “someone Ryan has never met before,” so we had no idea who it’d be. Much to our surprise, Kelly introduced the guest as none other than Carol Burnett.
THE. CAROL. BURNETT.
The crowd went absolutely wild with excitement as Ms. Burnett herself walked onto the stage. If I recall correctly, the applause went on for at least a solid minute. I mean, when else would you see a comedy legend like her in person?
Burnett’s appearance was mainly to promote a 50th anniversary special of The Carol Burnett Show, which airs on CBS in December. The interview itself will more than likely be broadcast on a Friday episode of Live before the special, so look out for that. The interview also discussed the show itself, showing clips from different famous sketches, such as Gone With The Wind.
As an aside, I mentioned that Carol Burnett was a guest to my parents a couple days ago, and insisted I find some clips from the show on YouTube to watch. They mentioned specifically Tim Conway’s elephant stories, and it was laugh-out-loud funny. No wonder the show’s getting an anniversary special.
After the interview, Kelly and Ryan cut a few promos for future episodes (including Burnett’s appearance, featuring a terrible Tarzan yell from Ryan). That concluded the taping, and we were free to go.
F e s t i v e
After the Show
Mariah and I had some time to kill, with almost two hours before we had to be back at the studio for the lunch. We hadn’t ate breakfast yet, so we stopped at a food truck to get a bite to eat. It was a nice little food truck, and it had good food, too. Mariah got herself a breakfast sandwich, while I got myself a grilled cheese sandwich. We also stopped by the Starbucks on the way to our hotel, where we got a coffee and a croissant. After chilling at the hotel for the duration of our break, we went back to the studio for our luncheon. Did I mention the lunch itself was on the Live set? That in itself was super-awesome.
THE LUNCH TO END ALL LUNCHES
Before we made our way back to the studio, we waited once again in the VIP area. At this point, we mingled with a few more winners from around the country, talking about what other shows air before Kelly and Ryan in our markets, what it’s like where we live, and all that good stuff. Mariah and I managed to make friends with the winners from Fresno during this time, a grandmother, Millie, with her 12-year-old granddaughter, Alexus.
Once we got into the studio for the lunch, we talked with a few more winners over some hors d’oeuvres. This is when we caught up with the winners from the Atlanta market, who just so happened to be Natasha, the trivia dancer from the show, and her husband, Cedric. All of us in the conversation complimented her on her dancing, and started conversing with one another while refreshments were being handed out. Natasha was a kindergarten teacher, and has an 18-month-old daughter who she showed off to all of us at the table. Believe me, it was maximum cuteness watching the videos she had of her.
As for the hors d’oeuvres, they were pretty good. And once somebody liked one of them, they requested a lot more. Hence, Millie was all over the spring rolls, Natasha the shrimp, and Mariah the mini-pizzas topped with goat cheese. As for me, I tried to keep myself from eating too much, because I KNEW I would fill myself up before the actual lunch if I did. So, I kept drinking the lemonade they provided, and talked and waited for the lunch to be served.
At around 1:30, lunch was served. There were four tables in total, each with two seats open for Kelly and Ryan to come around and visit for a little while while we ate. We sat with our new friends from Fresno and Atlanta, along with the winners from Raleigh, North Carolina. The lunch itself was a baked chicken breast with a side of quinoa and loaves of bread, not to mention an entire plate of butter. It was around 1:50 or so when Kelly and Ryan showed up to the lunch. Like it was planned, they went around to each of the tables for about 10 minutes at a time, talking with the winners about whatever they wanted to talk about. It took a little bit, but eventually Kelly and Ryan made it to our table.
Most of the conversation was with Natasha, but we all got to talk to the stars of Live. Sports was brought up, and I mentioned to Ryan about how he was having “a heck of a time” talking about baseball during the MLB postseason. He mentioned it was tough to choose between LA and New York for the World Series, but that eventually, he wanted Houston to win, because of all they’ve been through with Hurricane Harvey. I mentioned I wanted the Astros to win, and Ryan graciously said, “Well, you got what you were hoping for, then.”
During our conversations, we learned that the set of Live used to be the newsroom for Channel 7 back in the day. Kelly pointed to the wall where the guests come out, mentioning that it used to be the weather wall. I was amazed by this fact. Who knew?
After our conversations, we got our pictures taken with Kelly and Ryan, one of which you can see as the header for this post. Before they moved to another table, I mentioned that I watch the show every morning before I go to school. Kelly and Ryan asked where I go to school and for what, I said I was a journalism major at WMU. They were very appreciative of what I was going into. Kelly jokingly said, “You know, I am America’s journalist,” while Ryan chuckled and said, “She’s not actually a journalist.”
While Kelly and Ryan went off to other tables, Michael Gelman showed up to talk to us. All of us at the table were treated to a very insightful conversation about the TV business and what goes into making the show every day. Gelman has been in the business for 35 years, and he had a lot of memories and insights to share about it, including how the show gets produced, the trivia phone call segments, and whether or not he wants to go into the movie business. (Spoiler: he doesn’t.)
At around 2:45, the lunch ended, and after a standing ovation for Kelly and Ryan, we all said good-bye and made our way out. It seemed like the whole day was over, but it was only just beginning. More on that in Part Three of my New York City Retrospective.