After our day trip adventure to The Ellen Show in November, my friend May applied for tickets for other shows to give us an excuse to make other mini adventures.
This time is took us New York City and The Martha Stewart Show.
Although the trip itself was longer the experience at the taping was much shorter and smoother. As one would expect of Martha Stewart it was very well organized. We had confirmed tickets so had to arrive at the Chelsea Studios at 0830 for a 1000 taping. (vs the hours we had to wait for Ellen to start). It was just a short wait outside as they checked in the guests in small numbers and took them through an airport style security check. An efficient coat check and pick up of release forms lead us to a couple of small but comfortable waiting rooms. Shortly after everyone was in the rooms warm up comedian Joey Kola came in and gave the rooms the few simple rules and how to’s about the taping. We found out that Joan and Melissa Rivers would be the guests as well that there would be cooking segments, segments on allergies and contest introductions.
After the introduction, we were taken in groups into the studio, the studio itself is an amazingly detailed recreation of a New York City loft. Seating just 175 people it felt intimate even with the massive number of crew on set as well. This was a live broadcast so everything had to be seamless and the set changed quickly in commercial breaks. It amazed us how efficiently everything happened, for each change over there was a people cleaning, prepping and primping the moment the tape stopped rolling.
Joan and Melissa were as humourous as expected and were part of the cooking segments with Martha. Joan has been on the show more than any other guest so there was a comfortable comeraderie between the two ladies. After their segments, Dr Dean Mitchell discussed allegens in the home, this segment was a highlight as it featured two sets of audience gifts. Everyone in the audience recieved a Honeywell Air Purifier and new Martha Allergy-Wise Bedding pillow and pillowcases from Macy’s. The following segment featured Lori Sandler of Divvies Bakery an allergen-friendly bakery making Blueberry Cake. The audience all recieved a copy of the Divvies Bakey Cookbook plus chocolates.
At the end of the show Martha stayed and took about 10 minutes worth of Questions from the audience. It was impressive how accommodating and interactive the show was for the audience. We were allowed to take photos right up to and after the cameras rolled as well there was another Ask Joan & Melissa segment during the show that took questions from the audience and the show photographer took pictures for the show’s Facebook.
As the show wrapped and Martha finished everyone departed the studio in an orderly fashion to be met at coat check with our pillows and a gift back with the rest of the ‘goodies’ including a certificate to mail in for the air purifier (thankfully we wouldn’t have to fly home with that in our luggage). It was quite an amusing sight to see a hundred plus people walking down 26th Street with pillows under their arms.
In the same amount of time we had to wait for The Ellen Show to allow us into the set, we had completed our Martha Stewart Show experience. We both agree that we would totally do it again.
You should try it too if you’re heading to NYC, in addition to the confirmed tickets there’s usually a few stand-by tickets available on the day of taping.
We’ll see what show we can get on to next and keep you posted on our next TV taping adventure!
