Field Notes: The Media School Travel Blog

It took me about halfway into the semester to realize that tapings for shows in L.A. are free and tickets are easy to get. I was so busy in the first half of the semester that I never even considered it.

We went to The Warner Brothers Studio Tour with the entire program, and there, my tour guide mentioned the website 1iota. 1iota is a website that distributes tickets for different tapings, movies and premieres. 

From there, I started checking it every day. At first, I was requesting two tickets for each taping, but I wasn’t having any luck. I decided to try out requesting a ticket for just myself, and sure enough, I started getting selected for tickets all the time. Luckily, when I realized this, I was able to be a little more selective on what shows I wanted to go to.

I ended up going to “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and “The Late Late Show with James Corden.” One of my roommates got her own ticket to “Jimmy Kimmel” for the same day, so we went together.

When we first arrived, we had to stand in line for a long time while they checked our tickets, vaccination cards and IDs. Then, we were led to security and up to the stage. That day, Viola Davis and Henry Winkler appeared. It was interesting to see how the “Jimmy Kimmel” staff coached the audience to laugh at all the jokes and to cheer as loudly as possible. 

My roommate and I enjoyed watching the crew move the cameras around, clean the floor between each segment and touch up makeup for Jimmy and the guests. However, we did notice that the majority of the crew using the equipment were men, and we both smiled at each other knowing that someday very soon that would probably change as more women break into the industry.

I went to “The Late Late Show” by myself. The tapings were similar in the fact that they coached the audience and had strict cell phone rules. One cool thing about “The Late Late Show” was they had a live music performance by Upsahl. Not every show has a music performance, so the staff made sure to let the audience know we were lucky.

I am a big fan of the TV show “The Great” on Hulu, so I was thrilled that Elle Fanning was a guest. Anthony Ramos was also there, which was exciting because I’m a huge fan of his as well. 

I enjoyed watching the crew on this show as well. It was interesting to see how they operated compared to the crew on “Jimmy Kimmel.” It was like a behind-the-scenes look at multi-camera productions. 

Overall, I learned a lot and had a blast seeing some of my favorite celebs in person!