The Shop at NBC Studios — Local services in New York

This is a review of the experience of trying to get into tv show tapings:

*Saturday Night Live: On the thursday before the show you want to attend (2 days before) you need to go online to the standby website at exactly 10am and register for a spot. You can register for up to 6 people I think, I recommend you pre-filling all the info using google chrome because spots fill up literally within seconds. You need to click exactly at 10am. There are 300 tickets for both the dress rehearsal and the actual live show.

Later that day (thursday) you'll get an email with a confirmation of your # in line (if you got through). Then on Friday you'll need to show up by 7pm to wait there for 5 hours until midnight (you'll wait in order based on the email # you got). Based on how many people actually showed up, they'll give you a new number which will be lower than the email # you received.

There are only 300 spots in the studio, if you receive a number higher than 200 (Thursday by email) it's usually not worth it to go. You can ofc line up behind everyone who got an email Thursday if you weren't able to click fast enough to get an email #, but you will NOT get in.

During the winter while waiting in line they give you warm things like soup or hot chocolate. I recommend bringing something to read, chargers, and a portable chair! Then you come back on Saturday with your new number, and you wait in line /again/ to see how many people they are letting in that day. They don't know until day of because people who actually have tickets will fill up most of the seats. They usually let in something like 60-80 people. The people who handle this process are really nice.

Once you're inside they have security kind of like at the airport so don't bring any weapons or anything weird. After that you go up some steps, pass the peacock lounge to some elevators where you go up to the studio. The show is rather long especially for dress because they're trying a bunch of stuff that might not even make it to the real show. It's very fun to watch the process.

If you're there for a musical guest it's very possible you could get in and still not be able to see them. Only the people seated on the left can see them. Remember to bring your ID they check for this.

*the Kelly Clarkson show This one is much easier. You show up day of to stand in line - you can wait inside the building so it's not cold in the winter. The shop opens at 8am so 6am or before is a good idea depending on popularity of the guests. At 8am they let you in and you get a # in line - you can attend multiple showings in the same day BUT you cannot attend more than one day every 6 months. Remember to bring your ID they check for this.

Show up later to see how many people they're letting in that day - seems like 15-30 people get in normally. You likely won't be seated in the main area that gets to be on tv. This show is a LOT of work. Stand up, sit down, clap, smile, etc. It really felt like being at work a lot of the time. It's also much less interesting than SNL because most of it's a talk show so not much action, just a couple guests and back n...

Some great customer service followed by some abhorrent customer service. A lovely lady saw me carrying a few items and offered a bundle deal I hadn’t seen, to save me some money and helped me find the package, even took my previous items to reshelve them. Great! She also said if we spend over $100 we get a free hoodie. Exciting! Our spend was coming close. At the checkout, we were served by a rude boy who was wearing a girls name on his badge so I couldn’t get his name. No acknowledgement, no welcome, no smile from him. Felt like I was disturbing him by wanting to pay for my items. I asked what kind of hoodie it was with a $100 spend - he stared at me blankly, asked who told me that information and got extremely defensive and didn’t offer me any additional upsell. He had a bad attitude the entire checkout process, was frustrated that I wanted to clear some change instead of get change back (28c in coins, not hard to count) and I left feeling quite uncomfortable. Being a retail manager myself, and shopping in a totally tourist centre, I was appalled at his attitude. He could take some training from the ladies...

While sat outside the Rockefeller Center, we were approached by a man offering stand-by tickets for Late Night with Seth Meyers. He was frank with us, saying that we might not be able to get in if there weren't enough no shows; however, he said that we had a 'very good' chance, as we were within the first 10 people of the day (5 and 6 respectively). We were told to come back at 2pm, which we did and were told to wait for people to be admitted. We waited and waited, all ticket holders were admitted and then two people were added to the front of the line with no explanation. We waited for over an hour with nowhere to sit, to be told that the first 7 would be admitted. This should have included us, as we had tickets 5 and 6; however, they counted these new people they had put at the front without explanation and would only allow one of us in, which we declined. I fully understand that admission is not gaurenteed, but it was incredibly frustrating to have no reason provided for us not being allowed in when we were within the...