I'm torn about this review. Most of the staff deserves 5 stars. The taping was great, Craig Ferguson was funny, everything was pretty enjoyable. Some serious issues though, as a studio audience member (a ticker-holder, not a paid seat filler).
1. Standing outside for 30 min+ in 104-degree weather.
2. Phones must be left in car, so no distraction from that miserable wait.
3. We took Uber and were then informed we needed to return our phones to our car because they wouldn't hold them for us. So, DON'T BRING YOUR PHONE IF YOU'RE TAKING UBER, oh wait..................how are you going to order Uber with no phone? Wtf. (Ended up smuggling them in because there was no alternative besides calling back the Uber to take us back to the hotel, but don't count on being able to do that as you have to go through metal detectors/wands. And of course we were respectful of their no recording policy.)
4. There was no water for those standing out in the 104-degree weather because one of their untrained employees broke the water cooler by putting the tank on wrong.
5. During the taping there was a bathroom break after the first show, and we were told there would be breaks after each show. But after the second, they didn't allow us to leave our seats.
6. After the third show we finally rushed to the bathroom and were informed we were not permitted to use them.
7. The woman "guarding" the bathroom hallway was extremely snotty about it and wouldn't say why we couldn't use it, she said talk to (some acronym), I asked who that is and she sighed heavily, looked at me like I was an idiot, and said "the people who gave you the tickets." Oh really? We went through Tvtix.com and there's no obvious mention of that group on the printouts, so...unprofessional, obnoxiously rude, AND doesn't know her job very well.
8. Anyway, we later found out the bathrooms were blocked off so talent could use them if they wanted. They don't have restrooms for the talent?
9. They wouldn't even permit us to use the several porta-potties about 50 feet away from the entrance. They directed us to "some Thai places and other restaurants a few blocks down the road." Uh, thanks?
10. If they had simply warned us about the bathroom situation or allowed the second break it would have been unfortunate but I wouldn't have been annoyed enough to write about it. We were misled that we would have breaks to get up and take care of things every 40 minutes or so. Instead it was 2+ hours (plus however long it takes you to exit and get to public bathroom while in the middle of nowhere). I should mention that one of my companions was older and disabled, and we totally lucked out that he didn't have his usual issues that day...would have been a serious nightmare for us and humiliating for him since we had no extra clothes, transportation, or phone.
Anyway though, like I said, most of the staff was wonderful and friendly. The studio experience was a lot of fun, it was our first taping, and I'd recommend others go to one to see behind the scenes and how things are run. But I guess all it takes is one charm school dropout, one person who doesn't know how to change a water cooler, one thoughtless policy, and not telling people you won't let them use your bathrooms for the rest of their time there to really ruin an experience. (We talked to a Paramount studio audience handler the next day, and they were pretty appalled by the treatment.)
**Note: I'm not sure they care, but I'm happy to change my rating if one of their representatives can confirm they've fixed these problems.** read more