This winter break, I was fortunate enough to attend a taping of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in New York City! On Thursday, January 8, I sat in the front row of Studio 6B in 30 Rockefeller Plaza with my friend, my brother, and his friend. Seeing the show filmed in person had been a dream of mine for quite some time, so I was beyond excited to have the opportunity to go. Here’s how it happened:
First, I had to reserve tickets. They’re actually free, but very difficult to get. I was already going to be in New York for a week in the beginning of January for a media studies J-term class, so I figured I might as well give it a shot. Tickets get released online early each month for the next month’s shows. The Tonight Show’s Twitter account, @FallonTonight, tweets out the day and time that tickets for the next month will be available about a week in advance. Reserving tickets is a lot like buying concert tickets. You start by going to the URL provided by the show’s website, where you get put into a virtual queue. Then, you stay on the page without refreshing, and if you’re lucky, you will be directed to a new page where you choose the date you would like to see the show and how many tickets you want (up to four). If the internet gods have favor on you, they will whisk you to the final step, where you enter your personal information and receive a confirmation email. With probably thousands of people trying to get tickets at the same time, I recruited my mom to try using her computer so I would have two chances. I saw that January tickets would be available on December 5 at 11:30 AM, so at that exact minute, we both went through this process, with sessions timing out over and over again. After about 30 minutes of frustration, my mom finally got through and reserved four tickets for the January 8 taping.
Next, I had to claim my tickets. To ensure that every seat in the audience is filled, the show overbooks, meaning that more people are able to reserve tickets online than will actually get to attend. The taping began at 5 PM, so all four of us had to arrive at the NBC Experience Store (the gift shop) in 30 Rock between 2:30 and 3:40 PM, as instructed by our reservation email, to claim our tickets. With the email in hand, we arrived around 3 PM and were given front row seats! After waiting in a few lines, we were in the first group taken into the studio.
I had a huge grin on my face for the entire hour or so that I was in my seat. I couldn’t help it! I had dreamed of seeing Jimmy in person for years and it was actually happening. The four of us sat on the left side of the audience right behind the producers. Jimmy, his band The Roots, and guests Lena Dunham and J.K. Simmons were all great. We even got a special appearance from unofficial show mascot Hashtag the panda! Speaking of which, the show’s Hashtags segment happens every Thursday, where Jimmy sends out a hashtag on Twitter and reads out funny tweets that incorporate it. That week’s was #AwkwardDate, which drew some pretty great tweets. Jimmy, his announcer Steve Higgins, Lena, and J.K. all played a game of Pictionary, which was probably the highlight of the show for me. I love how competitive Jimmy gets during games. That show also had musical guests, rapper Ghostface Killah with The Revelations featuring Kandace Springs, but they actually filmed their performance earlier in the day. Jimmy filmed his introduction and thanks while we clapped a lot, but we didn’t really see them perform. TV magic! While the credits rolled, Jimmy ran around the audience and gave high fives to everyone in the aisles, which was really fun. Finally, as one of the crew members was leaving the studio, he handed drummer Questlove’s drum sticks from the show to my friend, so we each took one home as a souvenir! All in all, I had an absolutely amazing time at The Tonight Show and can’t wait to try to get tickets again. Maybe I’ll even be working at the show one day!