A live studio audience watching Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos talk with one of their guests during a television taping. (Emily Eigenbrode/CU Independent)
This piece is from the CU Independent’s opinion section. Any opinions or views do not represent the CU Independent.
There is something extremely exciting about being able to be a part of a live studio audience watching a show you have seen thousands of times on TV. The lights, the energy and the hosts make you feel like you are a part of something much bigger when you are in person. Live studio audiences have been around for a long time; they first started becoming widely used in the 1940s with shows like “I Love Lucy.”
I have been to three shows including “Live with Kelly and Mark,” “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and a comedy special at the Paramount Theatre for David Spade’s new comedy special, “David Spade: Catch Me Inside.” For “Live with Kelly and Mark” our guests were 50 Cent, Alfonso Ribeiro, Bob the Scientist and Andrea Bocelli. For “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” our guests were Robert Pattinson and Sarah Shahi. Even though I absolutely loved seeing these tapings, I have started to question whether the authenticity portrayed on TV is actually real or if it’s carefully constructed by the show’s producers behind the scenes.
One of the biggest surprises to me during the filming process was how much the audience is guided before and during the filming. Originally, I had not put too much thought into the audience in a show. I thought they just laughed when they thought something was funny or clapped when something was exciting.
I did not realize that before the show even begins, there is a warmup host that prepares the audience. These warmup hosts will teach you how to clap and encourage loud laughter, big reactions and constant energy. On “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” there was an applause light above the stage that the executive producers would flip on and off a few times during the show if they needed more claps or laughter. For “Live with Kelly and Mark,” the producers waved their hands behind the camera in various levels of intensity to show how much we needed to clap in that moment. What appears to be spontaneous on screen is heavily shaped by the direction from people behind the scenes.
However, the experience does not feel super fake while you are there. The energy in the room truly felt very real and people were actually laughing really hard and clapping, which genuinely enhanced the performance. “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” relied heavily on audience reactions like laughing to build his comedic timing, while “Live with Kelly and Mark” used more engagement by asking the audience questions to maintain its lively and more conversational atmosphere. In David Spade’s comedy special, the audience was an essential part of the show, as laughter directly impacts the delivery and success of the jokes. In fact, David Spades’ comedy special was the only show I went to that didn’t have someone cueing the audience.
There is a very big difference between enhancing a performance and manufacturing the audience’s reaction to something. When the audience behavior is overly directed, it often begins to blur the line between what is real and what is produced. In my opinion, being at “Live with Kelly and Mark” felt pretty manufactured. Producers were constantly telling the audience to clap more, and it did not feel as organic as Jimmy Kimmel did. After the show, my hands actually hurt from clapping so much since it was about four hours of almost non-stop clapping. I wasn’t the only one who mentioned this as well, my whole family mentioned that their hands almost felt numb afterwards. I think viewers at home are often led to believe they are watching genuine and unscripted reactions, when in reality, those reactions and scripts are often heavily planned to fit the needs of each show.
This idea reflects a much larger pattern within television, where what appears to be super authentic and casual is often carefully constructed. The laughter, the constant applause and audience reactions helped guide the viewers at home as to how they should interpret certain moments. They help people understand what is funny, emotional or important in the storyline.
However, live audiences do play a really important role in television. The audience creates a sense of shared experience and community that connects both the in-person audience and at-home audience together. Even if some reactions are amplified or heavily guided, they still ultimately contribute to the overall energy of the show. If shows did not have a live audience, a lot of shows would feel much less engaging or a little flat.
Attending a live taping really changed how I view television shows that have live audiences. I no longer see studio audiences as a completely authentic reflection of viewer reactions. Instead, it’s more of a blend of genuine emotion with some intentional production mixed in.
Contact CU Independent Writer Emily Eigenbrode at emily.eigenbrode@colorado.edu
