Here’s the story of how we saw a live taping of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert and how you can do the same. Aside from being a part of the live show, just being in the Ed Sullivan Theater is priceless. Ed Sullivan introduced the Beatles to America on February 9, 1964 and Elvis on September 9, 1956 – those were historic moments in entertainment. And then it was David Letterman’s roost for all of those years. One theater; if those walls could talk.
Tickets for The Late Show
First up, you need to get tickets to get tickets. Makes no sense, right? Well, here’s how it works. I checked the website every day for the particular date we wanted to attend. Once the date became available I ordered 2 tickets. If you grab your tickets early enough, you’ll receive priority rather than general. This will be beneficial on the day of taping.
Standing in Line
There’s a lot of standing in line. You can’t avoid it. There just is. It clearly states on the website that the crew will start to distribute tickets at 2:00 p.m. And, you can certainly arrive at the theater just before 2:00 in preference to standing in line for a really long time. But, if you’re like us, you want the best seats you can possibly score so you’ll get in line at 12:00, like we did. And, there we stood for 2 solid hours. It was painful. But, at the same time we were surrounded by good happy people so there was a lot of camaraderie and shared pain.
The Magic Hour
At the magic hour of 2:00 p.m. a few crew members from the show will come out and make several announcements. First, they’ll tell everyone to move as close to the curb as possible to clear the walkway. Then, they’ll start dividing the long line into groups. This is where the priority versus general comes in to play. Three lines. Stand-by, priority and general. While the priority and general folks continue to stand in line, those waiting stand-by (they have no tickets to get tickets) give their names and are given a time to return and take a chance on getting in. Standing in line from 12:00 to 2:00 paid off because we scored numbers 3 and 4!
Go Away and Come Back
Once you have your tickets and a hand stamp, you’re given a time to return. We had about 1 1/2 hours to check in to our hotel, put our feet up for a few minutes and then scarf down a slice on our walk back to the theater. Once there, guess what? Stand in line again for about another hour. This time though, inside the lobby of the theater. Finally, when we thought we couldn’t stand in line a moment longer, they opened the doors and in we went and that’s when #3 and #4 were seated front row center!
The Late Show With Stephen Colbert
Remember the old jokes from the Letterman Show about how cold the theater was? No joke. It’s freezing! Bring a sweater. The theater itself is beautiful and when you think about the history, it’s well-worth standing in line to be in that theater at that moment. Unfortunately, I have no photos to share because they pretty much threaten you within an inch of your life when it comes to cell phones and cameras. So much so that if someone even takes their cell phone out to look at the time, you’ll be asked to leave the theater.
The actual live taping goes a little like this:
- A comedian entertains for about 10 minutes to get the crowd laughing.
- Jon Batiste and Stay Human perform. They are crazy good and so much better than the snippets you see on television. The band had the crowd on their feet. You know you’re there to see Stephen Colbert, but just the same you don’t want the band to stop – they’re that good.
- Ladies and gentlemen, Stephen Colbert! And the audience goes wild.
We consider ourselves fortunate that Stephen’s guests were Viola Davis and Simon Helberg, both great personalities. I’m a huge fan of Big Bang Theory so I loved that Simon was the guest. It turns out Simon is an accomplished pianist and he played a duet with Jon Batiste. Television viewers only saw a snippet, but those of us in the audience saw the full duet and it was outrageous!
So, if you find yourself in New York City, I might suggest dedicating the better part of a day to be an audience member at a live taping of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. It’s all kinds of fun, and did I forget to mention the tickets are free?!
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My daughter, her boyfriend, my husband and I applied for tickets. My daughter got 2 tickets, but I didn’t get 2 tickets even though we applied the same day. Then her boyfriend put in a request and HE got notified within a few hours that he got 2 tickets. I applied again in my husbands name- no tickets!
After seeing the audience members standing in line the day our daughter went, we fully believe that age discrimination played a role. You have to give your birth date and year when applying. We didn’t see anyone in that line close to our age (68 and 69). Age discrimination- so my husband and I had to wander around New York for more than 5 hours. It was not a good experience. Look at the audience members when you watch the show. You’ll see what I’m talking shoot. If they’re going to do that, then it should be stated when applying!
Thank you for sharing your experience, Diana. It’s unfortunate it didn’t work out for you. I don’t remember having to give our birth date when I ordered tickets, but it’s quite possible that I did. My husband and I were both 60+ when we got our tickets and there were many others in line (and in the audience) that were in a similar (and/or older) age bracket. The good thing is, New York is a fabulous city in which to wander!
Oh wow, quite the process! I’ll probably never actually go but it’s good to know.
I used to be such a fan of Letterman as a kid. Imagine being in the 1st row when he had Jack Hannah on the show with all his animals. Now THAT I would have definitely signed up for.
Frank (bbqboy)
Frank recently posted…Driving Spectacular Mt. Biokovo, Croatia
It was definitely a process, but in the end well-worth the effort as we had ourselves a grand time. We were fans of Letterman as well, and those episodes with Jack Hannah were often hilarious!
Very fun although I must be honest and say I’m not sure I would stand in line for much of anything for that
Fortunately, the weather that day was ideal and we figured it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Never say never, but I don’t think we’d do it again. It was super fun, but we gave up the better part of a day for 1 event.
I know this was a priority for you, so good for you for putting up with the process. And being rewarded. Did you happen to tape the show so you could see yourselves on TV?
We did record the show, but because we were in the front row the camera didn’t catch us – except for 1 split second in the opening.
I would not mind to stand in line for this show, great to know that you made it first row
Gilda Baxter recently posted…La Digue, a Brief Love Affair
Front row and center was super fun, Stephen Colbert was so close. The only downside was that sometimes the cameras blocked our view, but still glad we were in the first row.
Well that’s a very organized process even with all the waiting in line. Very cool that it’s free. And that you got in with front and center.
Gaelyn recently posted…Watching the sky at Crazy Jug Point
It was a super fun experience, we had a great time – standing in line and all.
Fun experience! I got to attend a Letterman taping once. It sounds like the process is still exactly the same.
Scott – Quirky Travel Guy recently posted…Photo Essay: Images from Ilocos Norte and Ilocos Sur in the Philippines
Well, I can definitely testify that the temperature of the theater is still c-o-l-d, but yes, I’m guessing the process is the same.
Thanks for sharing this experience. I was wondering how this worked. I’m not sure I could do all the standing in line though. Maybe it’s less crowded in the winter time when it’s freezing cold outside, but then, I really, really wouldn’t want to do all that waiting in line.
The perk of getting in line super early is being able to stand under the entrance cover. We really lucked out on the weather while in NYC and I was grateful it wasn’t a scorching hot day.