Day 29 / 2017 - Audience Member of Studio 10

Yesterday, Anne managed to tick off one of her bucket list items, to be an audience member of a TV show. Now, I think she is hooked and wants more.

The alarm woke us at the ungodly hour of 5am. Following a quick breakfast, we drove to　Pennant Hills station, parking the car down one of the side streets. Walking to the platform we only had to wait 3 minutes for a train to arrive. Boarding we took the 40 minute journey, dissembarking at Town Hall station. From here we walked down Market street, across Pyrmont bridge, then along Union street taking about 30 minutes to get to Saunders street where the Channel 10 studios are.

Enquiring at the main office, they informed us the audience entry is just around the corner, then through the gate next to the cafe. At the entrance the guard took our details, then put any bags we didn't want to take in with us into lockers. We were allowed to take in mobile phones and cameras, but there were some rules to using them, no flash, and only during add breaks. We sat in a row of chairs lined up along a wall. While waiting and　listening to the people around us, we realised some of the audience members were regulars and came quite often.

About 15 minutes before the show was scheduled to start, we were given a run down by the floor manager, of the show content, what was expected of us, and any safety information we needed to know. We were then led into the studio and onto the audience dias, where there were 3 rows of curved padded benches along a back partition wall. There wasn't quite enough room for everyone, so chairs were placed at the front to handle the overflow of people. At 08:30 am sharp, it was lights, camera, action, then the panel hosts all came out to thunderous applause. They took their seats around a central desk. Todays shows hosts included, regulars Sarah Harris, Joe Hilderbrand, Jessica Rowe and Denise Drysdale. The guest host was Jamie Dunn, who is the voice and hand action of the puppet "Agro".

The cast were quite friendly, much as they appear on the TV show. Denise was especially good at coming over to the audience and talking to them like she had just met some old friends in the supermarket isle. Jessica was similar, she had this great snort every time she started to really laugh, they all seem to be having a good time off and on camera. Being in the audience you get to see whats going on behind the camera. There are a number of pre-recorded segments intermingled with　live broadcast. For instance Johnathon Coleman, who does the voice over and introductions for the paid infomercial segments, does the introduction live in the studio then walks off camera, just as they cut to the pre-recorded segment with him walking in. This gives the impression of continuity when mixing live and pre-recorded. He has to change his shirt several times to match what he is wearing in the pre-recorded segments. The audience can view what is being broadcasted of the show, on the overhead monitors. Some of the interviews are also pre-recorded, this is usually due to the result of time differences with other places around the world.

After 2 and a half hours of sitting, our bums were getting a little numb, but we did have a great time. The last segment of the show was a game of twister, at the end the entire audience got given a box set of the game as a gift. After the broadcast finished you could have　your picture taken with the cast.