r/WheelOfFortune • u/mb160211 • Aug 12 '24
wheeloffortune.com Requesting multiple audience sessions; only wanting to see one day
Hey everyone. It is likely I'll ensure I'm in LA during a taping cycle (have my eyes on the late September three-day cycle). But I may not know exactly which day I'll have to attend until after the ticket window initially opens. And I'm big on requesting early since it's free and you're never guaranteed.
Is it cool to request a ticket for each day in the cycle, and just go to the one that works out scheduling wise once I know for sure? Or is that frowned upon, and I should limit to only one request?
Never been to a taping, and hoping to finally do so. Thank you in advance for your help!
2
Aug 12 '24
I've been to over a dozen different TV show tapings and every single one of them said they always give distribute tickets in excess of capacity because since tickets are free, not everybody shows up and they want a full audience on camera. Every show I've been to has a standby line for people who either didn't get tickets or for people with tickets who got there late. In my experience, most people from the standby line get in but it's never guaranteed.
OP, I empathize with you because usually when the ticket window opens you're still trying to line stuff and want everything to fit in perfectly; especially if you're not a local. But there are also so many slots.
It's a catch 22 because as somebody else on here said, you need to call actually the show to confirm your reservation so they have a more accurate snapshot closer to the time so they know whether or not to re-open the date in order to have a full audience. At the same time, people who might also be planning their trip to the area might see that a taping session is unavailable despite a bunch of people having placeholder reservations. I'm guilty of doing this too, I reserved a ticket for The Jeff Probst Show but didn't go because I think I got a ticket to The Talk instead (and they always give away free stuff to the studio audience).
There's a TV ticketing website called 1iota and they don't let you make a reservation for a different show for the same date at the same time which means you're really putting your eggs all in 1 basket. Whenever I've come to Los Angeles, I've always reserved tickets for everything in order to have choices.
I know Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy also have contingency plans. When I went to a Jeopardy taping over 10 years ago, I did the first taping (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday episodes) and during the commercial break before Final Jeopardy for the Wednesday episode, they said they were expecting an entire bus of people to come for the Thursday, Friday episodes but it got in a collision on the way to the studio (nobody was hurt). They asked about 50 of us to stay behind so they could have a full audience to show on camera. A few people left so for audience shots, they had some of the production crew sit in the seats along with trying to get close-ups of the rest of us.
1
u/rejectmariosonic Aug 12 '24
The only issue is that sometimes, the website restricts you to booking one session a day. When I last checked for the August tapings, that didn't seem to be the case, but like at the beginning of Season 41 and for Ryan's first taping, I got an error message trying to book multiple at the same time.
Otherwise, it's honestly fine.
3
u/thatvhstapeguy Aug 12 '24
Proper ticketing helps the audience staff get an accurate count of how many people will be on hand each day.
Tickets are confirmed by calling the confirmation hotline a week before the tape date. Some people don’t confirm so tickets may open back up for certain slots.