Today my mom, Natasha, and I went out to Burbank to be audience members of the final Jay Leno Show taping. We got there really early (8:30am) because: 1) none of us has been before so we don't know what to expect, 2) since it is the final show we don't know what to expect. A little after 9am we take an NBC Universal Studio Tour. It was just the three of us plus our tour guide, so it was a really small and intimate tour. Our tour guide, Katie (aka Brian Williams girlfriend ;) ), was super friendly. We visited the Access Hollywood stage which was formally the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson stage, the Telemundo stage, one of two Days Of Our Lives stage, and we passed wardrobe, make up, and like every Days of Our Lives piece of prop ever used since the 1960s. It was fun, when I was in middle school I started watching Passions and Days of Our Lives, so I could kind of get excited about walking through Salem. I walked through Harmony (another, RIP) at the CBS Radford studio when I was in high school...man, I REALLY miss being around studios/on stages.
When the tour was over we headed over to Studio 11 to get in line for the Jay Leno Show. I was first in line.
After hours of waiting outside in the cold, we finally made it into Stage 11 where the final episode of the Jay Leno Show was filmed, and where the Tonight Show with Jay Leno will resume in March.
The scheduled guests were Ashton Kutcher and Gabourey Sidibe, with Bob Costas on 10@10. Special appearances included Kurt Warner who threw four football passes to Ashton for "earn your plug" and Donald Trump who proclaimed via satellite "Jay, you're fired!"
This is the first late night show I've attended, and it was quite fun. Jay came out and greeted the audience, answered a few questions ("do you have any job openings for me?") and took pictures with a few audience members.
I was one of only three audience members he called on and took a picture with before he had to go backstage to get dressed for the show. And, after some fun banter about possible auditions being held under the bleachers after the taping, and possible jobs involving poles and/or partial nudity, I felt like Jay and I really hit it off. My mom was slightly embarassed, but also very impressed with my boldness.
The comedian that warned up the audience is great. The Kevin Eubanks and the Primetime band are great. The guests are great (I actually liked Ashton Kutcher more than I expected). Overall, I'm pretty sold on doing this again and again and again. And, with no job, late night TV shows I'm all yours!
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