What is "how do you attend a Jeopardy recording"?

The answer was "What this post is about."

Back in January of 2009, Mrs Notthat, The Boy, and I headed down to LA to watch a taping of the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. And now, 14 years later, Mrs Notthat and I finally worked up the nerve to go back to LA, this time to watch a Jeopardy taping.

(Actually, Mrs Notthat had no idea what we were doing. I asked if she could go on a trip this week. Apparently it wasn't until the day before that she figured we might be going to something TV related. She didn't know it was Jeopardy until we were at the gate and I had to show the tickets to get in.)

Look, this is really long, so here are the high points.

Executive summary

• You need a LOT of patience to attend a Jeopardy taping.
• The actual shows go really fast though.
• You also need to be fully vaccinated and boosted, and you will be wearing a black mask in the studio.
• Don't try to take pictures in the studio.
• They don't like you yelling out the answers/questions while taping.
• Ken is really good at this.
• Bring a cough drop.

The details

Jeopardy tapes five episodes in one day. There are two audiences each taping day: One at 10 AM and one at 2 PM. The website says that one audience will see two shows, and the other will see three shows, but they don't say which session will see which, and since more is always better, I had to make a guess as to which group would see three shows. (They ask you not to sign up for both groups, and in retrospect, that would be a long day.)

I figured that the morning would go from 10 to 12 and the afternoon from 2 to 5, and since the afternoon session was longer, I assumed it would have three shows, so that's what I booked for us. 

I was wrong - we were the two-show group (but had the bonus of getting to sleep later). 

When you sign up for a free ticket, they ask a few questions and then show you a picture of your ticket. It's a good idea to print that ticket, or at least take a screenshot of it. It's also good to read the text under that ticket (I made a PDF of the whole page) since it has some info you won't find elsewhere. (We never received a follow up email like they mention, so that was our only chance at these tickets. It might be that just having their pictures on your phone would be good enough.)

One thing that is still taken very seriously is COVID 19 - you must be fully vaccinated, including boosters, and must show your vaccination card (or a picture of it). You will have to wear a mask at all times while you are inside the studio - they are really strict with this and I saw several people get told to put their mask back on. (We were given black masks since we would be potentially recorded and black is slimming, or something like that. Maybe they just don't want anyone wearing a Wheel of Fortune mask.)

The Sony lot, showing where we parked and the studio.

The studio is in Culver City, and I booked us a room at a place called Inn at Playa del Rey, a small hotel/bed-and-breakfast that backs up to a frog-infested marsh and was fairly close to the beach. (The frogs were awesome.) 

I was stressed a bit, and wasn't completely sure where we would enter the parking lot, so we left a bit early and ended up getting there at about 1 PM. Parking went smoothly - the trick now was to work out where we should go next. At the garage entrance, there was an area with benches, but it wasn't clear whether they were for us or people taking the Sony tour, or both. (It was both.) 

Tip: The area is divided by a rope; one one side is a red carpet and the other side has no carpet, and both sides are lined with benches. Sit on a bench on the red carpet side, up near the wall with the paparazzi mural. The checkin table will be there, and you will get to check in first. (Apparently they overbook these shows, so if you show up late, or even on time, but closer to 2 PM, you may not get in.)

Looking towards the checkin table. Smile for the fake paparazzi!

Looking behind us. Very observant people will notice the metal detectors we would eventually have to go through.

Looking directly at us - we have not received our official approved black masks yet.

A bit after 2, they started checking us in, and it was a painfully slow process. We were maybe 30th in line and finally got through about 15 minutes later. 

Our ticket (it did its job and was no longer needed), black mask, and for some reason, a little blue ticket.

Now we sat on the benches on the opposite side, and waited some more. At about 2:30, we were told to go through the metal detector and stand in another line to be the second group let into the studio. Then we were pulled out of that line and moved to the first group's line! (They ask you to wear "business casual" but most were wearing "Walmart casual" - I honestly think we were "upgraded" because we looked nice. Well, Mrs Notthat looked nice.)

By 2:40 we finally started the hike to the studio. It is not a short hike, and it moves at a pretty quick pace. 

They asked us not to get run over on the hike. 

There were several people that had to pause along the way. It's like the Jeopardy people are not aware how old their TV audience is! (Of course, we used those occasions to move closer to the front of the line.)

Finally. At the Jeopardy studio. Where we can wait some more.

By 2:50, we were finally at the studio. But not IN the studio. Now we waited for the other groups to join us. (I don't know how many people were in the audience - it didn't seem like that many, but it was like herding cats trying to keep us focused on the goal.)

At 2:55, we were finally in!

The back of Mrs Notthat's head. 

Pretend podiums we actually were allowed to take pictures of.

There is a lower-level of the studio where we were allowed to take pictures. In the main studio though, we were not allowed to have our phones out at all, and strictly no photos were to be taken. (One woman, as soon as she got in the main studio, immediately started taking pictures, and was nearly tackled by security. They made her delete the pictures and watched to ensure she did it. I so badly wanted to take a few shots, but man, we had finally made it in and I didn't want to risk getting tossed out now!)

Pearls Before Swine is one of my favorite comics, and this original strip from a fun series was exciting to see.

Memorabilia from when Alex did some clues on hockey skates. 

At  halftime (between shows) we were allowed 15 minutes in the lower area to take pictures. There is a LOT of memorabilia there, but there were also a LOT of people trying to get pictures of it, so I only got a few useful shots. 

In the main studio

As soon as we entered the main studio, we saw the three contestants already standing at their podiums, which was a surprise since, based on how long everything else took, it was going to take a while to get everyone inside and seated.

The studio is much smaller than it appears on TV, although the board is huge. Since we were in the first group, we got seated first. That doesn't mean we got the best seats though. Ours were not bad, but some who got seated before us were on the far right, and had to stare at the backs of the contestants. We were a bit closer to the center, but couldn't see the front of the contestant podiums (and their scores, which thankfully were also shown on a scoreboard on the other side of the stage). People in the later groups likely had a different problem - they could see the contestants fine, but not the board. 

A bit of a sidetrack

Looking at the backs of the contestants, you got to see the different sized risers each stands on - when you watch the games, it always looks like the contestants are all the same height, but that is something accomplished by using those risers. (You can sometimes see the one the far-right contestant is standing on during the broadcast.)

Back to the main feature

A guy named Jimmy explained to us how this was going to go and would tell us when to applaud. (There were also APPLAUSE signs way up high that I didn't notice until the second show.) It's worth noting that Johnny Gilbert was not there - he does not actually sit through the tapings any more, and has his voice added later.

The actual games go fast. The hardest thing during the games is remembering not to shout out the answers/questions. It was funny how, when the contestants were stumped, you could hear several people in the audience whispering the answers/questions. It was REALLY hard not to try to help.

(Interesting bit: Along the sides of the board are blue lights that are not shown on TV. They light up as soon as it's legal for a contestant to buzz in - it's remarkable how briefly they are on; these people are really fast!)

Once during each game, Ken would take a few questions, and just before the second game started, Ken did some odd shots where he was redoing flubs from a previous game (which was odd to watch since you didn't know the context). 

An interesting thing about Final Jeopardy; you know how when they go to commercial after they show the Final Jeopardy category, then cut back for a quick shot of everyone writing down something (presumably, their wager)? They are writing "What" - they set up the camera and are told "OK, start writing 'What' now!" They are also given a couple pieces of paper to use to do any math needed to work out how much they want to wager. (It's a bit odd - the papers are two different colors - they write on one of them and then cover it up with the other one so they can't see it when actually trying to come up with the question.)

Another sidetrack

There is a lot of effort put into hiding the fact that these shows are all taped on the same day. We were told that we were a Thursday audience, then that we were a Friday audience, which meant we had to be rowdier. The champion and host have to change their clothes between games. This bit makes me wonder though - if Ken is redoing flubs from a previous game, but is wearing a different suit, wouldn't that be noticeable? (My guess is what they really need is the audio to be right since the host may not be on camera anyway.)

Back to our main feature (again)

The second game started off badly with the contestant names getting mixed up during introductions. And then when they went to reveal the board, something went wrong and the dollar amounts were missing. So they had to restart again. 

And then we were done. It turned out the little blue tickets were for a giveaway of a copy of Alex Trebek's book. Then we were asked to promptly leave (no second pass through the lower area) and hike back to the parking garage. (If earlier was like herding cats, this was much worse since we had already seen the shows and no longer could get thrown out.)

And that's about it. 

Our two shows will air on April 20 and 21. Surprisingly, we were not asked to keep anything a secret. Ken did suggest that we watch the episodes with people that don't know we were there, and impress them with our mad trivia skills as we question all the answers correctly. (To be honest though, by then I will have forgotten pretty much everything. Right now I couldn't tell you any of the categories and I only vaguely remember one of the Final Jeopardies.)

The show before our two (which was part of the morning shift and will air on April 19) should be a bit interesting. I'll say no more. 

One last thing - the audience is pretty quiet as the show is going on (other than the occasional whispers). The thought had occurred to me the day before that I should bring a cough drop for just in case. I forgot to do that. At about the halfway mark of the second show's Double Jeopardy round, I, for reasons unknown, mentally congratulated myself on not needing a cough drop. 

And then, within seconds, I got a tickle in my throat. Nothing serious. Not a worry. 

But the tickle got stronger. And more urgent. I began silently begging the contestants to ring in fast and answer fast and get to the break as fast as possible. I'm by now really struggling, trying not to cough. (You are not allowed to bring any kind of drinks or food into the studio, so I didn't have a water bottle to help me out.) I finally end up emitting a highly muffled cough (which Mrs Notthat says she didn't hear), and then we were at break and I could cough freely.

Next time I will have a pocket full of cough drops. 

And I do think there will be a next time - I'd love to be there for a Celebrity Jeopardy or Masters Jeopardy taping, or even a Tournament of Champions. Unfortunately, the website does not say what kind of show you are attending. (I believe standard episodes always tape on Mondays and Tuesdays. Feb 27 and 28 are next up. What's a bit interesting is that the shows after that are being taped on a Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, March 22-24th - I would guess that those might be special shows. Tickets are not available for those yet.)

That's it - move along…

PS: If you listen to podcasts and like Jeopardy, you really should listen to the Inside Jeopardy! podcast. Lots of, well, inside Jeopardy information tends to be talked about.