Info and pics from the AGT taping on Tuesday

**freddiequell** · 03-08-2013, 10:39 AM

I posted this as a comment in another thread, but a user said to make a seperate thread, so here it is. Apologies for any noobishness

The third day of tapings was absolutely cancelled.

I went to the noon taping on Tuesday. At the beginning of the taping, the warm up guy was talking about the crew going out that night to the French Quarter to celebrate the end of the tapings. Ronnie tweeted that they were back in NYC at 3am EST I think? So HS and crew must have booked it to the private jet right after the last taping ended (it's a 4-5 hour flight because of the time change, and it probably ended around 9CST).

Here is my takeaway/experience:

The arena was about 2/3 empty, maybe 3000 people MAX. The top third was completely blocked off, and one entire side was totally empty. The pit near the stage/near the judges was filled with people, and the arena seating facing the stage was filled. However, this whole section was filled with HIGH SCHOOL students that were given the day off and bussed in. There were 4 or 5 different schools there, and tons of buses outside. The pit was also mostly groups from schools and groups of tourists.

When I got there, had to pay $10 for parking (wtf). They filmed fake crowd shots outside of a fake parade and fake red carpet arrival (Howard didn't take part in any of this). There were barely 100 people outside for any of this, and they had to keep rearranging the crowd for re-shoots to make it look more busy. Howie Mandel came down the fake red carpet on a tiny car. They had to re-shoot it about 5 times, with the cameraman eventually going into the tiny crowd to shoot from above, and then swearing and saying they had to give up the shot because it looked like shit/empty.

During the taping, out of all the judges and all the happenings, Nick Cannon got the hugest response. Probably because of all the high school kids.

A few people did "baba booeys" and someone said "sauce on side" but Howard barely reacted. There were two old ladies who yelled out "I love you Howard" a few times, and someone in the pit had a huge THSS related sign. Howard signed someone's copy of Private Parts at one point (someone sitting in the pit near the judges, I was seated way up in the rafters). Ronnie was sitting about three feet from HS for the entire thing, and during the breaks/between acts he stood up and "guarded" HS while doing that "Ronald pose" where he pretends to be a bodyman. Ralph was also very visible in the pit seating, about one section over from Ronnie. Ralph's goofy walk and terrible posture are more horrifying in person, and this was from like 300 feet away.

There were only 9 acts, none of which were great. One terrible dog act, cute boring little kids doing ballroom dancing, a dance crew, two joke/fake acts, two mediocre singers, a boring acrobat, and a good local band (which the judges trashed and called a "bar band"). Only two of the acts were local. Both of the bad acts were from far away, as well as one of the better acts was from LA, so a lot of it seems organized by producers and they're all flown in to get a certain ratio of bad/good in each city or make it look organic. The warm-up guy said the first day of tapings was rough and the acts were worse, so I can only imagine.

Howard and his comments got booed A LOT. At one point he made a "joke" that when he "makes love" to his wife she says she feels like there's a praying mantis on top of her. No one laughed.
At one point he and Heidi got up and did some kind of salsa dancing together on the judge platform. Howard was doing the usual fake jokey dancing he does, and the other two judges Xed them and people booed.
At a couple different tense moments producers came over and told HS and Heidi what to say to create more drama and drag out the segments. Also the audio engineering was hahhhhrible, you could barely hear anything the judges said, and a few times HS got booed because people misheard him.

People started filing out when there was about 1 hour left to avoid traffic.

Mostly the whole thing was just lame and cheap. I lived in NYC for years, so I've been on movie/TV sets and been to show tapings etc, and all that usually has some air of excitement or frenzy, beyond what gets manufactured and "sweetened" for air. This felt more like a school talent show or something on basic cable. Definitely not an NBC show with celebrity judges getting paid millions of dollars.
When I first heard about the tapings I was surprised they weren't at the convention center or Super Dome since they're in downtown New Orleans, very cosmopolitan area, tons of tourists, etc. UNO Lakefront is on the edge of the city in Gentilly which was badly damaged during Katrina and still recovering (bunch of condemned and abandoned houses on the main road leading up to the arena). But now that I see how little interest there was, I get it.

Pictures from inside the arena, sorry if they are too big or too small

I can't think of anything else worth reporting really. Glad to answer any questions

**BethSucks** · 03-08-2013, 10:41 AM

Great info.

**ArtiesCumRag** · 03-08-2013, 10:45 AM

thanks for posting this .

**Bye You!** · 03-08-2013, 10:46 AM

it is awesome!

if only we had video of Howie and the mini-car

**Bye You!** · 03-08-2013, 10:47 AM

PS. your pictures are great! that empty arena is the very definition of "douche chills"

**joe361** · 03-08-2013, 10:47 AM

Anyone drop a ZooZaZoo?

**MutteringJohn** · 03-08-2013, 10:48 AM

Someone should call Howard and question him how faked the show is. How nobody showed up and they were forced to use high school students to fill up the seats. You don't have to worry because that call will never get through the screeners. There will be several calls about how large the audience was and how people showed up in droves to see Howard. The other angle is Howard will just dump on the producers and NBC for causing the disaster.

**Mike** · 03-08-2013, 10:53 AM

holy shit that is a terrible crowd. why did they pick new Orleans? and they didn't even bother to confiscate phones and cameras this time around or you snuck them in?

I went to some st. pete tapings last year and it was packed and the crowd had lots of energy and was way into.

**Kool** · 03-08-2013, 10:55 AM

nice report... I cannot wait for the weekly ratings reports, the bullshit hype Wiggo will spin, the negativity from the media.....

**Charon** · 03-08-2013, 10:55 AM

Great to see a real person's perspective. Thanks for posting

**ohmicah** · 03-08-2013, 10:56 AM

America's Got Taste.

Being a game show judge isn't as easy as Howard imagined.

**Ruffypup** · 03-08-2013, 11:00 AM

The Lakefront Arena is where I saw Dice for the first time back in '91 and was the place for big name entertainment but since Katrina, AGT is the first alleged "big act" the Arena has hosted best to my knowledge. In fact the place was desolate up into a couple yrs ago. When I heard it was going to be there I just thought.... how crappy and cheap the show must be. Meanwhile... the arena in the city would have been packed....so many people and tourist in downtown. Makes no sense to me.... Lakefront area is just depressing as there is still so much "blight" in that area

**freddiequell** · 03-08-2013, 11:03 AM

Originally Posted by joe361

Anyone drop a ZooZaZoo?

No ZooZaZoos unfortunately

Originally Posted by Mike

holy shit that is a terrible crowd. why did they pick new Orleans? and they didn't even bother to confiscate phones and cameras this time around or you snuck them in?

I went to some st. pete tapings last year and it was packed and the crowd had lots of energy and was way into.

They had to halt/delay taping multiple times because idiots were filming/photographing with their phone with the flash on. They definitely weren't confiscating them. You only got searched going in if you had a bag. Before hadning over your ticket everyone got passed over with one of those metal detecting wands. I had my phone in my pocket and the wand didn't go off. Great security!

They also specifically asked that people tape and photograph the part when the judges enter (claiming it was the first time in AGT history that this was allowed), and then begged people to "tweet" the pictures and share them on social media etc. So lame.

Maybe there are different showrunners or a different production crew this time around? The whole thing was poorly organized and the warm up guy had lots of trouble getting energy, getting people to sit down, etc.

**GaryPuppet** · 03-08-2013, 11:05 AM

Will Howard address the fact that the place was a fuckin ghost town?

Will he blame the Olympics or The Stanley cup playoffs for this like he did last year?

**Uncle Larry** · 03-08-2013, 11:05 AM

Hilarious - it's pretty weak that they couldn't get more people there even when tickets were free. At least there is photographic evidence in case the honest Howard Stern tries to spin it as a standing room only event due to his huge fan base.

**freddiequell** · 03-08-2013, 11:08 AM

Originally Posted by Ruffypup

The Lakefront Arena is where I saw Dice for the first time back in '91 and was the place for big name entertainment but since Katrina, AGT is the first alleged "big act" the Arena has hosted best to my knowledge. In fact the place was desolate up into a couple yrs ago. When I heard it was going to be there I just thought.... how crappy and cheap the show must be. Meanwhile... the arena in the city would have been packed....so many people and tourist in downtown. Makes no sense to me.... Lakefront area is just depressing as there is still so much "blight" in that area

Same thoughts as mine. So many hotels downtown, they could've filled the NO Arena for sure.
I only moved here last year, and I went with my brother who's been here for 2 years, but we could just tell from driving through Gentilly/Lakefront that it was hit hard and is still recovering. On Franklin Ave there are those huge abandoned old historical mansions that are all boarded up. It's a tough area, and an odd choice for an NBC show imho.

**Ruffypup** · 03-08-2013, 11:13 AM

Originally Posted by Mike

holy shit that is a terrible crowd. why did they pick new Orleans? and they didn't even bother to confiscate phones and cameras this time around or you snuck them in?

I went to some st. pete tapings last year and it was packed and the crowd had lots of energy and was way into.

We successfully host many of the largest and greatest events in the country...

**Spazzmatazz** · 03-08-2013, 11:15 AM

And those empty seats are exactly why I want him to get that Late Nite show.

Watching it crash faster than any of his trophy whorse's many failed shows would be the perfect cherry on top!

King Of All what? Yeah, right.
Go look at your website and the hits it gets, "King"...

**Ruffypup** · 03-08-2013, 11:19 AM

Originally Posted by freddiequell

Same thoughts as mine. So many hotels downtown, they could've filled the NO Arena for sure.
I only moved here last year, and I went with my brother who's been here for 2 years, but we could just tell from driving through Gentilly/Lakefront that it was hit hard and is still recovering. On Franklin Ave there are those huge abandoned old historical mansions that are all boarded up. It's a tough area, and an odd choice for an NBC show imho.

Jazz Fest is in Chilly Gentilly and did amazing the year after Katrina but that is a different animal. For NBC to not fork over a couple extra bucks for the downtown arena is just mind boggling.....When I think of the UNO Lakefront Arena I think of Bananarama and MC Hammer.. outdated and old surrounded by emptry homes with signs that read "looters will be shot". ewh!