Being At The Show
A couple of weeks back I was at one of the Wednesday results shows (the one where they had the professionals do a group jive number.) Then last week a friend got notified that she could get tickets for a Tuesday taping. Needless to say, there was no question we were going.
It's a cool experience to attend. Both times I was seated on the main floor center, however, the best seats (and those where folks may be on camera) are reserved for the VIPs and family members of the stars. There's also balcony seating on either side. (My friends were up there.)
We were seated very close to Emmitt's contingent. Lots of big burly football players! His wife is exquisitely beautiful! At the results show I attended, Lisa Rinna and Harry Hamlin stood next to me before he got dressed to dance and they watched the jive number. Kind of blew me away. Also, at that time Sara Evans was still on, and as we were leaving the studio area and I was driving 'round a corner, there she was standing on the street corner, talking on her cell phone, just like any gal on the street. I couldn't resist calling out to her, "Sara, we love you!" She smiled and said thanks. (I didn't think she was that good of a dancer, but I'm a GREAT fan of her music.) Too bad all her personal problems got in the way.
Truthfully, the camera was right in front of us on and off throughout the evening so at times it blocked our view, but we just craned our necks and oooed and ahhed. The show airs live to the east coast so they started taping at 5 our time. When I went to the Wednesday results show, they did pre-tape the jive number and Julio Inglesias' number with Cheryl and Max dancing. The rest was broadcast live. At the Wednesday show there's time to kill between the pretaping of the dance segments and the live show, so they had a dance contest where the audience could participate. (The prize was a t-shirt.) My friend won the week he went. However, for the main Tuesday show, they didn't have a contest. (Though we were prepared with shoes in hand - ha ha). So, in a nutshell, that's how it all came about.
FYI, the floor is much smaller than it appears on TV. A very cool illusion.