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'Jeopardy,' 'Wheel of Fortune' cancel audiences due to COVID-19 Fears

https://abc7.com/entertainment/jeop...els-audiences-amid-coronavirus-fears/5998636/


LOS ANGELES -- Concerns over the spread of novel coronavirus have prompted fan favorite shows "Wheel of Fortune" and "Jeopardy" to take extra precautions.

Sony confirmed to ABC on Monday that both shows are canceling their studio audience during tapings for "the time being."

The move is being made out of an abundance of caution due to the spread of COVID-19.

It is unclear how long the shows will tape without an audience.

The shows tape months in advance, so the presumably quieter shows will not immediately be noticeable to viewers at home. Both are filmed at a studio in Culver City, California.

So Far Sony has announced that one of their shows are going to do episodes without audiences

Note This is Subject to change as other TV shows with studio audiences starts to release their plans.
 
https://abc7.com/entertainment/jeop...els-audiences-amid-coronavirus-fears/5998636/




So Far Sony has announced that one of their shows are going to do episodes without audiences

Note This is Subject to change as other TV shows with studio audiences starts to release their plans.

Confusing. One of Sony's shows will be recorded without an audience but the other won't? Or did you type "one" instead of "none"?

I wonder if, should it become necessary to produce a batch of audience-less Wheels or Jeopardys, will canned applause be used, or will production crew and relatives of crew be called upon to impersonate an audience? A game show conducted in total silence doesn't sound like good television to me.
 
Wheel already taped three weeks without a studio audience earlier this season when Vanna White stepped in as host. They worked around it by adding in audience shots of other episodes, and dubbing in all applause and other sounds, and having the winner's friends and family be on the edge of the stage instead of in the audience seats. I imagine Jeopardy! will do the same thing, but since their audience is quieter and isn't shown on camera as much as Wheel's, it'll be even less noticeable. Both shows already use audience sweetening, but J! only uses regular applause while Wheel uses a mix of applause and cheers.

As of today, Wheel has already taped episodes to air as late as April 17. They have seven more weeks this season to tape. The remaining taping days for Wheel as of now are: March 12, 13, 25, 26, 27, and April 8 and 9, but that may change at this point. Taping for the next season should begin in July, with their new Executive Producer. Jeopardy! usually begins its tapings a little bit after Wheel in August, and Jeopardy! has more tape days since it has 230 episodes per season compared to Wheel's 195.
 
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A game show conducted in total silence doesn't sound like good television to me.

Several game shows taped segments or entire episodes without any audience at all.


Merv Griffin's Crosswords, a syndie that only lasted for the 2007-08 season, had no audience, only canned sounds.

The PAX era of Supermarket Sweep did not use an audience for most of the show. The audience that you did see during the intro was all paid extras, aside from the contestants called out, and mirrors were on the sides to make the audience look bigger. The game itself had no audience at all. It becomes obvious after a few episodes that the sound of the audience counting down from 10 at the end of every sweep sounds exactly the same every time.

Another game show with no audience was the first two seasons of Make the Grade, a kids' game show on Nickelodeon in the 80s. It used a really annoying canned loop of children shouting "Yaaaaaaay!" that gets on your nerves halfway through one episode. Fortunately, the third season moved production to the then-new Universal Studios Orlando and had a live audience.

Keeping with Nickelodeon, its famous 90s game show Legends of the Hidden Temple went through extremely long taping days. All of its segments were taped together for six episodes. By the time they got to the final "Temple Run" segment, the taping often went so late that Universal Studios closed and the audience had to go home, so canned cheers, applause, and 10-second countdowns were added in post. Watching the show, you can tell if the Temple Run had an audience or not if you look at the top-right corner at the beginning and end of the segment, since part of the audience seating area was usually visible, although when empty, they tried their best to hide it.
 
One thing is certain. You don't want Alex Trebek around this virus. The people most at risk are those whose immune systems can't handle it, and he would be in that category.
 
I'm assuming this will be in place for the rest of this season, considering the low number of taping days left for both Jeopardy and Wheel.

For Wheel, I wonder if winners' families will be on the edge of the stage, similar to the Vanna-hosted shows earlier this season.
 
https://www.thewrap.com/the-wendy-williams-show-to-tape-without-live-audience-due-to-coronavirus/

Wendy Williams has announced that her show will not have an audience due to COVID-19.

That's going to be harder to adjust to since a good portion of that show is just the audience screaming and yassing Wendy to death, and since it airs live in some markets, I imagine it will just be an hour-long monologue from Wendy. They probably won't even pretend they have an audience or use canned applause like what Wheel and probably Jeopardy! will do.


Also... why do the tags for this thread include "jeopardy", but not "wheel of fortune"? Unless hovering over the tag icon only shows three tags even if it has more.
 
Surprised Wendy is going forward with new episodes. I figured without the audience, might as well do reruns.
Ellen will probably be next. I could just see it. Just her, Average Andy and Twitch with no dancing. Just a monologue to the home audience and right into an interview ala Tom Snyder's old show.
Then TPIR will probably stop taping.
 
TPIR did shut down taping for a week due to the murder of Drew's ex-fiance.





Surprised Wendy is going forward with new episodes. I figured without the audience, might as well do reruns.
Ellen will probably be next. I could just see it. Just her, Average Andy and Twitch with no dancing. Just a monologue to the home audience and right into an interview ala Tom Snyder's old show.
Then TPIR will probably stop taping.
 
https://www.thewrap.com/good-mornin...nd-tamron-hall-suspend-audiences-coronavirus/


Update more shows are announcing plans to not have an audience. These are Disney/ABC owned shows.

“The View,” “Live With Kelly and Ryan,” “Good Morning America,” “Strahan, Sara and Keke” and “Tamron Hall” have joined the list of shows that will be taping without a studio audience due to growing concerns about the spread of the coronavirus.

“Given the current developing situation in New York City, we have made the decision to suspend live audiences from attending our news broadcasts and talk shows,” a Walt Disney Television spokesperson told TheWrap in a statement Wednesday.


The episode of “Tamron Hall” that will air today, which includes a live audience, was filmed yesterday, an individual with knowledge tells TheWrap.

The Disney-produced programs that have cut their live-studio-audience components are far from the first programs to be affected by the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak.
 
I watched Wendy Williams today. Her staffers made up the studio audience. The interview with Billy Gardell was pre-taped on Monday, so there was an audience during that interview. She also had the staffers introduce themselves and talk about what they do on the show. Tomorrow's show was taped today and Friday is a repeat of Monday's show. The show was also kind of awkward. She said there will be no audience for at least 2 weeks.

On social media the Rachael Ray show is asking that their studio audience stay at home. I don't know how far in advance her show is taped.
 
GMA stopped the audiences. The Talk will probably follow later in the week.
TPIR and LMAD will likely suspend tapings as time goes on, and Ellen may either go to reruns or monologue/interview only, no surprises/giveaways/etc.

EDIT - Ellen going to audience-less shows
https://twitter.com/TheEllenShow/status/1237907446133174272
 
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Weird that on the very day it was announced there would be no audiences, the two new contestants were a woman who had worked on a cruise ship and a woman who wanted to travel to Europe.
 
https://pagesix.com/2020/03/11/rach...22.2018214768.1583934665-269741609.1532021207

Rachel Ray has announced dropping a studio audience due to COVID-19 fears.

An insider tells Page Six that Ray, 51, is taping her show on Wednesday without an audience before the show takes an already-scheduled break from taping next week.

“We’re taking the necessary precautions,” said an insider, “We’re dark all next week and will revisit the decision when we return from hiatus [on March 24th].”

Page Six has reported that ABC shows including “The View” and Tamron Hall‘s daytime show have nixed their studio audience because of the outbreak.

Hall pretaped her Wednesday show with an audience, but it will return to live shows on Thursday without an audience.

“She often spends the majority of her time in the audience with the crowd, but she has refrained from going in since Monday,” said an insider, “ABC’s decision to remove the live audience is supported by Tamron and her entire staff.”

Meanwhile, Wendy Williams replaced her live audience with staffers for her first show after she announced she too would be enforcing an audience ban.

“These are the people who support me and this entire production every day,” Williams, 55, said on-air while looking at about three dozen staffers filling the seats. “And the ones who aren’t here, it’s only because they’re in the control room pushing buttons or answering the front phone.”
 
https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/ri...-contact-with-coronavirus-patient-1203531352/

Update Warner Brothers has announced that one of their shows "Riverdale" has somebody on staff that reportedly came in contact with a COVID-19 positive patient and is now suspended until further notice.


Production of “Riverdale” has been suspended after a member of the production came into contact with someone who recently tested positive for the novel coronavirus, otherwise known as COVID-19, according to Warner Bros. Television. It is not clear whether that person is part of the cast or the crew.

“We have been made aware that a team member from ‘Riverdale,’ which is produced in Vancouver, was recently in contact with a person who has tested positive for COVID-19. The team member is currently receiving medical evaluation,” said a Warner Bros. TV spokesperson.

“We are working closely with the appropriate authorities and health agencies in Vancouver to identify and contact all individuals who may have come into direct contact with our team member. The health and safety of our employees, casts and crews is always our top priority. We have and will continue to take precautions to protect everyone who works on our productions around the world.

“Out of an abundance of caution, production on ‘Riverdale’ is currently suspended.”
 
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