The interior of the Opheum Theatre, Phoenix, had to be adapted for a live TV show, meaning seat kills and access issues.
Phoenix’s Orpheum Theatre’s first foray into hosting a live television event went off without a hitch, despite contending with a two-week site takeover, short on-sale period and strict audience rules.
The taping of The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon during Super Bowl weekend was a year in the making. When Phoenix was chosen to host the championship game, NBC executives sought out a local venue for the TV show.
The theater was able to pull off the live taping utilizing its current staff and equipment, which is unusual for an event of this caliber. The NBC contract details were not disclosed, but were on par with past theater performances.
Network staff began moving into the Orpheum two weeks prior to the scheduled taping in order to film the Golf Channel’s Feherty Live special for two nights. The street in front of the theater was completely shut down to accommodate production trucks and other equipment.
“We had a production lead from our staff that worked with NBC’s crew to make sure proper hookups were secured,” said Geoff Rudolph, the Orpheum Theatre’s ticket services manager. “We also had our event manager, Vanessa Gonzalez, take the lead in the front of house by overseeing the lobby setup, line control and seating.”
Because The Tonight Show typically tapes in a studio as opposed to a theater, there were seating logistics challenges that needed to be addressed.
Rudolph worked closely with NBC on the constantly changing floor plan to accommodate cameras, lights, the production crew and audience members. Theater seats that would typically be sold had to be taken out of inventory.
“I took one of our standard seat maps that we built with TicketForce to make a manifest of the theater,” Rudolph said. “This program has a seat allocation feature where we can kill seats to ensure these won’t be ticketed.”
The TicketForce system allowed for seat map adjustments and other manipulations, which were necessary to meet the demands of live television.
“Our system provides the infrastructure to make sure everything works on the software side,” said Lynne King Smith, founder/CEO of TicketForce, based in Gilbert, Ariz. “The goal in this case was to paper the house successfully and make sure no seats were double sold by scanning tickets when people came in the door.”
Ticket reservations were taken on The Tonight Show’s website, with more tickets distributed than seats available to ensure a full house. The 1,000-plus free tickets were gone in about four minutes.
What was unusual for the theater was that The Tonight Show tickets were printed and distributed on the same day, which was the morning prior to the show.
“We’re used to a longer timeline, but the NBC staff does this type of ticketing distribution every night of the show, so it was not new to them,” Rudolph said.
The inviting exterior of the Phoenix landmark lured guests to The Tonight Show and provided attractive TV color shots.
After tickets were scanned, no-shows were reported and stand-by reservations were accepted.
Audience members were provided with strict rules prior to seating. Everyone was to remain seated for the hour of filming and cameras and camera phones were prohibited.
“There were a few people who broke the no camera rule who were ejected and replaced by standby ticketholders,” Rudolph said. “Otherwise, everything went seamlessly, and our first live broadcast was a success.”
Interviewed for this article: Geoff Rudolph, (602) 495-7172; Lynne King Smith, (480) 510-6011