I have been watching the Oprah Show for a long time. Whenever I could remember to do it, I would check the ticket reservation page on her website. A few weeks ago, I entered my name during an open window for ticket reservations for the L.A taping of her show after the Oscars.
A few days later, I got an email that I was not picked. I understand. I moved on.
On Saturday morning, I got an email that extra tickets were available for the show and I need to reply ASAP if I wanted to come.
Yes! Yes! Yes!…I want to go. I basically had 2 days to be excited before the actual day of the taping.
On Monday morning, my mom and I woke up at 4:30am to get ready and leave the house by 5:30am.
Typical L.A. traffic greeted us very early and our 20 mile commute to Hollywood Bowl took us an hour.
We arrived at 6:45 am and saw how long the line was to board the bus for Kodak Theatre. The line wrapped around a huge parking lot and underground tunnel.
I followed the rules and left my camera behind in the car because it was prohibited at the taping. I relied on my blackberry camera for the rest of the day.
There were a lot of restrictions, including “no food”, so I ate breakfast at 5am and ate snack bars while in line to try to hold me over until the taping ended at noon.
It was freezing Monday morning. I was wearing a dress and peep toe shoes, needless to say, my toes were numb the whole time we were in line until we boarded the shuttle and warmed up.
After standing in line for 1.5 hours, we were finally able to check-in with the staff. We were towards the end of the line and I saw they started tearing down the signs already.
The Kodak Theatre is huge but even though we were in the Mezzanine section, we still had a good view of the stage.
The audience were asked to be on their best behavior because even though the show was not live, there was no time to edit the show before it is scheduled to air in Chicago a few hours after.
The highlights during the taping:
– Oprah interacting with audience during commercial breaks. She joked and said off air, “Look at you guys. You got your hair did, your nails did. I really appreciate you guys doing that for me. I appreciate people who put on their own clothes. I used to put on my own clothes”. It made everyone in the audience laugh.
– Seeing Anne Hathaway and surprise performance by Katy Perry.
– Live fireworks on stage during Katy Perry and the choir’s performance.
Oprah thanking the audience after the show.
I know that the experience was going to be once in a lifetime so I tried to really cherish every moment.
From the time we stood in line and talked to other fans who came from New York, Seattle and San Diego, to the nice shuttle driver, to the warm and helpful staff, every step of the way was memorable. The actual taping of the show lasted about an hour but the memories will last a lifetime.
While boarding the bus after the show, we saw remnants of the Oscar party that took place the night before.
I wished I had better pictures and took more pictures but then again, when you are in front of Oprah and enjoying the moment and being star struck from all the celebrity guests, taking pictures is the last thing on your mind.
Once we got home, I watched the show on TV. I tried to look for myself but the camera didn’t really zoom in to our section.
It was a great day and I was so happy to have the opportunity to watch the show during the last season.
Let me know if you have any questions.
Healthy Coconut 
Wow! What a process just to get into the show!! No Food??? I totally would have broken that rule 😉 Glad you guys had fun and that Oprah interacted with the audience (fabulous that she still does after all of this time). Thanks for sharing 🙂
Yeah, I couldn’t believe the “no food” rule either. I usually eat every 3 hours so I was starving by the time we got back to my car. I saw quiet a few people eating in their cars before leaving for the day.
That’s so awesome! What a fun experience!!!
Wow that looks like so much fun. I’m glad you got to experience such an event. I love Katy Perry so much.
What an incredible experience! I watched that episode and Oprah just seems like such a great person. I like that she interacted with the audience! 🙂
She interacted with the audience every chance she had during commercial breaks. People would yell “Move to L.A. Oprah” and someone would then say “No, move to New York”. It was a fun audience watching the show.
Amazing! I love Oprah and would have flipped out! I ma happy for you because you got to have such a memorable experience. 🙂
Thank you for sharing, that sounds really fun! You’re so lucky!
Sounds like a fun experience (minus the waiting in line)!
My thoughts exactly 🙂 We are hoping that when we go to Ellen’s show that we just park and go into the studio, hoping there isn’t a 2 hour of waiting in line. Oprah was worth it though.
This is SOOOOO COOOL!
Loved your recap and tidbits of info 🙂 Thanks for sharing ❤
OMG!!! I LOVELOVELOVE Oprah!!! You and your mom are so lucky! What a wonderful experience!
that looks so awesome!!!
amazing that you went!
Cool! Oprah seems cool in real life, then, too!
Except I would have gagged at the Katy Perry performance. As much as I try not to be rude, this morning they played that Firework song at the gym, and I couldn’t stand it!!!
They play that song a lot here in L.A. I think I remember hearing it 3 times during a one hour drive.
Her performance was nice though, she made sure the kids got the attention so she kept her voice low.
So very cool! I don’t know if I would have done all that to see the show, so thank you for sharing your experience with us. Waiting in line for anything is just not for me.
I am so jealous! This is soo cool! I would love to see Oprah one day.
That is SO awesome. I’m sad to see Oprah’s show go…. 😦