NBC Studios: Tours and How to Join the Audience

Did you know you can sit in the audience for tapings and rehearsals of the most famous shows at NBC Studios, filmed at 30 Rock in the Rockefeller Center? It's true!

Below I'll walk you through what it takes to be in the audience for Saturday Night Live, Late Night with Seth Meyers or Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show. 😉

Another way to see the NBC studios, home of this famous American network, is to take a tour of the facilities. But if you ask me, I'd rather go as part of the audience (just know that it takes some planning and a little extra time in the city).

How to visit NBC Studios

If you're a TV buff and you love New York, you know Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin worked at the NBC Studios on the show 30 Rock.

In fact, the show's title is the address of the Comcast Building (30 Rockefeller Plaza), the main building at Rockefeller Center where the NBC Studios are.

If you've read this far, it's obviously because you're dying to get inside the studios, so let's get right to the ways to visit NBC.

1. Guided studio tour

There's a guided tour that takes you through the studios, soundstages dating back to the 1930s, the golden age of broadcasting.

There are also 1-hour guided tours you can pay for at the NBC store. They cost $33 per person and run every 20 minutes at the following times:

• Monday to Thursday: 8:20 am to 2:20 pm
• Friday: 8:20 am to 5 pm
• Some Saturdays and Sundays: 8:20 am to 6 pm

2. Sitting in the audience for a taping

If you're a fan of Saturday Night Live, Late Night or the Tonight Show, the first thing to do when you get to New York is stop by the NBC store (The Shop), in the basement of the Comcast Building, and ask which shows still have spots open.

They hand out available tickets starting at 7 am on the day of the taping, so go try your luck.

They'll also offer you the chance to be in the audience for the rehearsals of Seth Meyers' or Jimmy Fallon's monologues. Our reactions to the jokes are how they decide which ones make it into the live taping.

I was lucky enough to get into a Seth Meyers rehearsal, and I'll do it again every time I visit NYC. Highly recommended!

If you work in communications or video production, sitting in on these rehearsals is a dream come true. You get a firsthand look behind the scenes at the preproduction of one of the most famous talk shows in the United States (watching Seth Meyers joke around with the writers is priceless).

If you plan ahead, you can book your ticket to Saturday Night Live or another live show (read the instructions for each show). For the most popular programs, they run online lotteries several months in advance.

But if you'd rather not overthink it, do what I did: head to NBC's The Shop and ask what's available 🙂

The NBC Studios store

Browsing the NBC store in the basement of 30 Rock is like visiting a television museum.

Hundreds of objects and merchandise from all of the network's shows and series. Seinfeld, Law & Order, Will & Grace, The Office, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, just to name a few…

If you want spectacular New York souvenirs, you have to visit The Shop.

History of the NBC Studios

The NBC network's studios are part of the Rockefeller Center, the urban complex built by the Rockefeller family to house the booming radio and television industry.

That's why the GE Building, originally the RCA Building, was fitted out with the spacious studios of the National Broadcasting Company, or NBC.

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Address

30 Rockefeller Plaza
Entrance on Sixth Avenue, between 49th and 50th Streets

It's the same entrance you use to visit Top of the Rock and the Rainbow Room, the classic restaurant on the 65th floor of the GE Building that has appeared in dozens of movies.

Getting there

Subway B, D, F. 47-50 St-Rockefeller Ctr station

Map