Hurricane Sandy is huffing and puffing her way up the East Coast and will be passing over NYC sometime later tonight. As we all know she is a scary storm and because of that the North East is becoming a virtual ghost town with television shows shutting down production until she blows over.
Well the late night shows that tape in NYC all said yesterday they were going to go on as is, but today they are all changing their tune. Jimmy Kimmel Live, who flew across the county with his staff to do a week of special shows in Brooklyn, cancelled tonight’s taping. The ABC late night host Tweeted, “Though it pains us to do it, JKLfrom #Brooklyn tonight is cancelled. I’m disappointed too, but we want you to be safe.” No decision has been made as of now per his rep, if they will reschedule Chris Rock, Kelly Ripa and Alicia Keys for another night or if they will stay an extra day to make up for tonight.
While Kimmel is a guest in the Big Apple, Jimmy Fallon and David Letterman are not. The NBC Late Night host Tweeted, “We sent our audience home just to be safe. But we are doing our show tonight anyway. Should be fun. #LateNight” He said that after Tweeting, “Everyone in tonight’s studio audience gets a free Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream. #LateNight #wehave10peopleinourau”. I sent an email to the show’s rep to find out if the scheduled guests would be there and as of now have not heard back. When it comes to The Late Show, a CBS rep says that they also will be taping without an audience tonight and that Denzel Washington and musical guest Paul Banks will be there. I mean it is Denzel after all, and he ain’t afraid of anything! In all seriousness, I think they made the right choice in choosing the audience’s safety over having them in the background for a few laughs.
This will not be the first time that a late night show has gone without an audience, Craig Ferguson tried out for fun a few years back. But in his case there was no Frankenstorm coming his way.
Now having written all about how the late night shows will or will not go on, I pray that everyone on the East Coast in her path will be safe. That is the most important thing.
UPDATE: The Late Show just Tweeted this, “Studio audience in place and ready for tonight’s all-new #Sandy show with Denzel Washington & Paul Banks.” At least they still have a sense of humor about it all.
