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NBC Studio Tour

New York, New York, United States

NBC Tour

The NBC Studio Tour is a tour of some of the NBC studios in New York City. The tour starts and ends at the NBC Store in the GE Building (30 Rockefeller Plaza). Visitors must pick up their tickets ahead of time from the ticket desk located on the second floor of the NBC store. The website says you should pick them up 30 minutes before the tour.

The NBC Studio Tour starts with a 10-minute introductory video that shows clips from the history of NBC television and radio. Many of the clips were quite old, but it was still a neat video to see. From there, our group was led to a security line where we went through metal detectors and had any bags examined. Photography was not permitted on the tour, but they still let you keep your camera with you.

After the security line, we went into two elevators, and up to the news studio. One of our guides told us a bit about it, then we moved on to the Conan O'Brien studio. It was quite small, and the guide there told us a lot of tricks they use to make it appear larger on TV.

From there, we went to see the Saturday Night Live studio. It was empty, but quite large (compared to the previous studios). We inquired about tickets, but unfortunately, we missed the lottery submission deadline (August). The guides had some interesting stories to tell about the show, and various things that had happened there.

Our last two stops were a make-up room, and then a "fake news room" where they took your picture (so they could try to sell it to you), and had two volunteers pretend to do a newscast. They used a green screen there, which is pretty old and unimpressive technology these days.

We visited the tour on a Sunday morning (at 9:30am). Although it was early, nothing was taping, so we got to go in three separate studios. That was neat. When you book your tickets, NBC tells you that they can't guarantee visits to any studios (as a precautionary measure).

Cost

The NBC studio tour costs $18.50 for adults, or you can purchase a combination ticket with the NBC Rockefeller Center Tour for $23.45.

Estimated Visiting Time

The tour lasts approximately one hour (including the time spent in the security line and the video).