How to watch Showtime live

We happened to be invited by my mother's friend who has a husband that's working in ABS-CBN to watch Showtime live. It was an interesting experience for I have never watched a variety show live before and it's pretty amusing to see how the show works behind the camera.

So here's my experience, hoping that you can get some ideas on how to watch Showtime live and also, what to expect.

There are three ways on how you can watch it live:

1. Walk-in 
Though it's a bid tad of work since you have to be there very early and not everyone who lined up can go inside. During my case, only 22 people were allowed to go in via raffle. 

2. An invitation from an employee there
This is how we got in.
The guards outside of the building have their list of their employee's names and how many people they invited. To get in, you have to say who invited you and voila, they'll let you in without falling in line. In our case, we have to wait a bit more because only 5 people were listed there though my mom's friend told us that she listed 6. We had to plead for the guards to let that one outcasted member of us to go inside. 

3. Studio tours
This is like the most deluxe way of watching Showtime; you're a bit more prioritized. The chance to get inside the studio first is yours thus giving you the frontline seats. To schedule a tour, we were told that you need to have at least ten people who's going to pay P180 each. Note that the payment is not for watching Showtime but for the tour around the network. (The show is free!) You can call the office at (+632) 416-3211 or 415-2272 loc 3622/3624.

I even had a picture with Sen. Miriam at the waiting room. Hahaha

After going inside ABS-CBN's building, we were directed to a cozy waiting room that's air-conditioned and has free wifi. Nice one, ABS-CBN. After that, we were entertained by a guy named Jonas and he was hilarious. By the way, it was around 8:30 AM when we got in. We waited there for about 3 hours to get inside the studio though you won't notice the time because somebody's entertaining you. (And the wifi of course)

REMINDERS:

1. No food/drinks inside the studio. You can eat in the waiting room before going in and there's a lot of food stalls there.
2. No loitering and you're not allowed to get out of the studio during the show aside from going to the comfort room of course.
3. HAVE FUN!

PICTUREEEEEE

At around 11:50 AM we were instructed to go to the studio and tadaaaa! The studio is not the way I thought it was. It's like the cameras are making all the illusions to make the studio look big in the television. Cool, right?

After we're all settled in our seats, two guys came in and taught us the Showtime song and some dance routines for their segment called RETRO BIDA.  Before the show began, a digital clock was shown in the led screen of the stage indicating the time left before the start. How exciting it was when we're counting 10 seconds to 1. By the way, I'm so happy that Kuya Kim prayed with all the Madlang Pipol before the show started.

Me and mom!

Then, the hosts entered and all were there except Karylle and Vice and I'm a bit sad because of that. I want to see Vice Ganda even once. Nevertheless, the show was still enjoyable...Duh, Anne Curtis is so fun to watch.. I love her.

The stage

During the ano-mang-lahi-ano-mang-kulay-song, the dancers were pulling people to join the hosts on the stage to have fun. Too bad we're seated at the far back. Also, every commercial break, some people had the chance to take pictures with the hosts before being stopped by the marshals .Ughh.. I was so jealous of them who had their pictures with Anne.

My mom with her amigas

I thought it would be boring to watch the show live because of the commercial break but it's not that bad because you can be entertained on how the production people prepares every segment. Damn! There's a lot of work given to these shows that we don't even acknowledge.

When the show ended, the marshals instructed us to leave accordingly.

In the end, the experience was fun because you get to see the hosts live and get the chance to interact with them without the distance being the barrier. Hello? Anne is like always asking us if we're good and if we're having fun... and it's cute. Hahaha! (So obsessed with Anne)

All people who watch Showtime should try watching it live to see it in a different way and also to appreciate the efforts that's been put to make the show as enjoyable as it is.

PS.

My mom doesn't watch ABS-CBN that much and it's funny because of how many times she pertained to "Showtime" as "Wowowee". Like, "Nasan ba yung pila para sa Wowowee?" We both laughed.