Anyone ever been in the audience of a big TV show?

[Confuzzleduzzled]

I’ve applied for tickets for BGT. They’re free but still first come first served. Does anyone know how long in advance you have to queue up to get in?

We got there a couple of hours before doors opened and they stopped letting people in about 50 people before us! Very disappointing. So I would get there earlier than that!

We saw Pointless. Queue was at least a couple of hours.

I saw Dancing on Ice. Total chaos and queued for hours. Had to sign phones in but the VIP guests were all allowed to keep theirs

Hi Confuzzleduzzled,
I just went to see BGT judges' auditions on 24th January -- my first time, so I can give some advice. I won Applause Store tickets for the afternoon show (apparently there were 2 tapings that day, one in the afternoon, one in evening, so look carefully at your e-ticket).

1. The "arrive by" time on my e-ticket said 12:30 PM, but the fine print said that's when the ticket exchange CLOSES, not OPENS. To find out when the ticket exchange OPENS, you need to check Applause Store's social media on the day of your show (they give you links to Insta, X, and Facebook). So on Jan 24th, I checked their social media, and they announced the ticket exchange opened around 10:10 AM. I rushed to the ticket exchange point on Ramilles Street by 10:50 AM, and there were already about 300+ people in the queue by that time. I heard anecdotally that people had started queueing up at 9 AM that morning! There is a separate queue for priority e-ticket holders and they get allocated their paper tickets first, before us general admission folks.
2. Wait time: I waited in the queue till about 12:15 PM (so almost 1.5 hours) before I got allocated my paper tickets. Your entire party needs to be present and everyone has to have photo ID, no exceptions. No kids under 12.
3. Seats: The seat allocation is really random. We ended up getting Grand Circle tickets, but found out later that someone who showed up later than us got Stalls, so it really comes down to luck. Grand Circle wasn't great for the show because you can't see the Judges at all, but you do get to see all the acts.
4. Return for the show: I was told to come back at 1:30 PM for the afternoon show. When I returned to the theatre after a quick lunch, it was an absolute MADHOUSE. People for the evening show were also queueing up by then, some people who had e-tickets for the afternoon show but didn't get allocated paper tickets were still waiting around in case there were extra spots and it was unclear where the afternoon show people who already HAD paper tickets were supposed to queue. My husband and I ended up waiting in the wrong queue that went nowhere (even staff gave us conflicting information!!), and wasted a lot of time. We ended up entering the theatre around 2:30 PM, and the actual taping started at 3 PM.
5. Show time: Lasted from 3-6 PM for 3 hours and it was AMAZING! Such creative, entertaining acts. Almost made all the faff and queueing worth it.

Hope this helps! I wish someone had given a detailed breakdown for me before I embarked on this process. Let me know if you have any Qs :) Enjoy the show!!

Ive seen Pointless a few times. You queue in the street for over an hour and they get cross if when they let you in you ask for the loo.]
Last year we had tickets at Wembley for a show where celebs were doing numbers from musicals. It went out as a one hour show on tv. We queued for over 2 hours and then sat in side and waited. Eventually the show started but after each number they had to re-do the set. It went on so long they had to ask people not to leave. Years ago you used to get treated properly when you went to see something filmed but not now.

It's all down to how popular the show is. I saw the Jonathan Ross when he was originally on channel 4 in the 90's and it was easy, however I was on the list for Top Gear for about 10 years and never got a ticket at all.

Thanks @liera that is so useful. We’ve got evening tickets so I was planning to get there around 1 or 2.

@Confuzzleduzzled yeah I think arriving at around 1-1:30 PM for the evening show should be good. Just be ready for tons of chaos and ApplauseStore staff who don't know what is going on either :) Based on the queueing and poor experience outside of the show, I don't think I would do this again, but it was nice to see the show once.