The intro to the show (and to some real shows, I think) is, "Live on tape from Hollywood".
Now that sounds kinda silly. How can something be live and on tape? Well, it can be if everyone at the recording has to behave as if it were a live show which includes breaking for commercials and getting timing exactly correct. It's purely a psychological ruse to create immediacy and spontaneity. As you suggest, the show could be filmed in segments without breaks, but think of how far you could take that. The show could be broken into twenty segments, each with a break and multiple takes if something isn't done perfectly, then edited into a show of the required length with commercials inserted. But then why bother with specific lengths for anything? You could edit interviews down to get the best answers, or tape segments on different days. That would completely destroy the immediacy of the show.
There's also the issue of time constraints. The show appears to have been taped late morning in Los Angeles which is mid-afternoon Eastern. The show can be picked up as it's taped ("live" as it were) via the network feed by affiliates and broadcast in various time zones later at night. Post show editing doesn't really work in that scenario.
In fact the satellite feed to affiliates makes the show, to all intents and purposes, truly live.
Sometimes the show was swapped out with a highlights package if it went badly wrong, but that doesn't change the basic idea.
reply
share