Covered audience chairs

[priac]

Hi
Anybody know why they have about 6-8 chairs (To the left as your facing audience) vacant and covered with those $ sign covers?   

The obvious answer is people in those seats would have very poor view of half the stage especially since they enlarged the announcer’s station a few years back.
In fact, I’ve been to tapings and I know Door 3 is practically perpendicular those sitting in a good part of that section.

Today’s Super Bowl show ( rerun of course) had those seats covered. 

Knowing for some popular shows people are turned away due to space limitations, I would think the folks that don’t make it in to the studio wouldn’t mind sitting there - even if they’re bad seats- just to get a chance to come on down. Thoughts?

On really popular shows I even recall seeing folks sitting in folding chairs in back of normal audience area.

[gamesurf]

That’s just it, you’d be staring at the back of George’s podium the whole taping.

Part of the show’s job is making sure that people have a good time at the taping, whether they get called down or not; it would be kind of rude to ”reward” somebody with that view after making them wait 4-5 hours. They also take people from the back row/on the wall of that section and give them the seats of people who have come on down as the taping progresses.

And folding chairs in the back are actually terrific seats, you can easily see everything that goes on onstage since you’re so high up. Vastly preferable to staring at George’s butt for an hour.

[PIRfanSince72]

Do they also have other empty "assigned" seats for the six contestants who make it up on stage?

[whewfan]

Do they also have other empty "assigned" seats for the six contestants who make it up on stage?

Yes, there are seats in the front row to the right that have the dollar seat covers where the contestants that were called down sit. I wasn't aware they also had the seat covers by George's podium.

[garffreak]

Do they also have other empty "assigned" seats for the six contestants who make it up on stage?

Kind of.  At least in the past, the seats in the front row far stage right are reserved for the winners waiting to spin the wheel and the first showcase showdown winner waiting for the showcase.