I hate it, but I get it. My hate is more-so for the fact I’ll never get to see Studio 33 if this truly goes down. However, it will still be the same show at the end of the day that I’ll enjoy just the same as always. I’ll still make my pilgrimage to (insert future studio here) whenever the stars align. I’m surprised the show lasted this long at TVC post-CBS sale of the facility, to be honest.
Given the complexities involved in the creation of the set as we know it, I imagine every opportunity will be taken to make the show look exceptionally similar, if not practically identical, to the way it appears now — at least to the untrained eye. Big Doors, the turntable, etc. can’t be easily recreated, so I’m sure what we have now will simply be dismantled and reassembled. They’ll probably want as little fanfare around this move as possible. I’ll even go out on a limb and say the audience pit will probably be reconstructed in the new studio — albeit with production-friendly modifications that weren’t thought of or needed 50+ years ago. And if there was ever a good reason to finally ditch the pods in favor of regular, ‘normal’ seating, this move provides the perfect transition. If filling 300+ seats is a concern post-Covid, they can simply scale down the the size of the audience pit to maybe 100-200 seats. After all, it’s a new studio — a fresh start. They can do whatever the hell they want!
Until I see a leaked photo proving otherwise in the coming months, I don’t see any reason to get worked up over this. 51 years is a remarkable time for a production to remain in the same studio — never mind for a production to be on the air at all!
In some ways, it’s kind of exciting to see such an historic change take place just for how big of a deal it is (to me as a fan, anyway). I’ll try my best to look forward to it unless/until I’m given a reason not to.
