By Tara Kyle
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — The endless winter storms may have one fringe benefit — easing access to tapings for talk shows such as Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and the Late Show with David Letterman.
As freezing rain began to bear down Tuesday afternoon, followers of @LateNightJimmy received a tweet inviting them to call-in for tickets for Tuesday or Wednesday's shows.
"Due to the bad weather," the tweet explained, "we had several audience cancellations."
That is a good opportunity for people who called in to see guests such as Gossip Girl Leighton Meester on Tuesday because, typically, stand-by access to the Fallon Show is unlikely.
Manhattan online ticketing guide New York Show Tickets gives the Fallon show its second-lowest rating for typical standby ticket availability. The average wait for advance tickets ranges from three to five weeks, according to the guide.
A booking representative for one Manhattan-based talk show, who asked to remain anonymous, said that storms forced everyone to try to overbook shows, even more than usual.
Filling every seat in the audience is critical for live television programs, and even without snow and sleet disturbing buses and trains, February is a slow time because college students don't have vacation periods.
Over at the Ed Sullivan Theater, Director of Page Development Jennifer Ray said that while the Letterman show's standby list was usually capped at 50, they take extra names during extreme weather events.
"Even in the worst snowstorms, we always fill every seat," Ray said. On Tuesday, she said, doing so hadn't been too much of a scramble, but "tomorrow it might be worse — that's when the storm is supposed to pick up."
