Hurricane Sandy Postpones TV’s Entertainment

Broadway, Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center all remain dark on Tuesday as Hurricane Sandy, the superstorm, swept through New York. The NY entertainment industry is urging to continue to go on with the show; even if that meant empty stadiums and studios. David Letterman and Jimmy Fallon experienced just that. Both late night talk show hosts taped their shows Monday night, before Hurricane Sandy landed, with some quite laughter-less monologues. Letterman repeated the feat Tuesday, while Fallon brought in a nice crowd to the taping.

Both shows have been careful about audience member’s safety and keeping them out on stormy streets and subways that remain without power. Letterman explains, “just like every night, we pretend the audience isn’t here,” of the empty Ed Sullivan Theater to band leader Paul Schafer. The host ran his monologue from his desk, without bothering to pause for the usual laughs from the crowd. Fallon welcomed back a studio audience after a night of awkard silence on Monday night. Fallon jokes, “first off, thanks to our great audience for making it out to the show tonight …last night’s audience was the worst.”

Another talk show to experience the wrath of Hurricane Sandy was Jimmy Kimmel. Kimmel bought his Los Angeles- based “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” to Brooklyn to shoot a week’s worth of shows in the Brooklyn Academy of Music on Tuesday night. He canceled the taping of the ABC program’s Monday showing due to the storm. Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report” both canceled taping for Tuesday night’s tapings.

The damage brought by the storm has continued to caused the cancellation of film premieres, film and TV production, and even a performance by Bruce Springsteen. The Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band concert scheduled for Tuesday night at the Rochester Blue Cross Arena in upstate New York was postponed until Wednesday due to flight cancellations for many ticket holders. The city also revoked film permits of such shows like “Law & Order: SVU” and “30 Rock”, with many not returning to taping on Tuesday. Films forced to halt production included Darren Aronofsky’s “Noah” and Akiva Godsman’s “Winter’s Tale”.

Morning shows were affected by the storm as well. ABC’s “Good Morning America” and NBC’s “Today Show”, just to name a few, aired live on Tuesday, but GMA had to cancel its planned Wednesday Halloween special. Many daytime shows will resume taping on Wednesday.

Signed, Shanika Simmons