ALBANY – Audience members who attended the highly expected first season of Saturday Night Live last weekend gained a welcome wonder when they left: a $150 check.
NBC’s venerable comic book series opened its 46th live season from Studio 8H at Rockefeller Center in New York on Saturday, welcoming about a hundred more people into a state that has some of the most restrictive COVID-19 regulations in the country.
New York coronavirus restrictions for studio systems like SNL obviously imply that media productions can only have a live studio if they are made up entirely of paid actors, groups, or employees.
That’s where they got here.
By paying for the studio hearing, NBC was able to tell audience members, who ordered loose tickets through a third-party online page before the week, as employees, which aligned the program with state regulations on coronavirus, according to the state. ministry of fitness.
“SNL has shown that it has followed reopening guidelines, adding that it conforms to members of the public through a third-party casting procedure and pays them for their time as paid members of the public,” Ministry of Health spokesman Jonah Bruno said in a statement. Statement.
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The program’s plan to have a live broadcast amid the COVID-19 pandemic caused fear in the Department of Health in the days leading up to Saturday’s premiere, and the company wondered if SNL violated the state’s existing ban on entertainment events.
SNL had distributed loose tickets to the 1iota screen, which pays itself as an audience casting agency, but the 1iota online page did not mention any refunds for members of the public, which led the state to consider a public warning through a spokesperson Thursday night.
NBC, however, kept the week in which it followed all state rules and protocols.
“We are working with the Ministry of Health and following all guidelines,” said one spokesman.
Sean Ludwig, a Brooklyn freelancer who runs barbecue-focused newsletters, attended Saturday’s show.
Ludwig said he and his audience colleagues were surprised by the checks, which had been handed out when they left the studio, and were informed in advance that they were being paid, he said.
“We really liked getting a check for $150 when we left the theater,” he said.
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Audience members were subjected to strict coronavirus live recording protocols and a pre-day dress practice session, according to SNL’s ticketing website.
Each user underwent rapid COVID-19 control upon entering Rockefeller Center and had to go through negative control before entering the studio. Members of the public had to wear masks for the duration of the exhibition and were placed in “modules” of seven, 8 or nine other people who requested tickets together
State regulations COVID-19 allowed a paid concert of no more than one hundred people or 25% of the studio’s capacity.
NBC plans to stick to the same protocols for the upcoming show (SNL’s 1iota price ticket page has remained in maintenance since Saturday, but is expected to be relaunched soon, according to the network).
Ludwig said he felt safe with the recording, and noted that all other people’s organizations were kept at bay. “It was much more extensive than any other activity I did at COVID in terms of safety,” Ludwig said Tuesday.
“For me, they followed all the regulations they had to follow. “
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Similar entertainment venues have posed a challenge with state restrictions on coronaviruses, which have kept concert halls, cinemas and venues closed since March.
On Monday, Regal Cinemas announced that it would close all of its 536 theaters across the country indefinitely, noting that the continuation of the New York closing order has a domino effect that has left theaters in the country in trouble.
Rich Azzopardi, senior adviser and spokesman for Governor Andrew Cuomo, said the state is looking to save him a momentary wave of COVID-19.
“We sense that some other people are dissatisfied, but you know what?It’s better to be dissatisfied than in poor health or worse,” Azzopardi told the Albany Times Union.
Bruno, a spokesman for the Ministry of Health, said the state had no explanation as to why SNL had not followed state rules on COVID-19.
“There is no evidence of non-compliance; However, if any are discovered, we will refer it to the government for follow-up,” he said.
Jon Campbell is a new York State government reporter for USA TODAY. You can be contacted JCAMPBELL1@Gannett. com or on Twitter at @JonCampbellGAN.