From the original post…

Arriving at the Studios
The show is filmed at Global Studios in Melbourne’s southbank, the area is quite nice (shame about the street side paid parking, with only a maximum of two hours. I’ll talk more about parking in a bit…).

We arrived 10 minutes late as the streets around the studios are extremely complicated to manoeuvre around. We finally parked the car, and were greeted at a side entrance gate which went through into a large indoor tent which sort of looked like a tent bar at the races. We sat for about 10 minutes before being called up to walk to the back alleyway where we waited for another 5 minutes before then being led through to the studio and our seats.

The Set and Studio
At first you cannot see the main set (see diagram to right), all you can see is a faux outdoor sheltered walkway which I believe is featured in the show occasionally. After a minute or so Kynan Barker the audience warm-up guy comes out to entertain the crowd while the crew get ready for the taping. After some applause coaching and what I guess are the same jokes he says to every audience he gets ready to intro Rove…

Rove
Kynan introduces Rove as he runs out through the door waving and smiling to big applause from the crowd. The crowd seemed quite excited and a maybe even a little star struck when he came out. Finally the faux outdoor walkway is folded away mechanically, which is quite funny as it makes quite a bit of noise to which Rove called it ‘a peice of crap’.

Taping the Show
After taking a few questions and joking around the taping starts, new kids this year… and they don’t tape episodes as such but contestants. So the kids and Rove all wear the same clothing for each taping so episodes can be made from different tapings.

Of course the big downside to the set would be that you are looking at the back of Rove and the contestant’s heads the entire time. There is a large screen you can watch to see is happening though (you are discouraged from looking at it though).

There seems to much more time sitting around listening and watching Rove and Kynan joke around than actual taping, which I prefered anyway. The amount of applause the audience does is quite extrodinary and as such it’s hard to hear Rove, the contestants or even the kids much of the time over the applause.

Kynan coaches the Applause from behind the cameras.

The “Incident”
The problem with on street parking at a taping is the meter ran out and had to be refilled so as I walked down the stairs to be escorted outside, I accidentally tripped on the tiny steps and to regain my balance I had to walk quicker. I embarrassing made quite a racket but luckily Rove was backstage at the time, otherwise I would be even more embarrassed. A security guard whispered to be more careful next time. I think I realised that myself.

Tid bits…
I won’t reveal spoilers because that is unfair to those who want to watch however there will be at least one celebrity appear on the new season of 5th Grader. There was one at this taping, so probably more in other tapings.

Also… Rove is small.

Finally
Overall it was great fun, it started at about 2.30 and finished at around 5.45 and Rove was out with the audience most of the time so you do get plenty of time of Rove’s mucking around which relieves the monotomy of taping.

If you want pure entertainment this isn’t the taping for you, but if you like the show or just Rove in general it’s great fun. Thanks to the rep from Roving Enterprises for getting me in.