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Scoring Tickets to Saturday Night Live

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Old Mar 2, 2007, 2:36 am
  #1  
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Scoring Tickets to Saturday Night Live

Have a previously unplanned trip to NYC for 2 days at the end of the month, including a Sat stayover. Would love to see this show live. Since the lottery for tickets to SNL only occurs in August, and getting a standby ticket is a longshot, are there any other tips/tricks to getting a confirmed ticket? Are there hawkers around for these?
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Old Mar 2, 2007, 8:42 am
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SNL tickets are one of those rare things that even money may not be able to buy in NYC. To my knowledge, most of the people selling on craigslist, etc. are scammers.

If you have any close friends or relatives who work at or with NBC in a high level capacity, they might be able to help. But even that is far from guaranteed.

The NYT had a recent article (permanent link, registration required) chronicling the reporter's efforts to get standby tickets to the studio audiences for Letterman, Conan, SNL, Daily Show and the Colbert Report.

Last edited by themicah; Mar 3, 2007 at 2:04 pm Reason: registration required, not subscription
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Old Mar 2, 2007, 12:39 pm
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Craigs list has them from time to time, but usually way more people looking then selling.

They go for $75 to 100 each.

They sometimes show up on ebay too.

You may have better luck standing by for the dress rehersal earlier in the day, but it's still a long shot.
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Old Mar 2, 2007, 2:18 pm
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Originally Posted by cordelli
Craigs list has them from time to time, but usually way more people looking then selling.

They go for $75 to 100 each.

They sometimes show up on ebay too.
Do you know anybody who has ever successfully obtained tickets by either of these methods? Looking at CL and eBay right now, there isn't a single "SNL tickets" or "Saturday Night Live tickets" auction on eBay--current or past. And while there are plenty of people looking on CL, I don't see a single ad offering.
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Old Mar 2, 2007, 2:50 pm
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If anyone's interested in David Letterman tickets, they often (not always, but often) give tickets away on taping days on the northwest corner of 47th and Broadway around lunch time. I went a couple of weeks ago when Harry Connick Jr. was the guest.
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Old Mar 2, 2007, 10:12 pm
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I don't think they can be legally sold as they are free tickets, and it's illegal to "sell" tickets to television shows that have commercials. When they are on e-bay (I've seen them there from time to time) I think they get pulled when e-bay does their normal ticket checking sweeps. I believe they are there so the seller can find the names of people to deal with off line.

I know somebody in the office who bought letterman tickets and rachael ray on craigs list, but don't know anybody who has done e-bay.

Again, there isn't much reason to bother listing them, there are plenty of people wanting, just make a few calls and collect your cash.
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Old Mar 3, 2007, 6:15 am
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i am going to nyc in april, is it not true that if i get up early and wait in line at 730 am i will get a ticket to see snl?
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Old Mar 3, 2007, 6:37 am
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If you get in line at noon the day before you stand a good chance at being there early enough to get stand by tickets when they give them out at 7:30 on Saturday.

That means you get to come back for either the rehersal or the show, depending on which you have, and stand in line again hoping they need people from the standby line, which is very rare from what friends have said.

If you don't have ticket in your hand for the show now I don't think there's much of a chance getting in to see it, certainly not without standing in line for many hours to be in the front.
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Old Mar 3, 2007, 7:32 am
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so i need to get in line the day before they give out the tickets, wow ok i'm only in new york for the weekend. so i'm gonna hold off on that.

wow crazy that it's in such demand...

but i guess if you can sell the tickets then it makes sense for a college kid to stand in line get 2 or 4 and then sell them, it's better money than i made when i was in college.
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Old Mar 3, 2007, 8:21 am
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Originally Posted by guy999
i am going to nyc in april, is it not true that if i get up early and wait in line at 730 am i will get a ticket to see snl?
Read the NYT article linked above.
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Old Mar 3, 2007, 1:10 pm
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i read the article, very informative, and contrary to the above, while I do have a login on nytimes, i don't pay for access and i can read the article without difficulty..
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Old Mar 3, 2007, 2:04 pm
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Originally Posted by guy999
i read the article, very informative, and contrary to the above, while I do have a login on nytimes, i don't pay for access and i can read the article without difficulty..
Oops. Fixed it to say "registration required" instead of "subscription."
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Old Mar 21, 2007, 10:26 pm
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I searched for months and was able to buy a pair of tickets to SNL last year from an "Autism Speaks" auction on eBay. The tickets were about $2500 for the pair.
As it turned, out the tickets were donated by Bob Wright, the CEO of NBC, so we were in a special line called "the friends of Bob Wright". The seats were front row dead center where you could see the entire show unfold. To me, it was a once in a lifetime experience and worth every penny.
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Old Mar 22, 2007, 6:45 am
  #14  
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Originally Posted by TravelStar
I searched for months and was able to buy a pair of tickets to SNL last year from an "Autism Speaks" auction on eBay. The tickets were about $2500 for the pair.
As it turned, out the tickets were donated by Bob Wright, the CEO of NBC, so we were in a special line called "the friends of Bob Wright". The seats were front row dead center where you could see the entire show unfold. To me, it was a once in a lifetime experience and worth every penny.
Besides the great experience, I trust you got a nice write-off in addition?
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Old Mar 22, 2007, 7:02 am
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Originally Posted by Analise
Besides the great experience, I trust you got a nice write-off in addition?
And supported a good cause. Sounds like a good deal to me.
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