Goodbye, in-person skits. Hello, video conference calls. Late-night talk shows, game shows and reality TV have all been hit by COVID-19 in a unique way. The pandemic has forced audiences to change the way they watch while challenging hosts and producers to reevaluate their long-standing formulas.

With shows like Saturday Night Live now broadcasting from individual castmates' homes and The Late Late Show with James Corden being filmed in Corden's makeshift garage studio, it is clear that live TV shows have been forced far outside of their comfort zones. This push has resulted in positively fuelling creativity in new spaces but also reveals certain qualities of live TV magic that can never be truly replicated at home.

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In the early days of the pandemic, late-night and daytime talk shows continued filming business as usual, only with the absence of a live studio audience. Eventually, these shows had to move out of their studios entirely. Studio audiences have always been an important element of talk shows since their inception, such as Ellen DeGeneres' daily dance through her cheering audience. From providing genuine laughter for a light-hearted atmosphere to audience participation with audience members yelling out comments during taping, the host-audience dynamic is a key characteristic that is irreplaceable in the classic talk-show format.

Certain jokes that hosts had grown accustomed to making relied too heavily on audience reactions. The lack of laughter in the room noticeably made the jokes fall flat. Not only did many jokes end in awkward silences in the empty studios, but the trademark cheering that comes with live audiences also took away an intangible sense of excitement that is impossible to capture without real people. A positive result from late-night programming is that Jimmy Kimmel Live!, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon all saw their ratings rise by double digits since locking out their audiences. This growth in at-home viewership can be attributed to more people staying at home and watching network television than there were pre-quarantine.

While delivering comedy only to be met with no live laughter would certainly be a setback for most, this audience-less period also resulted in exciting shifts in formats for some reality shows. After facing cancellation just seven months earlier, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire debuted its twenty-first season on ABC on April 8th, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel. The new season introduced a new method of play for the established game show as it featured celebrity contestants playing for charities and invited the social-distancing audience to play from home via a mobile app. The new format of the game show cleverly replaced its "Ask the Audience" lifeline by allowing each celebrity guest to bring along a friend to turn to for help.

In a post-quarantine world, Millionaire's latest format ingenuously capitalizes on providing a way for at-home viewers to feel engaged and included while eliminating the possibility of feeling a void from a lack of in-studio audience. In a world where playing games online with friends has become one of the only ways to connect with others, Jimmy Kimmel's Who Wants to Be a Millionaire fits in perfectly. In fact, since the at-home participation element of the game has been successfully integrated, it is highly likely that this tool for engagement will stick around even after the show gets its live audience back.

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SNL cast work from home in a zoom meeting

After shifting production to completely take place at home for the sake of social distancing, live shows further departed from tradition and took to the computer screens. Saturday Night Live is a show that has been met with an interesting challenge as the long-running comedy show fully relies on in-person interactions to perform skits. Now that cast members can no longer rely as heavily on their castmates, each SNL performer is forced to explore their individual levels of creativity. This positive side effect of the cast's isolation breathes fresh ideas into the show by displaying unique takes on self-taped skits, such as Carole Fineman's impersonation of Carole Baskin, and music videos, such as Pete Davidson and Adam Sandler's "Stuck in the House" rap. The newly formatted show even pulled off a parody of Zoom calls.

Just like SNL's new format, the reunion episode of Tiger King also relied on bringing the docuseries cast together via Facetime interviews. Pre-quarantine, a reunion show focused on ensemble casts answering personal questions and rehash relationships. However, the virtual version of the reunion focused less on the stories of cast members. Host Joel McHale held control of the conversation and asked primarily superficial questions without addressing real issues surrounding the controversial series. The Facetime format of the episode is the pivotal reason for this disconnect, since regular Joes predisposed to being uncomfortable in front of a camera would be even more uncomfortable being vulnerable with a celebrity comedian from the socially awkward environment of their computer or phone screens.

Following COVID-19, audiences are sure to eventually flood back to the studios to contribute their applause and participation. However, complete normalcy may not be in the cards for these live shows. Ultimately, that is a good thing.

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