Times Square Studios
| Times Square Studios | |
|---|---|
 The logo of Times Square Studios (since an unknown date). | |
| Alternative names | TSSL |
| General information | |
| Location | Manhattan, New York City |
| Address | 1500 Broadway |
| Current tenants |
-Good Morning America Assorted other ABC News and ESPN programs (see article for others) |
| Inaugurated | 1999 |
| Owner | The Walt Disney Company |
Times Square Studios (TSS) is an American television studio owned by The Walt Disney Company, located on the southeastern corner of West 44th Street and Broadway in the Times Square area of the borough of Manhattan. The studio is best known as the production home of ABC News' Good Morning America (GMA), a morning news and talk program, segments for other ABC News programs, and various programs on ESPN.
Background
Times Square Studios is on the site of the former Hotel Claridge, built in 1911. In 1972, the hotel was demolished and the current structure, which housed the National Theater,[1] and a Beefsteak Charlie's restaurant, was built. The theater closed in 1998.
The studio was designed by Walt Disney Imagineering, Disney's design and development arm. The original concept for the studio was conceived by Harry Grossman. His plan called for the studio to broadcast many shows twenty-four hours a day for both Disney-owned and non-Disney programs.
The building's outer facade consists of over nine LED ribbons of lights. The 8th LED ribbon of lights from the top is used as a ticker for ABC News, while the 9th is a sports ticker for ESPN. Also on the facade is a large TV display made by Mitsubishi - Diamond Vision, though the display is sponsored by Siemens, which has their logo below the display. This screen mainly broadcasts the late SportsCenter, along with WABC-TV and ABC News newscasts during non-GMA hours, along with high-profile sports events, series and films on the ABC and ESPN family of networks for both the convenience of Times Square visitors and to provide a simple venue for crowd photo ops for those high-profile events.
The studio is primarily used for productions of ABC News and ESPN. It has also been used regularly to produce programming for other shows not broadcast by a Disney-owned network (such as special week-long New York weeks for international morning programs) including shows for the Australia Network, BBC World News, Discovery Channel, and HBO.
Productions at Times Square Studios
- Good Morning America and Good Afternoon America — ABC News' morning program and its temporary summer 2012 afternoon counterpart
- Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve (Times Square segments) — ABC's New Year's Eve telecast
- ABC Vote '08: Election Night — ABC News' coverage of the 2008 U.S. presidential election
- ABC 2000: The Vote — ABC News' coverage of the 2000 U.S. presidential election
- ABC 2000 Today — ABC News' coverage of the turn of the millennium from December 31, 1999, into January 1, 2000
- ABC & ESPN — National Basketball Association (NBA) pre-game and half-time updates
- ABC Your Voice, Your Vote '12: Election Night — ABC News' coverage of the 2012 U.S. presidential election
- ABC Your Voice, Your Vote '14: Election Night - ABC News' coverage of the 2014 U.S. midterm election
Previous productions at Times Square Studios
- 20/20 — an ABC News television-newsmagazine program
- Primetime — an ABC News television-newsmagazine program
- Good Morning America Weekend — The weekend version of GMA; outside of special events, the program is recorded at ABC News's main studio at the ABC Television Center in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of Manhattan; a Times Square backdrop is projected onto the set's rear-projection screen for continuity purposes
- Olbermann — ESPN2
- Nightline — ABC News' late-night news program, moved to ABC Television Center in 2012
References
Coordinates: 40°45′25″N 73°59′08″W / 40.75694°N 73.98556°W