For the past two seasons, Kelly Clarkson has filmed her talk show’s premiere weeks in New York City, but now, she is taking her show to the Big Apple for good.
“The Kelly Clarkson Show” will move production from the Universal lot in Los Angeles to NBC Studios in 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York next season, Variety has confirmed with a NBCUniversal spokesperson.
The talk show will film in front of a studio audience in the iconic studio 6A, which has been home to Jimmy Fallon, Conan O’Brien and David Letterman. A new state-of-the-art studio will be built for Clarkson’s show, as well as technical facility and support space.
The east coast move for the talk show follows the expansion of New York’s Film Tax Credit, which was recently signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul in the fiscal year 2024 budget. As part of the program’s expansion, the state now provides an incentive to eligible television productions that relocate to New York and reduces the eligibility requirements for talk and variety shows from five years of filming to two years.
Earlier this year, Variety exclusively reported that Clarkson’s show was exploring a move to the TriState area, citing a possible tax incentive if the show moved out of L.A.
While physical production of the show is moving to New York, an individual familiar with the talk show’s plans says details are still being ironed out regarding the show’s entire staff, which has been based in Los Angeles since the show premiered in 2019. Clarkson will move to New York, along with her executive producer and showrunner, Alex Duda, and her longtime musical director, Jason Halbert.
“The Kelly Clarkson Show” was recently nominated for 11 daytime Emmys and has scooped up 13 trophies during its run. The show (and Clarkson) is top priority for NBCUniversal, which moved the talk show into the coveted time slot previously occupied by “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” on the local NBC stations. As the daytime marker dwindles, Clarkson’s show has held steady in the ratings, growing consecutively season-to-season, and ranking third among all syndicated daytime talk shows. This season, “The Kelly Clarkson Show” is averaging 1.37 million daily viewers.
(Excerpt) Read more in: Variety