Times Square Studios (TSS) is an American

television studio A television studio, also called a television production studio, is an installation room in which video productions take place, either for the production of live television and its recording onto video tape or other media such as SSDs, or for ...

owned by

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on Octobe ...

, located on the southeastern corner of West 44th Street and

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

Times Square Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and 42nd Street. Together with adjacent ...

Midtown Manhattan Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan and serves as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Buildi ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. The studio is best known as the production home of

ABC News ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast '' ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include morning news-talk show '' Good Morning America'', '' ...

' ''

Good Morning America ''Good Morning America'' (often abbreviated as ''GMA'') is an American morning television program that is broadcast on ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends with the debut of a Sunday edition on January 3, 1993. ...

'' (''GMA''), a morning news and talk program, segments for other ABC News programs, and various programs on

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

Background

Times Square Studios is on the site of the former

Hotel Claridge The Hotel Claridge was a 16-story building on Times Square in Manhattan, New York City, at the southeast corner of Broadway and 44th Street. Originally known as the Hotel Rector, it was built of brick in the Beaux-arts style in 1910–1911. Th ...

, built in 1911. In 1972, the hotel was demolished and the current structure, which housed the National Theater, and a

Beefsteak Charlie's Beefsteak Charlie's was a well-known Manhattan restaurant in the early 20th century, and later a restaurant chain based in the New York metropolitan area, which grew to over 60 locations in the early 1980s. History Original restaurant Charles W. ...

restaurant, was built. The theater closed in 1998. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' felt that Times Square Studios was meant to be a response to the "Window on the World" Studio 1A

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

had launched at

Rockefeller Center Rockefeller Center is a large complex consisting of 19 commercial buildings covering between 48th Street and 51st Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The 14 original Art Deco buildings, commissioned by the Rockefeller family, span th ...

for its

morning show Breakfast television (Europe, Canada, and Australia) or morning show (United States) is a type of news or infotainment television programme that broadcasts live in the morning (typically scheduled between 5:00 and 10:00a.m., or if it is a ...

Today Today (archaically to-day) may refer to: * Day of the present, the time that is perceived directly, often called ''now'' * Current era, present * The current calendar date Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Today'' (1930 film), a 1930 ...

'' in 1994—which marked an era of dominance for the program over ABC's competing ''

''. It was argued that Disney needed its own on-air showpiece in a prominent location, and that "a dynamic Manhattan street scene is now considered an essential production element for a

". The facility was designed by

Walt Disney Imagineering Walt Disney Imagineering Research & Development, Inc., commonly referred to as Imagineering, is the research and development arm of The Walt Disney Company, responsible for the creation, design, and construction of Disney theme parks and attra ...

, Disney's design and development arm, and its senior vice president of concept design

Eddie Sotto Edward Anthony "Eddie" Sotto III (born 1958) is an American experiential designer, mixed-media producer, and conceptualist.Patton, Phil"Rethinking Auto Showrooms: Shark Tanks, Anyone?" ''The New York Times'', October 25, 2006 Sotto was formerly the ...

. The team also worked with

Roger Goodman Roger Elliot Goodman (born 1961) is an American lawyer and politician serving as a Democratic member of the Washington House of Representatives, representing the 45th district since 2007. Goodman won re-election in 2012 against Republican Joel ...

, ABC's vice president for special projects, on its facilities for ''

''. Sotto stated that the design of the building was meant to symbolize a " looking glass" and the idea of "media as architecture". The facade of the building also features a video screen and a pair of

news ticker A news ticker (sometimes called a "crawler", "crawl", "slide", "zipper", or "ticker tape") is a horizontal or vertical (depending on a language's writing system) text-based display either in the form of a graphic that typically resides in the lo ...

s, both of which are upgraded with state-of-the-art

display technology A display device is an output device for presentation of information in visual or tactile form (the latter used for example in tactile electronic displays for blind people). When the input information that is supplied has an electrical signal the ...

every few years. Alongside

productions including ''Good Morning America'', Disney also intended to lease space at the studio for other productions. Under the direction of Tim Hayes, notable early productions originating from Times Square Studios included ''

20/20 Visual acuity (VA) commonly refers to the clarity of vision, but technically rates an examinee's ability to recognize small details with precision. Visual acuity is dependent on optical and neural factors, i.e. (1) the sharpness of the retinal ...

'', ''

Primetime Prime time or the peak time is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for a television show. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to ...

'', '' ABC College Football'', '' NBA Shootaround'', '' The Insider'', ''

Entertainment Tonight ''Entertainment Tonight'' (or simply ''ET'') is an American first-run syndicated news broadcasting newsmagazine program that is distributed by CBS Media Ventures throughout the United States and owned by Paramount Streaming. ET also airs in Aus ...

'', and many others between the years 1999 and 2007. The studio began to serve primarily as the home to ''Good Morning America'' in 2007 and ended their work with most other programs in the facility.

Productions at Times Square Studios

*''

'' and '' Good Afternoon America'' —

morning breakfast television news and talk program and its temporary summer 2012 afternoon counterpart *'' GMA3'' — The permanent ''Good Morning America'' afternoon counterpart, premiered September 2018 *''

Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve ''Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve'' (''NYRE'') is an annual New Year's Eve television special broadcast by ABC. The special broadcasts primarily from New York City's Times Square and prominently features coverage of its annual ball drop ev ...

'' (Times Square Countdown New Year Celebrations) — ABC's

New Year's Eve In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Eve, also known as Old Year's Day or Saint Sylvester's Day in many countries, is the evening or the entire day of the last day of the year, on 31 December. The last day of the year is commonly referred to ...

telecast *ABC News Election Night coverage, biennially every first November Tuesday since 2000 *''

ABC 2000 Today ''ABC 2000 Today'' was ABC News' special programming covering the new millennium celebrations around the world from December 31, 1999, into January 1, 2000, as part of the ''2000 Today'' programming in the United States. Peter Jennings anchore ...

'' — ABC News coverage of the turn of the

millennium celebrations The millennium celebrations were a worldwide, coordinated series of events to celebrate and commemorate the end of 1999 and the start of the year 2000 in the Gregorian calendar. The celebrations were held as marking the end of the 2nd millennium ...

from December 31, 1999, into January 1, 2000 * ABC and

—

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball sports league, league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues i ...

(NBA) pre-game and

half-time In several team sports, matches are played in two halves. Half-time (also written halftime or half time) is the name given to the interval between the two halves of the match. Typically, after half-time, teams swap ends of the field of play in ...

updates * Hand in Hand: A Benefit for Hurricane Relief, 2017 (

portions) *''

ESPN College Football ''ESPN College Football'' is the branding used for broadcasts of NCAA Division I FBS college football across ESPN properties, including ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3, ESPN+, ABC, ESPN Classic, ESPNU, ESPN Deportes, ESPNews and ESPN Radio. ''ESPN C ...

'' — some weekly and '' Scoreboard'' coverage, an episode of '' College GameDay'' in 2017. *''

Good Morning America Weekend ''Good Morning America Weekend'' (often abbreviated as ''GMA Weekend'') is an American morning television program that is broadcast on ABC. The first weekend edition of ''Good Morning America'' premiered on January 3, 1993, airing only on Sun ...

'' — The weekend version of ''Good Morning America''; outside of special events, the program is recorded at ABC News' main studio at the ABC Television Center in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

; a Times Square backdrop is projected onto the set's rear-projection screen for continuity purposes *''

Nightline ''Nightline'' (or ''ABC News Nightline'') is ABC News' late-night television news program broadcast on ABC in the United States with a franchised formula to other networks and stations elsewhere in the world. Created by Roone Arledge, the prog ...

'' — ABC News late-night

news program News broadcasting is the medium of broadcasting various news events and other information via television, radio, or the internet in the field of broadcast journalism. The content is usually either produced locally in a radio studio or televi ...

*'' Olbermann'' —

ESPN2 ESPN2 is an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remaining 20%). ESPN2 was initially fo ...

*''

'' — ABC News television-newsmagazine program *''

'' — ABC News television-newsmagazine program

References

{{Disney Recording studios in Manhattan Television studios in the United States Times Square American Broadcasting Company Disney production studios Entertainment companies based in New York City Buildings and structures completed in 1999 1999 establishments in New York City

Background

Productions at Times Square Studios

See also

References