{"id":230499,"date":"2025-09-16T04:44:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T04:44:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/230499\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T04:44:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T04:44:12","slug":"i-was-a-seat-filler-at-the-emmys-the-rules-were-strict-and-the-perfume-was-overwhelming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/230499\/","title":{"rendered":"I was a seat filler at the Emmys. The rules were strict \u2014 and the perfume was overwhelming."},"content":{"rendered":"

When TV cameras cut to celebrities at the Emmys<\/a>, what viewers don\u2019t see are the people quietly slipping in and out of rows to make sure the audience looks full at the awards show. Purposefully dressed in dark clothing so they don\u2019t stand out, seat fillers on Sunday could find themselves next to stars like Seth Rogen, Scarlett Johansson or Selena Gomez. They just better not take a photo with them.<\/p>\n

This year, one of those people was Yahoo\u2019s Kelly Walsh. As a fan of awards shows, she applied to attend on a whim, paid her own way from Boston to Los Angeles and wound up navigating parking garages, adhering to strict dress codes and subsisting on very little food or water \u2014 all for the chance to sit in the middle of television\u2019s biggest night. In this interview with Yahoo\u2019s Taryn Ryder, Kelly reveals what it\u2019s really like to be a seat filler at the Emmys.<\/p>\n

How I got the gig<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019d seen people on TikTok and Instagram talking about being seat fillers for award shows, and it just seemed so fun. I Googled it and found this site: seatfillersandmore.com<\/a>. I made a profile and saw there was an option to apply for the Emmys. Honestly, the whole thing looks kind of sketchy, like one of those websites where you\u2019re like, How did you not get scammed?<\/p>\n

The application was really simple: You send in a headshot and your license or passport information. I\u2019m assuming it\u2019s so they can run some kind of check to make sure you\u2019re not a stalker. I thought, \u201cI\u2019m not going to get this, but I\u2019ll just throw my name in.\u201d<\/p>\n

I created an account on Sept. 3, and three days later, I got the email saying I\u2019d been approved. Suddenly, I was going to be a seat filler at the Emmys.<\/p>\n

Planes, parking garages and lots of walking<\/strong><\/p>\n

I booked my own flight and hotel. It\u2019s not a paid gig \u2014 you cover all your own costs. Flights weren\u2019t cheap; it was about $600 round trip. I used some [credit card] points [to help cover the cost]. The hotel was the most expensive part. People asked me, \u201cHow much do they pay you?\u201d and I was like, \u201cOh no, you don\u2019t get paid at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Check-in on Sunday was between 1 and 3 p.m. PT at this random parking garage by the L.A. Convention Center that shows up on Google Maps as \u201cpermanently closed.\u201d I remember thinking, \u201cThis is so shady.\u201d But it wasn\u2019t. You wait in line, they check your ID, give you a purple ribbon to pin on your dress so they know you\u2019re a seat filler, and then they march you what feels like the longest way possible around the Convention Center and Crypto.com Arena to a tent out back.<\/p>\n

It was the world\u2019s warmest tent, full of hundreds of us, there were no real instructions. Just water and handwritten numbers on index cards. Then you sit and wait for hours, listening for your group [number] to be called. When they do call you, you line up again, shuffle through hallways and wait some more until someone needs your seat. It\u2019s a lot of standing and a lot of walking.<\/p>\n

\"Kelly<\/p>\n

Kelly at the Emmys. (Courtesy of Kelly Walsh)<\/p>\n

The rules<\/strong><\/p>\n

The first email spelled it out: you\u2019re there to blend in. You\u2019re taking the seat of someone who probably paid $25,000, or so I was told, inside the venue. You\u2019re not there to make friends, you\u2019re not there to take pictures and you\u2019re definitely not there for free food or drinks. If you\u2019re seen with alcohol, you\u2019ll be removed. If you refuse to move when asked, you\u2019ll be removed. They weren\u2019t messing around.<\/p>\n

Dress code was strict: men had to be in tuxedos or dark suits, women in formal dresses that were dark and simple. No red, no white, no frills, nothing too long. Flats are recommended since you\u2019re on your feet for hours. If you brought a purse, it had to be a small clutch \u2014 and you held onto it the whole night because there\u2019s no coat check.<\/p>\n

Even with all those rules, things happen. At one point, the [scent of] fragrance in the room was so overpowering \u2014 everyone\u2019s perfume and cologne \u2014 I got a migraine. I asked security if I could get some water so I could take my migraine medication, because we were told we weren\u2019t allowed to buy drinks. The security guard just looked at me and said, “That\u2019s insane. Go get something to drink. If anyone hassles you, tell them my name. Then come back.” He was great. But the perfume situation? It was like walking into a teenage boy\u2019s locker room \u2014 just brutal.<\/p>\n

Inside the show<\/strong><\/p>\n

My first placement [of the night] was technically on the second level, but during a commercial break I noticed other seat fillers with ribbons making a beeline down to the main floor. Nobody was yelling at them, so I just followed. That\u2019s how I ended up right in the middle of everything.<\/p>\n

\"From<\/p>\n

Kelly shares behind-the-scenes moments from inside the 2025 Emmys. (Courtesy of Kelly Walsh)<\/p>\n

I was definitely sitting near people who were important, but not necessarily the stars themselves. I could tell they were writers or production people, but I had no idea who they were. You feel a little awkward \u2014 I know you\u2019re someone, but I can\u2019t ask, \u2018Who are you?\u2019 So I just sat there, smiled and tried to be polite.<\/p>\n

Nate Bargatze\u2019s vibe<\/strong><\/p>\n

At first, I thought his countdown bit was clever \u2014 like, \u201cOK, this is a funny way to get people to keep their speeches short.\u201d But no one respected it. They all just kept talking. Pretty quickly, it stopped being funny <\/a>and just got awkward.<\/p>\n

The woman sitting next to me said, “Get this guy off stage,” under her breath. You could feel the audience souring on it. Sometimes they\u2019d flash the score and it would say something like negative $36,000, and people would go “Ooh,” but the speaker wouldn\u2019t stop. The energy in the room shifted from lighthearted to uncomfortable. Everyone just wanted him to move on.<\/p>\n

The night\u2019s big winners<\/strong><\/p>\n

[I loved to see] Adolescence winning a lot of awards. I thought the acting was great, so I was aggressively clapping every time they won. But the people around me were not clapping. It felt like this weird, petty thing I was just observing \u2014 why aren\u2019t you clapping? It stood out to me because it was such a big night for them, and I was surrounded by people who seemed unimpressed or didn\u2019t want to show support. I just kept thinking, That\u2019s strange. Then I realized I likely wasn’t sitting in the Netflix section.<\/p>\n

Stephen Colbert was by far <\/a>the highlight of the night. When he won, the energy was unreal. The whole room stood, cheering and clapping \u2014 except for maybe three guys in front of me who stayed seated. His speech was so full of optimism. He said, \u201cI have never loved my country more desperately. God bless America.\u201d People loved it. You could feel the room buzzing with his energy. It was electric.<\/p>\n

\"Stephen<\/p>\n

Stephen Colbert and the team from The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. (Chris Pizzello\/AP)<\/p>\n

Expectations vs. reality<\/strong><\/p>\n

Would I do it again? Definitely. If you go in expecting to sit next to celebrities or take selfies, you\u2019re going to be disappointed. It\u2019s not glamorous. But if you go in just happy to be there, you\u2019ll have the best time. You\u2019re part of the show, even if you\u2019re invisible. Not everyone gets to do this. I feel really lucky that I did.<\/p>\n

This has been edited for length and clarity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When TV cameras cut to celebrities at the Emmys, what viewers don\u2019t see are the people quietly slipping…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":230500,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[185,47491,171,124308,124309,124310,13895,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-230499","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-emmy-awards","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-kelly-walsh","12":"tag-seat-filler","13":"tag-seat-fillers","14":"tag-stephen-colbert","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115212154989077681","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}