Grammys seat filler exposes 'chaos' that doesn't get shown on TV

A seat filler working at last weekend's Grammy Awards revealed the behind-the-scenes 'chaos' which takes place off-screen.

Ever fancied attending an award show filled with your favourite A-listers? Well, now you can – if you're willing to spend the evening playing musical chairs, that is.

That's because shows, such as the Grammys and the Oscars, will often deploy guests whose only role is to act as a seat filler.

The role of a seat filler is pretty straight-forward, walk up to the empty seat previously occupied by a celebrity guest who's gone to the bar or bathroom and plonk yourself down until they return.

Easy, right?

The natural follow-up to this tidbit of information is, of course, to wonder why staff at the Golden Globes or BAFTAs have a troop of seat filling volunteers on hand, with the answer being that it's purely for optics.

Not an empty chair in site, thanks to the hard work of the seat fillers (John Shearer/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)

In order to make sure the audience looks completely filled to viewers watching at home, seat fillers are used to keep seats warm and make sure there are no obvious gaps in crowd.

What is it like being a seat filler at an awards shows?

In theory, rubbing shoulders with your favourite singers and actors must be pretty cool; but in reality it's a bit less glamorous.

One lucky individual who got to spend last Sunday in the same room as Harry Styles, Sabrina Carpenter and the Biebers spilled the details on a recent Reddit 'Ask Me Anything', revealing that things often get a little chaotic when the show is on a commercial break.

"The second they go to commercial, people are up and moving," the user explained, joking that it's 'absolute chaos'.

"Then about 60 seconds before it goes live again they start making announcements to clear the aisles and take a seat and everyone's scrambling, which is where the seat filling comes in."

They also revealed that seat fillers have to be ready to jump up and move from a seat at any given moment, which is something they discovered when temporarily occupying a table earmarked for Lady Gaga and her crew.

Add in the fact that seat fillers are required to dress in muted tones to blend in, a woman in a red dress was apparently turned away, not speak to celebrities unless spoken to and having to surrender your phone at the door and the proposition seems a lot less glamorous.

How do I become a seat filler?

If this still sounds like your kind of gig, then the Reddit user revealed that they applied through the company seatfillersandmore.com, which operates on a lottery system.