I went to a Drew Barrymore show taping, here's the bizarre act I thought I'd never see

The Drew Barrymore Show has been a CBS staple for the past four years, and while long-standing viewers might think know everything about the show, there's one bizarre thing they'll never get to see from the comfort of their own homes.

Presenter and actress Drew, 49, has fronted her eponymous series, which is currently on its fifth season and has a sixth already ordered, since it launched during the pandemic in 2020.

Known for getting up close and personal with her guests , the show has been the subject to controversy, with viewers branding the host 'creepy and cringe' for her unique interview style.

Earlier this month, DailyMail.com attended a live taping of the show to see everything that happens behind-the-scenes to get the program up and running on the air each day.

From Drew's unique interactions with the audience to a surprising money giveaway, here's everything that happened during the recording.

It was the Wednesday morning after election night, and we arrived promptly at the CBS studios in Manhattan dressed in an all-black outfit for the 10am taping. The show enforces a strict dress code and white clothing or anything with a logo is banned, so we decided to play it as safe as possible.

At the studios, we were greeted by a staff member who scanned our ticket and then ushered us through to security, where we were searched. We were then handed a new ticket, which had a purple marking on, and we - along with other audience members - were walked over to one of the two waiting rooms lined with cream leather chairs.

Inside the clinical-looking room, crew members handed us release forms to sign, which explained that the show could use footage of us as they pleased.

We were kept in the room for about 20 minutes before comedian Joey Kola, the show's official warmup act, came in and hyped the audience up.

Standing at the front of the room, Joey excitedly showed us the hand signals he would be using during filming, which would prompt us to react.

The noises that we were encouraged to make included cooing, making a "yummy sound," and of course, ample applause.

After he exited the room, a security officer came in and repeatedly made clear that use of mobile phones was prohibited and that they must be turned off and kept away throughout the taping.

He also made sure that no one had brought anything for Drew – and was thankful we were all "cheap skates" when he learned that nobody had.

Once we had taken our seats, Joey returned and blasted music to get us activated.

At one point, in a somewhat bizarre move that we couldn't imagine would ever be shown to audiences at home, he stuck dollar bills onto the jig which then bobbed up and down around the audience.

Excited fans were encouraged to grab the free money, and to our surprise, they did.

After a few dollars had been ripped off the jig, we were introduced to Drew's cohost Ross Matthews and then finally Drew came out to huge applause, with the taping finally getting underway.

Each interview segment was pretty straightforward, although they don't necessarily air in order or in the same episode.

For example, Drew began the show by referencing an interview with Patti Lupone and Mia Farrow that wasn't actually filmed during the taping DailyMail.com attended.

Our guests for the day instead included Judy Greer and Peter Holmes in anticipation of their upcoming holiday film The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, and Milk Bar founder Christina Tosi.

While Drew is known for sometimes getting uncomfortably close to the celebs, she avoided stroking or caressing them this time around and maintained somewhat of a distance.

During the first ad break, Drew filmed a TikTok video with Miles Mitchell, the 21-year-old winner of the Timothée Chalamet lookalike competition, who had been sitting in the front row with his enormous trophy.

Proving she's ever the professional, Drew managed to get the TikTok filmed in just three takes, before then posing for photos with Miles and attending to the audience.

Addressing the crowd, she playfully asked what other celebrities should get a lookalike competition, prompting fans to shout out Glen Powell and Michael B Jordan .

Upon hearing the names of the two Hollywood A-listers, Drew agreed they were both "cute gentlemen," adding that Timothée is too.

Before the end of the taping, hype man Joey played Pitbull and John Ryan's track Fireball to get audiences amped up one last time.

Guests stood side by side clapping and swaying, and then the music stopped and Drew came over for an intimate chat with us while sitting on the steps.

At one point, an audience member referred to the US Election, but clearly not wanting to get political , Drew steered the conversation to talk about her desire for everyone to be themselves and to feel safe.

Before she said goodbye and thanked everyone for coming down, she candidly admitted to audiences that she wanted to learn how to care less as she approached 50.

One by one we filed out of the studio - but we didn't leave empty handed.

Every guest was given one of Christina's recipe books, as well as a cookie, and a Bake Club membership on their way out.

All in all, we'd been wrapped up in Drew's little world for a two and a half hours - the perfect amount of time to pretend that everything is sunshine and rainbows.