This article focuses on production and reception practices for live reality television using critical theory and empirical research to question how producers and audiences co- create and limit live experiences. The concept of care structures is used to make visi- ble hidden labour in the creation of mood, in particular audiences as participants in the management of live experiences. In the case of Got to Dance, there was a play off between the value and meaning of the live events as a temporary experience captured by ratings and social media, and the more enduring collective-social experience of this reality series over time.