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Speaker 1: Our show Prime launched on February tenth of twenty twenty.

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Speaker 1: We were making all these plans about how we were

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Speaker 1: going to be collaborative. We had a brand new team assembled,

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Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden, within a month.

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Speaker 2: We weren't ready for a virtual control room. We had

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Speaker 2: no real infrastructure in place.

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Speaker 3: The day I realized it was real is the day

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Speaker 3: the Big Eiaest basketball tournament was canceled.

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Speaker 2: It felt like one of those movies where you're like

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Speaker 2: one you wake up and you're wandering through the streets

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Speaker 2: and a place that's normally bustling is absolutely lifeless.

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Speaker 4: Welcome to Strictly Business Varieties weekly podcast featuring conversations with

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Speaker 4: industry leaders about the business of media and entertainment. I'm

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Speaker 4: Cynthia Littleton, co editor and Variety. We don't typically do

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Speaker 4: a cold open on this show. That this isn't a

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Speaker 4: typical episode of Strictly Business. We depart from our standard

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Speaker 4: solo interview format to take a long look back five

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Speaker 4: years ago when COVID sank its Pointy Corona fangs into

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Speaker 4: New York and soon after the rest of the country.

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Speaker 4: We didn't know it then, but March twenty twenty marked

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Speaker 4: a huge inflection point for the television business. Stay at

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Speaker 4: home orders, masks, and antigen tests. It all seems so

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Speaker 4: distant and not so distant all at once. The story

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Speaker 4: of how COVID helps supercharge the streaming business and the

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Speaker 4: streaming wars has been well documented in recent years, but

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Speaker 4: another big TV story unfolded during the early months of

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Speaker 4: lockdown that hasn't gotten as much attention. Old fashioned linear

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Speaker 4: TV rose to the occasion to keep local and national

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Speaker 4: news outlets on the air. The same was true for

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Speaker 4: daytime and late night talk shows and live to tape

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Speaker 4: entertainment such as ABC's America's Funniest Home Videos. The first

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Speaker 4: few weeks of the pandemic spurred more seat of the

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Speaker 4: pants innovation to broadcast operations in engineering than had been

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Speaker 4: done since the days of Sid Caesar and Milton Berle

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Speaker 4: in the early nineteen fifties. In our business, the show

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Speaker 4: must go on, Ethos Israel, The last thing TV pros

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Speaker 4: wanted to do was serve America dead. Air times were

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Speaker 4: hard enough. By the end of twenty twenty, the death

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Speaker 4: toll from COVID in the US alone had reached a

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Speaker 4: staggering four hundred thousand The social distancing conditions imposed forced

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Speaker 4: producers and crew members and technicians to create virtual control

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Speaker 4: rooms on the fly. They had to figure out how

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Speaker 4: to recreate networks for communications and video collaboration tools. In

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Speaker 4: a matter of days. They ordered a whole lot of

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Speaker 4: digital video equipment from Amazon to assemble home bureaus in

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Speaker 4: a box for anchors. Talk shows quickly moved to create

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Speaker 4: virtual studio audiences. I've been wanting to tackle the story

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Speaker 4: of the great Scramble of the early COVID months for

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Speaker 4: several years. I had the privilege of being a fly

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Speaker 4: on the wall at The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

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Speaker 4: in June twenty twenty one, as Colbert returned to filming

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Speaker 4: shows with live audiences at the Ed Sullivan Theater. In

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Speaker 4: those interviews, it became apparent how much daring do and

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Speaker 4: experimentation had been going on behind the scenes at a

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Speaker 4: time when production staff was spread far and wide. I

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Speaker 4: knew there were great stories there, but I didn't know

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Speaker 4: how good they were until I started interviewing the ten

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Speaker 4: sources that you'll hear in this episode. They shared stories

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Speaker 4: that captured this fraught period with moments of humor, moments

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Speaker 4: of meltdowns involving both tech and tikes, and some true

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Speaker 4: moments of heartbreak, and in the end, what changes really mattered,

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Speaker 4: what innovations stuck around? Beyond the crisis, we examine the

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Speaker 4: lasting legacy of pandemic era workarounds. I'm extremely grateful to

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Speaker 4: the sources for their time and their candid thoughts on

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Speaker 4: a most extraordinary time in their careers. My guests are

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Speaker 4: Lindsey Davis, anchor of ABC News Live Prime and World

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Speaker 4: News Tonight Sunday. Vin de Bona, executive producer of one

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Speaker 4: of TV's longest running series, ABC's America's Funniest Home Videos,

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Speaker 4: Chris Dinan, executive producer of ABC News World News Tonight,

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Speaker 4: Tony de Koppel, anchor of CBS Mornings, Bill Hemmer, co

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Speaker 4: anchor of America's Newsroom on Fox News. Jason Kurtz, executive

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Speaker 4: producer and showrunner of The Drew Barrymore Show, Simone Swink,

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Speaker 4: executive producer of Good Morning America, SHAWNA. Thomas Excus, executive

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Speaker 4: producer of CBS Mornings, John Tower, Senior broadcast producer of

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Speaker 4: CBS Mornings, and Scott Wilder, Executive Vice President of Production

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Speaker 4: and Operations for Fox news media. Their stories are coming

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Speaker 4: right up after this break, and we're back with the

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Speaker 4: story of how TV rose to the occasion to stay

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Speaker 4: on the air during the pandemic. I started each interview

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Speaker 4: with the question, when did it sync in that COVID

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Speaker 4: was going to change the way you work. Here, we'll

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Speaker 4: hear from ABC's Chris Dinan, CBS's John Tower, and ABC's

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Speaker 4: Lindsay Davis and Simone Swink.

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Speaker 5: When it first began, it seemed somewhat unreal because of

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Speaker 5: the extent and scope of what people were saying was

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Speaker 5: going to happen. The idea that America would essentially shut

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Speaker 5: down was just shocking.

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Speaker 2: It didn't quite feel real until the day that we're

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Speaker 2: up in corporate they had decided to and we were

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Speaker 2: over in uh West fifty seventh Street over in the

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Speaker 2: CBS Broadcast Center, and there were sort of rumblings that they're,

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Speaker 2: you know, they're they're they're talking about something. We know

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Speaker 2: that they're they're something's happening. And then at the end

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Speaker 2: of the day we had we had gone home after

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Speaker 2: the show and I I remember I was on my

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Speaker 2: way home and I got a call from a colleague

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Speaker 2: saying they're shutting the broadcast center down, and and it

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Speaker 2: was it was that abrupt. It was like we were

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Speaker 2: like okay, and so immediately the question was where are

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Speaker 2: we going to do the show from? And it wasn't

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Speaker 2: like we're going to send everybody home. It was again

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Speaker 2: the pandemic was new. It was just like and so

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Speaker 2: somewhere it was. It was almost like a corporate decision,

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Speaker 2: like having the virus around this particular building is not

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Speaker 2: a risk that we want to take, and so you

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Speaker 2: have to find another building to broadcast from, which you know,

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Speaker 2: now in hindsight, seems ridiculous because you're just moving, You're

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Speaker 2: just moving to another risky space. But that's what we did.

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Speaker 2: And they decided that we're going to go to DC

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Speaker 2: because you know, as you also remember in like New

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Speaker 2: York was sort of like a hotbed.

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Speaker 1: I remember the night that it really became real for

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Speaker 1: us and the NBA canceled a game, and it was

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Speaker 1: just a moment unlike anything I've ever I've been reporting

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Speaker 1: for about twenty five years and I have not you know,

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Speaker 1: it was just I remember texting even you know, friends

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Speaker 1: of mine about and they were like, wait, no, that

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Speaker 1: can't be happening, you know, and then it was just

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Speaker 1: a domino effect of you know, people just I think

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Speaker 1: the governor of Pennsylvania started telling people, don't go to work,

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Speaker 1: you know, don't go to school, and it just became

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Speaker 1: really real, very quickly.

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Speaker 6: I think the moment that the company and the show

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Speaker 6: started creating protocols for how people would be tested and

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Speaker 6: how people would come to work, and when it really

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Speaker 6: sank in is that people would have to quarantine. Because

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Speaker 6: right around that mid March date, about fifteen of us

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Speaker 6: had to quarantine at home and couldn't come to work.

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Speaker 6: Right then everybody else was like, what do you mean

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Speaker 6: you can't come to work? And how is this going

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Speaker 6: to work? And how are we going to do it?

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Speaker 4: CBS is Tony du Koppel remembers taking a fateful call

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Speaker 4: at the gym.

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Speaker 7: The moment I realized this was going to be different

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Speaker 7: is when I was at the gym and I got

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Speaker 7: a call this two or three weeks later from Diana Miller,

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Speaker 7: our former executive producer, and she was like, they've found

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Speaker 7: COVID at the broadcast center. They're shutting it down. We're

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Speaker 7: doing the show from Washington tomorrow. You got to get

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Speaker 7: on a train. Now limit your contact, and I was like,

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Speaker 7: what is limit my contact? I mean in a room

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Speaker 7: of one hundred people at a gym. We go to DC.

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Speaker 7: It's a super weird show because we have no news

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Speaker 7: reason to be in DC. We have this crisis reason

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Speaker 7: for being in DC. And then I go back to

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Speaker 7: the hotel room that night, and in my memory, anyway,

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Speaker 7: that's the night when I'm watching TV talking to my

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Speaker 7: wife the news breaks that the NBA shutting down the season.

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Speaker 7: Tom Hanks and Rita his wife are coming forward and

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Speaker 7: saying we have it, and Cuomo and Trump and every

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Speaker 7: other leader you might turn to to say something stabilizing. Suddenly,

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Speaker 7: in my view as just a citizen of the country,

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Speaker 7: looking at people and being like, they don't seem like

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Speaker 7: they have it under control anymore. This seems scary. We

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Speaker 7: don't have a broadcast center, we don't have a sports league,

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Speaker 7: we don't have leaders that seem to know what's going on.

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Speaker 7: I don't know what happens from here. That's when it

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Speaker 7: really landed like we're going somewhere hard.

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Speaker 4: As Covid descended, Drew Barrymore was in pre production ready

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Speaker 4: to launch her daytime talk show that September. Showrunner Jason

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Speaker 4: Kurtz remembers the nervousness of the moment.

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Speaker 8: It was my first in person Withdrew in March. It

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Speaker 8: was early March. I had come on in feb so

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Speaker 8: it was our first I was at our apartment and

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Speaker 8: we were like kind of like talking about staffing and

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Speaker 8: structure and getting into the bodies that we were going

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Speaker 8: to bring on and all these great people. And it

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Speaker 8: literally was the day that things started to heat up,

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Speaker 8: and we were both looking at each other like wait,

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Speaker 8: and I was like, I got a text that the

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Speaker 8: bridges and tunnels are closing. It was like, you know

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Speaker 8: in New York, like the rumor started, and I was like,

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Speaker 8: that's strange, and we both kind of were looking at

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Speaker 8: each other, getting a lot of texts from people, and

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Speaker 8: I was like, maybe we should just hit pause and

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Speaker 8: figure out, like what's going on in the world. And

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Speaker 8: then literally like three days later, everything shut down.

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Speaker 4: Another question I asked all ten sources was what was

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Speaker 4: the first things your teams do to build alternatives to

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Speaker 4: your studio and technology setups. Here, we'll hear from Fox

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Speaker 4: News's Scott Wilder, ABC's Lindsay Davis and Simone Swink and

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Speaker 4: then Wilder again.

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Speaker 9: So it became clear immediately that we were going to

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Speaker 9: need to start broadcasting from locations outside of our building.

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Speaker 10: Really, the.

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Speaker 9: Premise at the time was that we weren't going to

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Speaker 9: be able to broadcast from here at all, like we

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Speaker 9: were going to need to be cleared from this building.

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Speaker 9: And so that was the moment that it hit me

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Speaker 9: that we were going to have this immediate need to

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Speaker 9: start broadcasting from someplace else. And does that mean that

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Speaker 9: we're going to go find the location where we send

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Speaker 9: all of our people or what actually happened where people

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Speaker 9: start broadcasting from their homes. So you know, that was

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Speaker 9: the immediate order, and right away we went out and

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Speaker 9: just started contacting and working with all of our talent

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Speaker 9: and going to their homes and figuring out what we

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Speaker 9: can do it each one of them. There was none,

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Speaker 9: no two that were the shame. They were all a

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Speaker 9: little bit different.

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Speaker 1: My husband, who at that point was working from home

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Speaker 1: as well, doubled as then my engineer. So he set

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Speaker 1: up a hole and I'd posted a picture of it

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Speaker 1: on Instagram at the time. We set up a little

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Speaker 1: we made our TV into kind of it. Over the

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Speaker 1: shoulder that had the graphic that said ABC News Live

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Speaker 1: Prime and set up a desk. And at the time,

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Speaker 1: my son was six and so we were in the

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Speaker 1: basement and we did not ever put a lock on

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Speaker 1: that door or anything. So he just kept coming down

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Speaker 1: during the broadcast like whispering, you know, as if that

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Speaker 1: was okay while we're trying to you know, run this

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Speaker 1: teleprompter remotely and do the broadcast. So needless to say,

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Speaker 1: we only ever did it one time remotely and and

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Speaker 1: the rest of the times I just said, look, it's

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Speaker 1: just it just makes more sense for me to come in.

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Speaker 6: We really sort of hit the deadline, Like on Friday,

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Speaker 6: we were still putting the rundown together the usual way,

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Speaker 6: and by Monday we you know, you actually can do

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Speaker 6: a lot of things from home. It's not ideal. It

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Speaker 6: added five steps to every part of the process, but

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Speaker 6: it's possible. The one thing I will say is that

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Speaker 6: we had a group of people who came in every

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Speaker 6: single day for three four years into the control room.

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Speaker 6: And without that group of people, you couldn't get the

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Speaker 6: rest of the show on. So ninety eight percent of

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Speaker 6: the staff could be from home, but that two percent

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Speaker 6: kept it on the air every day.

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Speaker 9: You know, it was like zone defense. We were just

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Speaker 9: trying to get people, and we tried to look where

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Speaker 9: people live. I have a new photographer who lives in

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Speaker 9: New Jersey and an anchor who lives in New Jersey.

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Speaker 9: Marry that team up together. I have a new photographer

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Speaker 9: who lives on Long Island or an anchor lives on

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Speaker 9: Long Island. That's a team Westchester, Connecticut, and you know,

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Speaker 9: so on and so forth, keep going. And that's how

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Speaker 9: we started going back to the edict that it not

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Speaker 9: it look and sound like Fox News for the viewers.

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Speaker 9: You know, the hardest part of it. You know, listen,

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Speaker 9: there's no guest, right these anchors and contributors were in

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Speaker 9: their home. You're really talking about a glorified live shot.

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Speaker 9: It's one camera, you know. But now they're anchoring programs. Yeah,

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Speaker 9: you need teleprompter, you need return video. They're taking press

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Speaker 9: conferences all day long. They need to interact, and so

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Speaker 9: you know, really we just relied very heavily. I'm talking

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Speaker 9: about in the immediate days and those you know, I

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Speaker 9: really call it a ten day period. I think we

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Speaker 9: set up over forty home studios within ten days. And

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Speaker 9: you know, we were relying on the anchors home you know,

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Speaker 9: internet connection.

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Speaker 10: Again.

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Speaker 9: You know there's a story that I know it's been

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Speaker 9: told before, but you know, we had an anchor who

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Speaker 9: was on TV and their children were playing video games

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Speaker 9: and we saw degradation in the video quality immediately. So

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Speaker 9: you know, we had a team of like four people

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Speaker 9: who were just driving from place to place repairing, fixing, advising,

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Speaker 9: setting up in addition to the people who were running

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Speaker 9: those So but again, you know, that all came Honestly,

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Speaker 9: it may sound cliche, but it came from the top.

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Speaker 9: We had our leadership who never left the building. They

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Speaker 9: were here every single day, Suzanne and Jay in particular,

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Speaker 9: along with several you know others, But they were in

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Speaker 9: the building every single day. Kind of you know, not

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Speaker 9: kind of action, steering the ship and giving the guidance

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Speaker 9: of how we wanted to, you know, make it through

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Speaker 9: this pandemic that nobody had had any experience, no blueprint.

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Speaker 11: Yeah.

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Speaker 4: Vin de Bona, the Maestro of Affe, had only one

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Speaker 4: more show to tape for the twenty nineteen twenty twenty

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Speaker 4: TV season when lockdown orders upended TV production. Here he

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Speaker 4: explains why he was one and done with the idea

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Speaker 4: of doing affe with Alfonso Ribeiro hosting from his home.

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Speaker 11: We realized that if we didn't figure out a way

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Speaker 11: to make it work for the show, you know, who

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Speaker 11: knows what would have happened with broadcast. So the first

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Speaker 11: thing that happened is we did one show called at

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Speaker 11: Home with AFV, and literally it was at home with Alphonso,

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Speaker 11: who was running his own camera, running his own prompter,

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Speaker 11: did his own lights. I directed through Zoom, but we

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Speaker 11: really directed together and he was the sole person on

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Speaker 11: the show, and we did wrap arounds in different areas

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Speaker 11: of his house, the kitchen, the living room, the pool,

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Speaker 11: by his RV, and we put the first show together,

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Speaker 11: all on Zoom, all linked together with each of our

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Speaker 11: staff members, and then we would look at the playback

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Speaker 11: reels that we're going to go into the show. We

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Speaker 11: would build them and then view them as a team.

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Speaker 11: Everything was teamwork, really teamwork, and it was it was

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Speaker 11: actually fairly easy to get it all together. The toughest

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Speaker 11: part wasn't the video. The toughest part was making sure

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Speaker 11: audio was great. It's sometimes hard to hear the nuances

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Speaker 11: when you know when you're on zoom.

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Speaker 4: Let's drill down on the ingenuity the cruise techs and

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Speaker 4: engineers demonstrated under pressure. Here we'll hear from John Tower,

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Speaker 4: Simone Swink, Vin de Bona and Tower again.

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Speaker 2: Over the course of fifteen hours, they had to set

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Speaker 2: up an entire workable control room and show for the

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Speaker 2: next day, and under probably normal conditions. I'm just using

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Speaker 2: like an example that one you maybe give a team

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Speaker 2: like that a week maybe two to do that, and

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Speaker 2: they had literally the night.

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Speaker 6: One thing that the news division did very quickly was

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Speaker 6: figure out and build at home sort of kits that

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Speaker 6: a team could swoop in and set up and so

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Speaker 6: that everybody could broadcast from home. And then as long

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Speaker 6: as we could work it out from the control room,

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Speaker 6: you could actually have all three main anchors from home

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Speaker 6: in a given broadcast. And that being able to do

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Speaker 6: that so quickly and realized that we could get on

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Speaker 6: the air and just sort of adjust the shots from

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Speaker 6: there gave us a lot of flexibility. It also meant

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Speaker 6: that we didn't have to substantially change part parts of

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Speaker 6: the show.

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Speaker 11: It was just a few were a viewer.

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Speaker 6: The aesthetic changed a little bit because people weren't next

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Speaker 6: to each other physically, but they were next to each

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Speaker 6: other in boxes at times got story.

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Speaker 11: Our set designer created an idea to build these stacks,

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Speaker 11: and by stacks, I mean vertical columns with three flat

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Speaker 11: screens in each column, and the total amount of Zoom

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Speaker 11: audience members would be ninety six and they'd be broken

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Speaker 11: up into these three columns. So Al would walk around

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Speaker 11: studio and he'd walk by a column or two columns,

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Speaker 11: and the audience saw him live to studio by a

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Speaker 11: zoom and it was quite an undertaking. We wound up

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Speaker 11: having four additional technicians in the process. So basically what

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Speaker 11: we had was each operator had two computers. Each computer

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Speaker 11: had sixteen people that they were culling from the Zoom

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Speaker 11: audience to control. So the total was each person had

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Speaker 11: thirty two people times three, which wound up being ninety six.

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Speaker 11: And so the three technicians operating the computers would make

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Speaker 11: sure the signal was strong. We sent out a three

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Speaker 11: page memorandum to audience members. Audience Plus was the company

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Speaker 11: that secured audiences for us, and it wasn't just La,

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Speaker 11: it was all around the country. They put out a

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Speaker 11: blast and people would write in saying yes, I'd like

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Speaker 11: to be on the show, Yes I can guarantee you

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Speaker 11: four hours of my time. Don't wear any identifying t shirts,

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Speaker 11: no licensed art on the wall, so all of that

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Speaker 11: had to be taken care of.

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Speaker 7: And then.

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Speaker 11: These ninety six accumulated video audience members. Then it was

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Speaker 11: assigned to one producer who would say you up in

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Speaker 11: the upper corner, be more attentive, you know, or we're

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Speaker 11: going to go to a break if you guys want

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Speaker 11: to take a bath. All that stuff through another producer,

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Speaker 11: and actually we wound up having al talked to the

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Speaker 11: home viewers asking them, you know, how many you want

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Speaker 11: to go to raise hands? And it was it was

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Speaker 11: kind of fun. So we really had as complete an

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Speaker 11: audience situation with laughs and reactions as we had in studio,

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Speaker 11: and it was it was actually a great look and

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Speaker 11: and we kind of missed it when we into studio.

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Speaker 11: But it was a lot of work. And of course

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Speaker 11: the other thing was we had to pretest the crew

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Speaker 11: two days before they would show up in studio, right

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Speaker 11: and we had to pay them for the test. So

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Speaker 11: it was a full day to test them. And then

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Speaker 11: on studio day we'd have to back up key crew

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Speaker 11: members like lighting director, technical director, and probably one cameraman

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Speaker 11: and a few other studio people just to make sure

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Speaker 11: on that last day when they came in and tested

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Speaker 11: that they were fine.

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Speaker 2: So eventually we made our way to ad Solvent Theater

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Speaker 2: and because Stephen Colbert was off and that was sort

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Speaker 2: of like our last that was the last space that

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Speaker 2: was available to use that they were comfortably using. It

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Speaker 2: took very very minimal amount of crew at that point

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Speaker 2: they had This was probably a couple of weeks in

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Speaker 2: to the actual lockdown, the start of the pandemic, and

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Speaker 2: we had started a Wrapprehensier un masking, which seems late

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Speaker 2: and quaint now looking back, but like we'd started a

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Speaker 2: rapprehends her on masks game. And so we were we

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Speaker 2: were a few of us. It was like probably four

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Speaker 2: or five of us with a director and a TV

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Speaker 2: UH in a in a uh Asulivent theater control room

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Speaker 2: with our anchors remote, all just putting the show on.

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Speaker 2: All the producers were remote. People had started to like

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Speaker 2: they'd been using UH. They had developed a system for

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Speaker 2: saving for remote editors, firing up remotely dating videos onto

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Speaker 2: you know UH drop boxes that again we did we

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Speaker 2: were not using often or ever before the pandemic, and

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Speaker 2: so the technologies that we sort of still use now

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Speaker 2: where people are you know, it actually makes you know,

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Speaker 2: obviously clips and in material available in a in a

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Speaker 2: like sort of a much more remote way. But all those,

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Speaker 2: all those systems were being built on the flot by

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Speaker 2: trying to figure out how to get you know, stories

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Speaker 2: in the air. There are a couple of shows where

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Speaker 2: we really really didn't have many elements at all. We

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Speaker 2: were just sort of like doing the show on a

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Speaker 2: very minimal basis. So when we were in ed Solvent Theater,

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Speaker 2: I remember when we first got over there, there was

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Speaker 2: a there's a moment when they kicked us out of

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Speaker 2: DC and we're like, so where we're going to go next?

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Speaker 2: And so they had come up with a solution with

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Speaker 2: ED Solvent Theator because it was really one of the

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Speaker 2: only control rooms left. There are questions of whether or

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Speaker 2: that was going to be We're going to use a

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Speaker 2: freelance control room, like some sort of like hired control

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Speaker 2: room somewhere, and then they had decided on ed Solvent Theater.

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Speaker 2: And the reason why they had to signed ED Solvent

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Speaker 2: Theator I think is because they it still had the

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Speaker 2: connectivity of our other available control rooms. You could still

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Speaker 2: patch into, like, you know, whatever they needed to patch

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Speaker 2: into what.

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Speaker 4: Stands out in your mind now as a memory. Then

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Speaker 4: that reinforced for you the scope of the crisis. The

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Speaker 4: answers were intriguing. We'll hear from Chris Dinan, followed by

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Speaker 4: John Tower.

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Speaker 5: We had an internal intelligence breathing from a former member

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Speaker 5: of the government who was very high ranking and very knowledgeable,

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Speaker 5: and he very matter of factly laid out what was coming,

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Speaker 5: and it all seemed it all seemed to be a

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Speaker 5: little unreal, but he was so even keeled and how

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Speaker 5: he presented it, it seemed like it was a rational

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Speaker 5: explanation of what we could expect. And then at one

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Speaker 5: point he mentioned a number seven hundred thousand, and that

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Speaker 5: number was what he was predicting and experts were predicting

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Speaker 5: would be fatalities, would be the number of Americans killed.

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Speaker 5: And I remember sitting back and really being struck by

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Speaker 5: that number because it was such an enormous figure. I mean,

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Speaker 5: that's the number of people who died in the US

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Speaker 5: Civil War, the bloodiest conflict of the country's history.

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Speaker 2: While we were in the very deep, deep parts of

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Speaker 2: the early pandemic in that unsullivant control room. Our my

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Speaker 2: Land producer Rachel had set up a very analog board

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Speaker 2: with cases and deaths and the cases in Death's ball.

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Speaker 2: She'd update every day when she came in and the

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Speaker 2: new cases, and it took on a very it was

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Speaker 2: a very present reminder for us of like how dangerous

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Speaker 2: this thing was, because at some point it was the

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Speaker 2: numbers were unfathomable for how many people had died and

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Speaker 2: how many people were getting sick, and they were when

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Speaker 2: they were really tracking it, when they were really starting

437
00:26:28,080 --> 00:26:29,920
Speaker 2: to track it. But like right in the early days

438
00:26:29,960 --> 00:26:33,280
Speaker 2: when like we were starting to get numbers, and part

439
00:26:33,320 --> 00:26:36,840
Speaker 2: of our broadcast was singularly focused on, like what's the

440
00:26:36,920 --> 00:26:39,600
Speaker 2: new number, what's the new cases, what's the new death number?

441
00:26:40,040 --> 00:26:43,120
Speaker 2: And so that was just a very real present thing

442
00:26:43,359 --> 00:26:45,840
Speaker 2: on the show. But also like right behind us in

443
00:26:45,920 --> 00:26:48,159
Speaker 2: the wall in the control room, it was just cases

444
00:26:48,200 --> 00:26:51,760
Speaker 2: in death, death number, and so the it was just

445
00:26:51,840 --> 00:26:53,439
Speaker 2: always over our shoulder literally.

446
00:26:53,880 --> 00:26:57,960
Speaker 4: For they came into work in Midtown newsrooms, the city

447
00:26:58,119 --> 00:27:02,280
Speaker 4: affectionately known as Zoo you was a ghost town. Chris

448
00:27:02,440 --> 00:27:06,480
Speaker 4: Dinan shares a vivid memory, as does CBS Mornings Shanna

449
00:27:06,560 --> 00:27:08,879
Speaker 4: Thomas and ABC's Lindsay Davis.

450
00:27:09,400 --> 00:27:11,880
Speaker 10: It was unlike anything I'd ever seen, certainly in Manhattan.

451
00:27:12,000 --> 00:27:16,040
Speaker 5: I maybe saw two dozen people during the course of

452
00:27:16,119 --> 00:27:19,600
Speaker 5: that very very long bike ride, when you would normally

453
00:27:19,640 --> 00:27:23,879
Speaker 5: see hundreds, if not thousands. Fine, and it was in

454
00:27:24,000 --> 00:27:27,600
Speaker 5: every way like a classic sci fi movie pose Apocalypse.

455
00:27:28,080 --> 00:27:30,080
Speaker 5: There was you know, a few people that draggled on

456
00:27:30,160 --> 00:27:33,600
Speaker 5: the streets and nothing else. So that really I still

457
00:27:33,600 --> 00:27:34,480
Speaker 5: remember how that felt.

458
00:27:34,560 --> 00:27:34,760
Speaker 3: It was.

459
00:27:35,960 --> 00:27:36,760
Speaker 10: It was memorable.

460
00:27:37,080 --> 00:27:38,840
Speaker 2: New York City was a ghost top. It was an

461
00:27:38,840 --> 00:27:42,200
Speaker 2: actual it felt like it felt like one of those

462
00:27:42,320 --> 00:27:46,040
Speaker 2: movies where you're like wander You wake up and you're

463
00:27:46,080 --> 00:27:49,920
Speaker 2: wandering through the streets and a place that's normally bustling

464
00:27:50,119 --> 00:27:53,520
Speaker 2: is absolutely lifeless, And it was actually exactly like that.

465
00:27:54,000 --> 00:27:56,920
Speaker 1: It was strange, you know, I would feel like I

466
00:27:57,080 --> 00:27:59,680
Speaker 1: was in this mood, you know a movie where you

467
00:28:00,200 --> 00:28:02,639
Speaker 1: they're like turning the radio channels and you know you

468
00:28:02,720 --> 00:28:05,080
Speaker 1: don't hear anything on it, you know, when those like

469
00:28:05,240 --> 00:28:09,199
Speaker 1: kind of end of Days movies, yea, and people are

470
00:28:09,280 --> 00:28:11,280
Speaker 1: just kind of looking for a signal to say, you know,

471
00:28:11,440 --> 00:28:16,479
Speaker 1: is anybody out there? Because the highways would just be empty.

472
00:28:16,680 --> 00:28:20,320
Speaker 1: I mean, there were It was not uncommon for me

473
00:28:20,520 --> 00:28:25,280
Speaker 1: to leave my house and go into Manhattan and maybe

474
00:28:25,359 --> 00:28:29,320
Speaker 1: I'd see five cars that whole trip, you know, I

475
00:28:29,400 --> 00:28:32,040
Speaker 1: mean it was and even once you got into Manhattan,

476
00:28:32,840 --> 00:28:35,680
Speaker 1: it was desolate, you know.

477
00:28:36,240 --> 00:28:36,359
Speaker 7: Uh.

478
00:28:36,800 --> 00:28:40,480
Speaker 1: And and we actually had gotten some passes printed out

479
00:28:40,600 --> 00:28:46,120
Speaker 1: I remember uh from the city basically saying that we

480
00:28:46,280 --> 00:28:50,520
Speaker 1: were essential workers in case there was you know, it

481
00:28:50,640 --> 00:28:52,080
Speaker 1: never got to that point where I had to show

482
00:28:52,080 --> 00:28:54,640
Speaker 1: anybody that paperwork. But I think it was so unknown

483
00:28:54,680 --> 00:29:00,520
Speaker 1: that ABC just wanted to prepare for any sin in

484
00:29:00,640 --> 00:29:03,600
Speaker 1: case you got pulled over or whatever might happen, that

485
00:29:03,680 --> 00:29:05,960
Speaker 1: we could prove that, you know, we had to still

486
00:29:06,320 --> 00:29:08,280
Speaker 1: be on the road and go to work.

487
00:29:08,880 --> 00:29:12,480
Speaker 4: How did your colleagues adjust to radically different working conditions.

488
00:29:13,120 --> 00:29:17,160
Speaker 4: Chris Dinan, Jason Kurtz, and Tony da Koppel discuss.

489
00:29:17,360 --> 00:29:22,000
Speaker 5: It was interesting how quickly people adapted. They just had

490
00:29:22,240 --> 00:29:25,440
Speaker 5: ways to work around issues and work around problems and

491
00:29:25,520 --> 00:29:27,760
Speaker 5: make something happen. And I always look back at that

492
00:29:27,840 --> 00:29:31,320
Speaker 5: time as a very innovative time or you know, an

493
00:29:31,360 --> 00:29:37,360
Speaker 5: industry that had never operated like that. Nobody generationally had

494
00:29:37,440 --> 00:29:40,080
Speaker 5: experienced anything like this, so it was completely new.

495
00:29:40,680 --> 00:29:41,480
Speaker 10: At one point.

496
00:29:41,520 --> 00:29:43,360
Speaker 8: It was like, you know, we found out there was

497
00:29:43,400 --> 00:29:45,400
Speaker 8: definitely not going to be a studio audience, so we

498
00:29:45,480 --> 00:29:48,520
Speaker 8: were like, let's save the money, not build half the

499
00:29:48,600 --> 00:29:50,800
Speaker 8: set since we're not even going to have a studio audience,

500
00:29:50,880 --> 00:29:54,760
Speaker 8: and we can put that money towards technology. And we

501
00:29:54,920 --> 00:29:57,600
Speaker 8: looked into the virtual audience that we had, we called

502
00:29:57,600 --> 00:30:00,680
Speaker 8: them the vffs, and we were able to build this community.

503
00:30:00,840 --> 00:30:03,680
Speaker 8: So we had that the best we could in this

504
00:30:03,840 --> 00:30:07,760
Speaker 8: new normal, like that audience, energy and interaction. Then it

505
00:30:08,120 --> 00:30:11,000
Speaker 8: was no one's traveling guests aren't going to be able

506
00:30:11,040 --> 00:30:14,600
Speaker 8: to come in, So how do we now overcome that obstacle?

507
00:30:14,640 --> 00:30:18,120
Speaker 8: And that's when we started looking into green screen technology

508
00:30:18,320 --> 00:30:23,120
Speaker 8: and virtual studios, and luckily we were able to build

509
00:30:23,160 --> 00:30:28,760
Speaker 8: a green screen studio in Los Angeles and basically teleport

510
00:30:28,960 --> 00:30:31,000
Speaker 8: guests into our studio in a seamless way that you

511
00:30:31,040 --> 00:30:33,160
Speaker 8: wouldn't even know a lot of times Spiels didn't even know.

512
00:30:33,800 --> 00:30:38,120
Speaker 8: And we were able to get Drew and Lucy obviously

513
00:30:38,200 --> 00:30:41,880
Speaker 8: in New York, but then Cameron via the La Studio

514
00:30:41,920 --> 00:30:45,360
Speaker 8: and that became our premiere. So what long story short,

515
00:30:45,800 --> 00:30:51,520
Speaker 8: we were just constantly looking to create from ground, from scratch,

516
00:30:51,800 --> 00:30:56,280
Speaker 8: and that really benefited us because we weren't struggling looking backwards.

517
00:30:56,320 --> 00:30:57,800
Speaker 8: We were only looking forwards.

518
00:30:58,320 --> 00:31:00,400
Speaker 7: I tried to convince myself I was like gay least

519
00:31:00,400 --> 00:31:02,320
Speaker 7: so I'd interviewed before, and who used to put a

520
00:31:02,400 --> 00:31:04,680
Speaker 7: suit on to walk from the top floor was Brownstone

521
00:31:04,720 --> 00:31:06,400
Speaker 7: down to the basement to go to work as a writer,

522
00:31:07,000 --> 00:31:08,320
Speaker 7: And that was kind of like what I did. I

523
00:31:08,400 --> 00:31:10,960
Speaker 7: got up, I put a suit on, and I walked

524
00:31:11,000 --> 00:31:13,960
Speaker 7: from the living room down one floor to the basement

525
00:31:14,680 --> 00:31:19,000
Speaker 7: and tried to be a professional, but it was. It

526
00:31:19,160 --> 00:31:22,880
Speaker 7: was a very unfinished basement with water bugs let's call them,

527
00:31:23,000 --> 00:31:25,160
Speaker 7: we won't say cockroaches crawling up out of the drain

528
00:31:25,200 --> 00:31:29,280
Speaker 7: on a nightly basis, and you had to throw vanity

529
00:31:29,320 --> 00:31:32,280
Speaker 7: out the window because you're doing your own makeup. The

530
00:31:32,560 --> 00:31:35,520
Speaker 7: lighting is the best it can be. Everything has a

531
00:31:35,640 --> 00:31:39,200
Speaker 7: kind of ghoulish severe quality to it, and.

532
00:31:40,720 --> 00:31:41,880
Speaker 10: You and you go for it.

533
00:31:42,520 --> 00:31:44,560
Speaker 7: It's amazing how quickly people got comfortable with.

534
00:31:46,200 --> 00:31:47,480
Speaker 10: Not really.

535
00:31:49,560 --> 00:31:51,680
Speaker 7: Not crystal clear pictures and not crystal clear sound.

536
00:31:52,160 --> 00:31:54,080
Speaker 8: And that's also when we decided to sort of create

537
00:31:54,120 --> 00:31:59,040
Speaker 8: a hybrid live model, knowing the celebrity interviews were going

538
00:31:59,080 --> 00:32:02,520
Speaker 8: to be hard for us timing wise, because we were

539
00:32:02,560 --> 00:32:04,200
Speaker 8: live at nine am in New York. So then we

540
00:32:04,280 --> 00:32:09,000
Speaker 8: started post taping and taping the celebrity interviews when the

541
00:32:09,080 --> 00:32:11,360
Speaker 8: timing worked out better, and we sort of created this

542
00:32:11,480 --> 00:32:14,200
Speaker 8: hybrid model of the top of the show, which was

543
00:32:14,280 --> 00:32:17,600
Speaker 8: Drew's News Live, a live segment after that, and then

544
00:32:17,640 --> 00:32:21,080
Speaker 8: we would drop in a pre recorded edit it celebrity interview,

545
00:32:21,160 --> 00:32:24,000
Speaker 8: and then we would finish the show. Yeah, I think

546
00:32:24,040 --> 00:32:28,040
Speaker 8: it was just being creative within everything that was coming

547
00:32:28,120 --> 00:32:28,760
Speaker 8: at us at once.

548
00:32:29,480 --> 00:32:33,680
Speaker 4: Bill Hemmer of Fox News simply could not stay home bound.

549
00:32:34,280 --> 00:32:37,480
Speaker 3: I found it very difficult to replicate the energy from

550
00:32:37,520 --> 00:32:41,080
Speaker 3: a basement at Sag Harbor, New York. And I'm a

551
00:32:41,120 --> 00:32:44,400
Speaker 3: people person absolutely. I think I get energy from others

552
00:32:44,480 --> 00:32:48,040
Speaker 3: and hopefully I give them a little bit too, you know.

553
00:32:48,160 --> 00:32:52,040
Speaker 3: Having said that, we've reported on stories on wars, on

554
00:32:52,320 --> 00:32:55,800
Speaker 3: terror attacks all over the world for twenty thirty years,

555
00:32:56,040 --> 00:32:59,480
Speaker 3: and what you're doing in that scenario is you're out

556
00:33:00,080 --> 00:33:03,360
Speaker 3: and you can hear the audio in your ear, but

557
00:33:03,480 --> 00:33:06,360
Speaker 3: you're basically talking into a round circle on that camera

558
00:33:07,040 --> 00:33:12,160
Speaker 3: for hours, for days, for weeks. But yet I felt

559
00:33:12,240 --> 00:33:14,520
Speaker 3: I was I had the energy to do that, but

560
00:33:14,680 --> 00:33:18,360
Speaker 3: I just I couldn't do it from my house I tried,

561
00:33:18,720 --> 00:33:23,640
Speaker 3: but it wasn't It wasn't doing it for me. I

562
00:33:23,640 --> 00:33:27,000
Speaker 3: don't know how else to say it. I wanted to

563
00:33:27,080 --> 00:33:31,440
Speaker 3: be closer to the story, and working remotely, I felt

564
00:33:31,520 --> 00:33:34,000
Speaker 3: as if it was just taking me further away from

565
00:33:34,280 --> 00:33:39,440
Speaker 3: understanding what was happening day by day. Now that's not

566
00:33:39,600 --> 00:33:42,360
Speaker 3: to take anything away from my colleagues, either here or

567
00:33:42,440 --> 00:33:45,440
Speaker 3: elsewhere at other networks. They make their own decisions. But

568
00:33:45,600 --> 00:33:48,920
Speaker 3: for me personally, I felt a strong desire to be

569
00:33:49,040 --> 00:33:52,840
Speaker 3: in the building and it helped me with the human

570
00:33:52,960 --> 00:33:55,600
Speaker 3: connection through a story like that, which I think a

571
00:33:55,640 --> 00:33:58,400
Speaker 3: lot of people, frankly were looking for. And I'd say too,

572
00:33:58,520 --> 00:34:02,560
Speaker 3: like our CEO, she did not outsource it. She was

573
00:34:02,600 --> 00:34:06,080
Speaker 3: here as well, Suzanne Scott. I made some fast friends

574
00:34:06,360 --> 00:34:09,920
Speaker 3: with a bar restaurant over here on a street that

575
00:34:10,040 --> 00:34:11,680
Speaker 3: I will not name because I do not want to

576
00:34:11,719 --> 00:34:15,719
Speaker 3: get them in trouble. And there was a period where

577
00:34:15,760 --> 00:34:17,800
Speaker 3: the city reopened for a week or two, do you

578
00:34:17,840 --> 00:34:21,120
Speaker 3: remember that, and everything slamming back down again. But during

579
00:34:21,160 --> 00:34:23,719
Speaker 3: that week or two I made friends with them, and

580
00:34:23,920 --> 00:34:26,920
Speaker 3: they said, you know, Bill, We've got a room upstairs.

581
00:34:27,000 --> 00:34:30,600
Speaker 3: It has no windows, and you're welcome to come anytime.

582
00:34:31,320 --> 00:34:33,920
Speaker 3: And that really became a refuge for me. You know,

583
00:34:34,080 --> 00:34:37,040
Speaker 3: I'm not married, and I'm either going home to an

584
00:34:37,040 --> 00:34:41,320
Speaker 3: apartment or I'm going to what I called my COVID

585
00:34:41,400 --> 00:34:45,480
Speaker 3: speak easy. So on occasion, Cynthia I would bring a

586
00:34:45,600 --> 00:34:49,440
Speaker 3: colleague or a friend and we would go upstairs in

587
00:34:49,480 --> 00:34:53,200
Speaker 3: this room and you know, we could eat with them

588
00:34:53,440 --> 00:34:56,600
Speaker 3: and you know, have a beer, and maybe it's just

589
00:34:56,680 --> 00:35:00,680
Speaker 3: an hour, hour and a half time, but it gave

590
00:35:00,760 --> 00:35:01,520
Speaker 3: us something to do.

591
00:35:02,239 --> 00:35:06,680
Speaker 4: Let's call this section anchor management. We'll hear from John Tower,

592
00:35:06,960 --> 00:35:08,920
Speaker 4: Simone Swink, and Lindsey Davis.

593
00:35:09,600 --> 00:35:12,520
Speaker 2: Managing anchors remotely is a challenge because they don't see

594
00:35:12,640 --> 00:35:15,320
Speaker 2: or hear each other, right, so in the beginning, like

595
00:35:15,400 --> 00:35:18,000
Speaker 2: they're stepping on each other. They don't understand, like the

596
00:35:18,200 --> 00:35:21,160
Speaker 2: Gale talks and then Tony talks, and then Gail stops,

597
00:35:21,160 --> 00:35:24,640
Speaker 2: and then Tony stops, and then you know, so getting

598
00:35:24,680 --> 00:35:28,640
Speaker 2: them used to coordinating was something that I was used

599
00:35:28,680 --> 00:35:32,360
Speaker 2: to coming from Rning Joe, where most of our anchors

600
00:35:32,400 --> 00:35:36,800
Speaker 2: were remote saying who's next, who comes next, who does this,

601
00:35:36,960 --> 00:35:39,960
Speaker 2: who does that? And so that was a that was

602
00:35:40,239 --> 00:35:44,000
Speaker 2: a huge learning curve for them because you know, remote

603
00:35:44,000 --> 00:35:46,560
Speaker 2: show maybe having one anchor or remote on a remote

604
00:35:46,600 --> 00:35:48,960
Speaker 2: show is something that you like are used to, but

605
00:35:49,160 --> 00:35:52,040
Speaker 2: like having all three anchors who are bouncing scripts, who

606
00:35:52,040 --> 00:35:55,160
Speaker 2: are like trying to interact with each other for every topic,

607
00:35:55,320 --> 00:35:57,560
Speaker 2: like that's that's a sort of like a new It's

608
00:35:57,640 --> 00:36:00,800
Speaker 2: luck left brain, right brain for them, And so it

609
00:36:00,920 --> 00:36:02,920
Speaker 2: was about getting them used to hearing me in their

610
00:36:02,960 --> 00:36:05,800
Speaker 2: ear and like them being comfortable with me being like

611
00:36:06,200 --> 00:36:09,719
Speaker 2: Gail talks next. Hey, Gail talks next. Hey, Anthony talks next.

612
00:36:10,440 --> 00:36:12,040
Speaker 2: What do you mean the Anthony talks next? I have

613
00:36:12,160 --> 00:36:12,719
Speaker 2: something to say.

614
00:36:13,239 --> 00:36:16,400
Speaker 6: We almost always had at least one anchor in the studio,

615
00:36:16,640 --> 00:36:18,759
Speaker 6: so even if they so let's say, if Michael was

616
00:36:18,800 --> 00:36:20,600
Speaker 6: in the studio and Robin was in a box and

617
00:36:20,680 --> 00:36:22,359
Speaker 6: George was in a box, there was always a way

618
00:36:22,360 --> 00:36:26,239
Speaker 6: to get the show on the air. And so, like you,

619
00:36:26,440 --> 00:36:28,959
Speaker 6: if you're used to being on deadline, you're probably also

620
00:36:29,040 --> 00:36:31,279
Speaker 6: good at improvisation even when you don't want to be.

621
00:36:31,440 --> 00:36:33,239
Speaker 6: So there was always a way to have a plan,

622
00:36:33,440 --> 00:36:36,560
Speaker 6: and worst case scenario, someone else's shot went down, then

623
00:36:36,560 --> 00:36:39,080
Speaker 6: whoever was in the studio could take the reins and

624
00:36:39,200 --> 00:36:41,400
Speaker 6: take us to the next reporter or have the conversation

625
00:36:41,600 --> 00:36:44,680
Speaker 6: or do the interview, and there were definitely a few

626
00:36:44,760 --> 00:36:46,120
Speaker 6: times I was trying to think of them. But there

627
00:36:46,160 --> 00:36:48,640
Speaker 6: were definitely a few times that somebody on remote Zoom

628
00:36:49,040 --> 00:36:51,319
Speaker 6: was scheduled to do an interview and something went wrong

629
00:36:51,520 --> 00:36:55,000
Speaker 6: and so someone else came took over and did the interview.

630
00:36:55,560 --> 00:37:00,160
Speaker 1: So Flavio Juir was my audio tech who all so

631
00:37:00,320 --> 00:37:04,520
Speaker 1: doubled as my studio floor director, and it was just

632
00:37:04,640 --> 00:37:07,560
Speaker 1: the two of us every single day. So then they

633
00:37:07,640 --> 00:37:13,480
Speaker 1: started doing two week rotations, so there would be teams

634
00:37:13,640 --> 00:37:17,280
Speaker 1: basically that would be in the office for two weeks

635
00:37:17,400 --> 00:37:20,279
Speaker 1: and then at home for two weeks. Basically just kind

636
00:37:20,320 --> 00:37:22,480
Speaker 1: of trying to figure out the incubation period so that

637
00:37:22,560 --> 00:37:27,440
Speaker 1: you always had a plan B for I if that

638
00:37:27,680 --> 00:37:31,279
Speaker 1: team or multiple people on that team got sick, you

639
00:37:31,440 --> 00:37:35,759
Speaker 1: had reserves, so that essentially everybody wasn't going to get

640
00:37:35,880 --> 00:37:40,720
Speaker 1: sick at the same time. So I was not seeing

641
00:37:41,440 --> 00:37:46,800
Speaker 1: anyone except for Flavio. We were not you know, we

642
00:37:46,840 --> 00:37:50,520
Speaker 1: would we would meet on Zoom. A lot was done

643
00:37:50,560 --> 00:37:55,480
Speaker 1: through email and text, but physically, well, I'm sorry, I

644
00:37:55,520 --> 00:37:58,200
Speaker 1: would see also a hair makeup team that they would

645
00:37:58,239 --> 00:38:01,480
Speaker 1: you know, have gloves and masks and everything, but otherwise

646
00:38:01,520 --> 00:38:03,800
Speaker 1: in the building. Yeah, it was just it was just

647
00:38:03,880 --> 00:38:04,480
Speaker 1: the two of us.

648
00:38:05,080 --> 00:38:07,560
Speaker 4: It's hard to believe that this story hasn't been turned

649
00:38:07,600 --> 00:38:11,719
Speaker 4: into a sitcom or a Netflix rom com. Tony Dukoppel

650
00:38:11,800 --> 00:38:15,120
Speaker 4: had an unusual situation at his home because he had

651
00:38:15,160 --> 00:38:18,879
Speaker 4: to share his basement studio with his wife, NBC News

652
00:38:18,960 --> 00:38:24,239
Speaker 4: correspondent Katie Tour. Occasionally hilarity would ensue. I understand that

653
00:38:24,320 --> 00:38:27,359
Speaker 4: your basement doubled as the NBC bureau as well as

654
00:38:27,480 --> 00:38:30,560
Speaker 4: the CBS News bureau. Well was that Were there any

655
00:38:30,600 --> 00:38:32,759
Speaker 4: traffic jams for you and Katie at any time?

656
00:38:33,320 --> 00:38:36,080
Speaker 7: Huge now, because not only did it double as, but

657
00:38:36,400 --> 00:38:40,279
Speaker 7: the NBC people came down and, as I recall, un

658
00:38:40,360 --> 00:38:43,360
Speaker 7: ceremoniously moved some of the CBS stuff in order to

659
00:38:43,440 --> 00:38:48,080
Speaker 7: get their pick of corners for their setup, so they

660
00:38:48,120 --> 00:38:49,479
Speaker 7: had a longer camera shot.

661
00:38:49,560 --> 00:38:50,560
Speaker 10: I was more squeezed.

662
00:38:51,200 --> 00:38:54,680
Speaker 7: But on the other hand, the NBC crew, they're the

663
00:38:54,760 --> 00:38:57,040
Speaker 7: ones that took the made the investment of drilling the

664
00:38:57,800 --> 00:39:00,920
Speaker 7: enhanced Internet cable down directly from where it comes into

665
00:39:00,960 --> 00:39:03,400
Speaker 7: the house into the basement, so they, I guess they

666
00:39:03,440 --> 00:39:05,360
Speaker 7: felt they had license. But I do remember there was

667
00:39:05,440 --> 00:39:07,280
Speaker 7: like a call that I was not on but between

668
00:39:07,320 --> 00:39:09,759
Speaker 7: our crew folks and the NBC crew folks to iron

669
00:39:09,840 --> 00:39:13,920
Speaker 7: out who was disrespecting who on this, and then there

670
00:39:14,000 --> 00:39:15,880
Speaker 7: was like there were questions of like, well, what happens

671
00:39:15,920 --> 00:39:17,279
Speaker 7: if they both need to be on air at the

672
00:39:17,280 --> 00:39:20,200
Speaker 7: same time, And then a moment later we thought, well,

673
00:39:20,239 --> 00:39:23,840
Speaker 7: if that's the case, something even worse than this terribleness

674
00:39:23,840 --> 00:39:25,439
Speaker 7: were going through has to happen, So let's just pray

675
00:39:25,520 --> 00:39:26,160
Speaker 7: that doesn't occur.

676
00:39:27,400 --> 00:39:28,000
Speaker 10: And it didn't.

677
00:39:28,480 --> 00:39:32,480
Speaker 7: It didn't know, But sometimes the one thing that would happen, though,

678
00:39:32,640 --> 00:39:35,320
Speaker 7: is I would have to I'd go off air, and

679
00:39:35,360 --> 00:39:37,480
Speaker 7: then I would use the desk behind me as my

680
00:39:37,640 --> 00:39:40,000
Speaker 7: work desk during the day because i'd have the baby

681
00:39:40,080 --> 00:39:44,440
Speaker 7: upstairs and Katie would sometimes beyond, but i'd have a

682
00:39:44,600 --> 00:39:47,200
Speaker 7: script deadline. I was still trying to be productive as

683
00:39:47,239 --> 00:39:50,439
Speaker 7: I could, and the bathroom was across her camera shot,

684
00:39:50,520 --> 00:39:54,759
Speaker 7: so it'd have to sometimes army crawl threw her very

685
00:39:54,880 --> 00:39:57,920
Speaker 7: serious life or death conversation to take care of the

686
00:39:58,000 --> 00:40:01,960
Speaker 7: more mundane acts of daily lif and then I'd be

687
00:40:02,040 --> 00:40:03,680
Speaker 7: in my own head because I'd be thinking about a script,

688
00:40:03,719 --> 00:40:05,560
Speaker 7: so I wouldn't think about whether she's on. So you know,

689
00:40:05,680 --> 00:40:08,080
Speaker 7: if you listen closely. There's probably toilet flushes in the

690
00:40:08,160 --> 00:40:13,360
Speaker 7: background of Katchit reports during those days. Sorry, honey, Fox.

691
00:40:13,160 --> 00:40:15,840
Speaker 4: News is Scott Wilder was not the only one to

692
00:40:15,960 --> 00:40:19,880
Speaker 4: point out the harmonic convergence that helped TV during COVID.

693
00:40:20,680 --> 00:40:25,080
Speaker 4: Video sharing platforms and cloud based collaboration tools were hitting

694
00:40:25,200 --> 00:40:28,600
Speaker 4: new strides just as the world needed to set a

695
00:40:28,719 --> 00:40:32,080
Speaker 4: virtual meeting or two. Wilder explains it.

696
00:40:32,160 --> 00:40:36,040
Speaker 9: Well, Listen, this pandemic happened five years earlier. We would

697
00:40:36,120 --> 00:40:38,239
Speaker 9: not have had a satellite truck to send to each

698
00:40:38,360 --> 00:40:42,200
Speaker 9: person's home. The fact that we were broadcasting largely using

699
00:40:42,360 --> 00:40:46,640
Speaker 9: bonded cellular technology and the Internet that you have in

700
00:40:46,680 --> 00:40:49,760
Speaker 9: your home and I have in my home without adding

701
00:40:50,040 --> 00:40:53,759
Speaker 9: any services. Over time, we did bolster some of the

702
00:40:54,480 --> 00:40:59,520
Speaker 9: Internet services, but five years ago, three years ago, before

703
00:40:59,560 --> 00:41:02,160
Speaker 9: the pandem three years prior to the pandemic, we would

704
00:41:02,239 --> 00:41:04,720
Speaker 9: not have been able to do that. And so because

705
00:41:04,760 --> 00:41:09,080
Speaker 9: of that technology, we were talking about how we can

706
00:41:09,160 --> 00:41:13,400
Speaker 9: do live shots and home studios and those things with

707
00:41:14,120 --> 00:41:18,720
Speaker 9: equipment like live view and you know, your Verizon Internet

708
00:41:18,800 --> 00:41:19,000
Speaker 9: that you.

709
00:41:19,120 --> 00:41:19,839
Speaker 5: Have in your home.

710
00:41:20,480 --> 00:41:24,280
Speaker 4: Tech tools were the saviors of businesses across the spectrum

711
00:41:24,400 --> 00:41:29,360
Speaker 4: during lockdown, but Inevitably, there were snaffoos. Here's a string

712
00:41:29,480 --> 00:41:34,120
Speaker 4: of fun anecdotes from John Tower, Lindsay Davis, Simone Swink,

713
00:41:34,400 --> 00:41:35,440
Speaker 4: and Tony Dkoppel.

714
00:41:35,800 --> 00:41:38,279
Speaker 2: There would be times when our anchor cameras would like

715
00:41:38,880 --> 00:41:43,839
Speaker 2: just disappear right, so like Gail's connection would go down ooops, yeah,

716
00:41:44,080 --> 00:41:46,399
Speaker 2: and then Tony's all go down or antheons are going down,

717
00:41:46,520 --> 00:41:50,360
Speaker 2: and you know those are okay. Our attitude about that

718
00:41:50,600 --> 00:41:52,640
Speaker 2: is like that's okay. We're in a pandemic, like we're

719
00:41:52,680 --> 00:41:55,560
Speaker 2: managed to staying we like. Our personal approach was just

720
00:41:55,760 --> 00:41:58,640
Speaker 2: like say it on the air, say it, don't try

721
00:41:58,680 --> 00:42:01,600
Speaker 2: to like, you know, dump in our about it, like

722
00:42:02,400 --> 00:42:05,600
Speaker 2: have fun with it. And there was in whatever respect

723
00:42:05,680 --> 00:42:08,200
Speaker 2: you can. But there were moments when you lose somebody

724
00:42:08,760 --> 00:42:10,880
Speaker 2: and you know, there's a lot of scrambling bonds scenes,

725
00:42:10,920 --> 00:42:13,879
Speaker 2: a lot of people running around, but for the show,

726
00:42:13,960 --> 00:42:16,360
Speaker 2: you just you know, go pick up Tony script and

727
00:42:16,440 --> 00:42:17,040
Speaker 2: you keep moving.

728
00:42:17,520 --> 00:42:20,640
Speaker 1: There were definitely a few times where the packages were

729
00:42:20,719 --> 00:42:24,160
Speaker 1: not sent or sent incorrectly, or maybe there was no

730
00:42:24,440 --> 00:42:26,879
Speaker 1: sound on them. I mean, because it was just such

731
00:42:26,960 --> 00:42:31,359
Speaker 1: a and I and I felt our team really rose

732
00:42:31,440 --> 00:42:33,920
Speaker 1: to the occasion. I think it was such a baptism

733
00:42:33,960 --> 00:42:36,080
Speaker 1: by fire. Again, many of them this was their first

734
00:42:36,200 --> 00:42:40,120
Speaker 1: or second job, and they had looked to be looked

735
00:42:40,160 --> 00:42:45,239
Speaker 1: forward to being mentored, and now that opportunity, they were

736
00:42:45,400 --> 00:42:48,040
Speaker 1: just having to figure it out, and many of it

737
00:42:48,120 --> 00:42:52,080
Speaker 1: by trial and error. You know, there were a lot

738
00:42:52,160 --> 00:42:55,960
Speaker 1: of glitches. But I think people at home understood, you know,

739
00:42:56,120 --> 00:43:00,080
Speaker 1: that was my belief anyway, that people knew what we

740
00:43:00,160 --> 00:43:02,839
Speaker 1: were dealing with because they were trying to piece things

741
00:43:02,880 --> 00:43:03,880
Speaker 1: together themselves.

742
00:43:04,239 --> 00:43:06,240
Speaker 6: When Lara Spencer went home, it was something we always

743
00:43:06,280 --> 00:43:08,480
Speaker 6: called the jokingly the Gretitch Bureau, because she and her

744
00:43:08,520 --> 00:43:10,080
Speaker 6: producer and a few other folks all of up in

745
00:43:10,120 --> 00:43:14,719
Speaker 6: Connecticut and she broadcasts from her home for I think

746
00:43:14,800 --> 00:43:17,600
Speaker 6: it was over two years did Pop News did Deals

747
00:43:17,640 --> 00:43:19,600
Speaker 6: and Steals. It would just be set up all over

748
00:43:19,680 --> 00:43:21,320
Speaker 6: parts of her house, Like Deals and Steels would be

749
00:43:21,360 --> 00:43:23,200
Speaker 6: out in the yard, Pop News would be inside in

750
00:43:23,239 --> 00:43:27,160
Speaker 6: the kitchen. One of our most memorable episodes or broadcast

751
00:43:27,280 --> 00:43:29,840
Speaker 6: during COVID is we really thought we had it nailed about.

752
00:43:29,960 --> 00:43:31,919
Speaker 6: I think it was a year in her producer would

753
00:43:32,000 --> 00:43:33,960
Speaker 6: drive over to her house because they were essentially their

754
00:43:34,000 --> 00:43:36,200
Speaker 6: own COVID bubble, and she would run the prompter and

755
00:43:36,239 --> 00:43:39,319
Speaker 6: the camera and Lara, as you may know from watching

756
00:43:39,360 --> 00:43:41,719
Speaker 6: our show, loves to adopt dogs and she had for

757
00:43:41,840 --> 00:43:44,880
Speaker 6: sure she had adopted a rescue that was blind, so

758
00:43:45,000 --> 00:43:46,879
Speaker 6: we had to keep he always had to be kept

759
00:43:46,880 --> 00:43:50,360
Speaker 6: out during the broadcast. And one day Dandy got in

760
00:43:51,040 --> 00:43:54,319
Speaker 6: and then walked into the tripod and live on air,

761
00:43:54,920 --> 00:43:57,360
Speaker 6: you know, the shots like this, and suddenly it's like this,

762
00:43:57,880 --> 00:44:00,200
Speaker 6: and Lara, to her credit, just kept broadcasting. And so

763
00:44:00,320 --> 00:44:02,719
Speaker 6: that morning Pop News was just upside down, but it

764
00:44:02,800 --> 00:44:04,880
Speaker 6: also spoke to the reality of what was going on,

765
00:44:05,160 --> 00:44:07,920
Speaker 6: Like everybody was learning how to use this technology on

766
00:44:08,120 --> 00:44:11,239
Speaker 6: air and in their lives, and it sort of helped

767
00:44:11,239 --> 00:44:13,759
Speaker 6: having these moments of humor that we just as a

768
00:44:13,800 --> 00:44:16,680
Speaker 6: television show would keep going with. You know, we didn't

769
00:44:16,719 --> 00:44:19,160
Speaker 6: immediately cut it. It was just it was actually quite funny,

770
00:44:19,400 --> 00:44:21,480
Speaker 6: and she's so great live that she just kept going.

771
00:44:21,880 --> 00:44:23,759
Speaker 7: Oh and then I remember, like all kinds of SNAPf

772
00:44:23,800 --> 00:44:26,360
Speaker 7: foos happened that would never happen before. Where I'm sitting

773
00:44:26,400 --> 00:44:29,520
Speaker 7: there in a commercial break reading something on my lap

774
00:44:29,760 --> 00:44:33,320
Speaker 7: which is just out of camera shot, and somebody is

775
00:44:33,360 --> 00:44:35,239
Speaker 7: trying to tell me we're coming back from commercial but

776
00:44:35,360 --> 00:44:37,160
Speaker 7: instead of Patty or our stage director being right in

777
00:44:37,200 --> 00:44:39,000
Speaker 7: front of me, snapping her fingers, being like, Tony, you're

778
00:44:39,040 --> 00:44:41,680
Speaker 7: back at ten. I have no IFB it's fallen out.

779
00:44:41,880 --> 00:44:44,600
Speaker 7: So they just come back to me live picture of

780
00:44:44,680 --> 00:44:47,320
Speaker 7: me just looking down. It appears as though I'm sleeping,

781
00:44:47,440 --> 00:44:49,160
Speaker 7: like my chin is on my chest and I'm just

782
00:44:49,239 --> 00:44:51,840
Speaker 7: out cold. So it's just ten seconds of that with

783
00:44:52,000 --> 00:44:54,279
Speaker 7: Jaunty Morning Show music, and then it goes back to

784
00:44:54,360 --> 00:44:58,560
Speaker 7: commercial and everybody was like, did we just catch that

785
00:44:58,760 --> 00:45:02,800
Speaker 7: guy sleeping? So it was a it was a it

786
00:45:02,920 --> 00:45:03,360
Speaker 7: was messy.

787
00:45:03,719 --> 00:45:06,359
Speaker 4: You don't want to miss what's coming up next. We'll

788
00:45:06,440 --> 00:45:09,480
Speaker 4: be right back with more tales of TV during COVID

789
00:45:09,800 --> 00:45:17,640
Speaker 4: after this break, and we're back with more about how

790
00:45:17,760 --> 00:45:21,160
Speaker 4: TV stayed on the air during COVID. Did you ever

791
00:45:21,320 --> 00:45:24,160
Speaker 4: have a tech challenge so bad you feared you might

792
00:45:24,239 --> 00:45:27,319
Speaker 4: miss your airtime or not deliver your episode on time?

793
00:45:27,880 --> 00:45:31,960
Speaker 4: Chris Dinan, Jason Kurtz, and Shawn and Thomas each paused

794
00:45:32,000 --> 00:45:34,320
Speaker 4: a bit before they answered, I don't.

795
00:45:34,120 --> 00:45:35,960
Speaker 5: Think we ever felt like we weren't going to get

796
00:45:36,000 --> 00:45:38,759
Speaker 5: on TV. I think that there were doubts and on

797
00:45:38,920 --> 00:45:42,239
Speaker 5: certaindays about how exactly that would happen. But I mean

798
00:45:42,280 --> 00:45:44,560
Speaker 5: this is there is you know there really it's it's

799
00:45:44,560 --> 00:45:46,920
Speaker 5: a zero some dame that there is no alternative. We

800
00:45:47,360 --> 00:45:51,400
Speaker 5: have to get on television though not doing that. So

801
00:45:52,239 --> 00:45:54,719
Speaker 5: I think everybody was determined to find the ways to

802
00:45:54,840 --> 00:45:59,040
Speaker 5: do it, as you know, as it wasn't a there

803
00:45:59,040 --> 00:46:02,240
Speaker 5: were moments where you are uncertain where something would operate

804
00:46:02,360 --> 00:46:05,279
Speaker 5: from them, whether a piece would roll or whether you know,

805
00:46:05,400 --> 00:46:08,040
Speaker 5: something like that would happen, whether a live shot would

806
00:46:08,360 --> 00:46:12,840
Speaker 5: pop up appropriately, And those were all individual scares, but

807
00:46:13,000 --> 00:46:15,759
Speaker 5: in general, I think that there was a real determination

808
00:46:16,320 --> 00:46:20,320
Speaker 5: to you know, meet the challenge, do the job. And

809
00:46:20,400 --> 00:46:23,879
Speaker 5: I would say that, you know, people really made sacrifices

810
00:46:23,920 --> 00:46:27,080
Speaker 5: and they really, you know, they chose to get the

811
00:46:27,160 --> 00:46:31,319
Speaker 5: job done. I mean, David could have stayed at home

812
00:46:31,400 --> 00:46:33,080
Speaker 5: at a home studio if he had wanted to.

813
00:46:33,880 --> 00:46:36,359
Speaker 10: Many people did, and that was an obvious choice.

814
00:46:36,400 --> 00:46:40,239
Speaker 5: But he came every day to the set to just

815
00:46:40,360 --> 00:46:43,040
Speaker 5: send a reassuring message that you know, there were people here,

816
00:46:43,600 --> 00:46:46,560
Speaker 5: people you could trust, people who would deliver information that

817
00:46:46,640 --> 00:46:50,400
Speaker 5: are back based and in context, and I think that

818
00:46:51,000 --> 00:46:52,600
Speaker 5: the audience warmed to that.

819
00:46:53,280 --> 00:46:56,160
Speaker 4: Did you ever think about postponing the launch from September?

820
00:46:56,800 --> 00:47:01,440
Speaker 8: There was conversations, but they were shut down down very quickly.

821
00:47:01,560 --> 00:47:07,439
Speaker 8: We all just collectively, you know, executives at CBS, myself, Drue,

822
00:47:08,680 --> 00:47:11,360
Speaker 8: all the wonderful people that work here. It was just

823
00:47:11,480 --> 00:47:16,839
Speaker 8: this collective feeling of we're we're doing this, and we're

824
00:47:16,920 --> 00:47:21,640
Speaker 8: focused and maybe the world needs this bright spot right

825
00:47:21,719 --> 00:47:25,840
Speaker 8: now and hopefully we can be that. And that was

826
00:47:25,920 --> 00:47:29,040
Speaker 8: sort of just collectively how we all felt. It was

827
00:47:29,200 --> 00:47:33,520
Speaker 8: never really said out loud. It was never this big, raw,

828
00:47:33,600 --> 00:47:37,080
Speaker 8: raw mission. It just was this undertone and feeling we

829
00:47:37,160 --> 00:47:39,680
Speaker 8: all had together that this was we're doing this and

830
00:47:40,800 --> 00:47:42,080
Speaker 8: we'll see everyone in September.

831
00:47:42,440 --> 00:47:44,720
Speaker 12: The thing is, and I know this is a cliche,

832
00:47:44,920 --> 00:47:47,640
Speaker 12: but I also come from a theater background. The show

833
00:47:47,760 --> 00:47:49,880
Speaker 12: must go on no matter I always think about this

834
00:47:49,960 --> 00:47:54,239
Speaker 12: show as, no matter what, at seven am Eastern time,

835
00:47:55,600 --> 00:47:58,839
Speaker 12: we're not gonna put black on air like we're gonna

836
00:47:58,880 --> 00:48:03,640
Speaker 12: do something. So however we have to do that, we

837
00:48:03,800 --> 00:48:07,240
Speaker 12: will make it happen. And I've never worked anywhere CBS

838
00:48:07,360 --> 00:48:10,320
Speaker 12: News or anywhere else where. Everyone does not have that

839
00:48:10,440 --> 00:48:11,000
Speaker 12: work ethic.

840
00:48:11,560 --> 00:48:14,920
Speaker 4: Simon Swink wasn't the only one to marvel in hindsight

841
00:48:15,040 --> 00:48:18,160
Speaker 4: at how much they were able to achieve under COVID conditions.

842
00:48:18,600 --> 00:48:22,200
Speaker 4: Scott Wilder and Jason Kurtz also chime in on this subject.

843
00:48:22,680 --> 00:48:24,919
Speaker 6: But our menu actually didn't change that much. I would

844
00:48:24,920 --> 00:48:27,839
Speaker 6: say if you took any broadcast from four years ago

845
00:48:27,920 --> 00:48:30,120
Speaker 6: at this moment and right now, it's probably the same

846
00:48:30,239 --> 00:48:33,080
Speaker 6: number of segments. Because what we found is we had

847
00:48:33,200 --> 00:48:35,480
Speaker 6: enough people that really knew how the show worked and

848
00:48:36,880 --> 00:48:38,759
Speaker 6: could figure out, Okay, I'm going to add a few

849
00:48:38,800 --> 00:48:40,799
Speaker 6: extra steps, but the guest isn't coming, so we're going

850
00:48:40,880 --> 00:48:42,719
Speaker 6: to do this on Zoom, or we're going to tape

851
00:48:42,719 --> 00:48:45,319
Speaker 6: interviews on zoom or whatever it might be. We can

852
00:48:45,480 --> 00:48:47,480
Speaker 6: edit from home and we can feed in this way

853
00:48:47,600 --> 00:48:51,120
Speaker 6: over various servers. We came up with enough workarounds very

854
00:48:51,200 --> 00:48:53,600
Speaker 6: quickly because it's a smart creative group, that it didn't

855
00:48:53,640 --> 00:48:56,560
Speaker 6: change our segment number. But it did really change our

856
00:48:56,600 --> 00:49:00,759
Speaker 6: production number. And the most noticeable We've always done a

857
00:49:00,760 --> 00:49:03,440
Speaker 6: lot of live performances on the show, live music performances,

858
00:49:04,080 --> 00:49:08,920
Speaker 6: and we couldn't do those. I mean, we had to

859
00:49:09,000 --> 00:49:10,440
Speaker 6: kick off our summer I think was to kick off

860
00:49:10,520 --> 00:49:14,200
Speaker 6: our summer concert series. We had we had a special

861
00:49:14,320 --> 00:49:17,040
Speaker 6: crew tested and we filmed Katie Perry in her backyard

862
00:49:17,120 --> 00:49:20,359
Speaker 6: singing her brand new song Daisies, and I would argue

863
00:49:20,360 --> 00:49:23,000
Speaker 6: it was actually in many ways it was very cool

864
00:49:23,040 --> 00:49:26,120
Speaker 6: that we had been forced to innovate into that because

865
00:49:26,400 --> 00:49:29,719
Speaker 6: we were seeing a very famous pop star bring us

866
00:49:29,719 --> 00:49:32,759
Speaker 6: a new song in a different kind of environment. You know,

867
00:49:32,800 --> 00:49:36,759
Speaker 6: it wasn't the usual slick stage production. So in some

868
00:49:36,920 --> 00:49:39,560
Speaker 6: cases the innovation's forced I think some great television.

869
00:49:40,160 --> 00:49:45,920
Speaker 9: Our leaderships, specifically Susan Scott, who's our CEO, was very

870
00:49:46,560 --> 00:49:49,160
Speaker 9: adamant that we needed to look like we were in

871
00:49:49,480 --> 00:49:52,360
Speaker 9: television studios and needed to have a high bar of

872
00:49:52,719 --> 00:49:58,200
Speaker 9: being a professional television facility. If that facility was going

873
00:49:58,280 --> 00:50:01,759
Speaker 9: to be in an anchor's home, it didn't matter. It

874
00:50:01,920 --> 00:50:05,719
Speaker 9: was very important from all leadership that the viewer turned

875
00:50:05,760 --> 00:50:09,040
Speaker 9: on the TV and feel like they're watching Fox News.

876
00:50:09,280 --> 00:50:12,640
Speaker 9: People were starving for information, right These were scary times,

877
00:50:13,280 --> 00:50:17,160
Speaker 9: and so it just that was one thing that across

878
00:50:17,239 --> 00:50:19,439
Speaker 9: the board, our leadership knew that they did not want

879
00:50:19,480 --> 00:50:22,040
Speaker 9: to change. Nobody wanted to turn the TV on and

880
00:50:22,200 --> 00:50:24,640
Speaker 9: look at, you know, somebody's living room or kitchen.

881
00:50:25,280 --> 00:50:27,799
Speaker 8: My memory is that none of that. We just kept

882
00:50:27,880 --> 00:50:30,360
Speaker 8: moving and we just weren't giving up and it was

883
00:50:30,480 --> 00:50:36,040
Speaker 8: just this really supportive, amazing group from CBS executives to

884
00:50:36,160 --> 00:50:40,960
Speaker 8: Drew to you know, Flower Films, Chris Miller and Amber Truesdale,

885
00:50:41,080 --> 00:50:43,239
Speaker 8: myself and everyone that just worked here. It was just

886
00:50:43,840 --> 00:50:49,680
Speaker 8: this collective and I sound Sacharine and but it really

887
00:50:49,920 --> 00:50:52,600
Speaker 8: just was this beautiful group of people that just had

888
00:50:52,680 --> 00:50:55,160
Speaker 8: one common goal and we were focused and we were

889
00:50:55,280 --> 00:50:58,040
Speaker 8: just not stopping. So that's really my memory, and that

890
00:50:58,680 --> 00:51:01,200
Speaker 8: was so nice and helpful, especially during such a dark

891
00:51:01,280 --> 00:51:04,040
Speaker 8: time with everything happening, that it was just this really

892
00:51:04,080 --> 00:51:06,400
Speaker 8: amazing group of people that just got to work together

893
00:51:06,560 --> 00:51:11,000
Speaker 8: and just wanted to stay focused and bring Drew to

894
00:51:11,760 --> 00:51:16,399
Speaker 8: everyone's home and hopefully create like just a fun, bright

895
00:51:16,920 --> 00:51:17,719
Speaker 8: little place to be.

896
00:51:18,600 --> 00:51:21,680
Speaker 4: Of course, all of this work under extreme pressure is

897
00:51:21,760 --> 00:51:25,600
Speaker 4: being done while everyone is also dealing with personal struggles

898
00:51:25,680 --> 00:51:29,640
Speaker 4: and health threats made worse by the pandemic. Jason Kurtz,

899
00:51:29,920 --> 00:51:35,360
Speaker 4: Shawna Thomas, Simone Swink, and Lindsey Davis share hard stories.

900
00:51:36,000 --> 00:51:37,919
Speaker 8: There was a heaviness to what we were all dealing

901
00:51:37,960 --> 00:51:41,760
Speaker 8: with personally, and you know, we all that was another

902
00:51:42,239 --> 00:51:45,360
Speaker 8: you know, silver lining, and it is that our group

903
00:51:45,680 --> 00:51:49,280
Speaker 8: bonded very fast during those times because we were supporting

904
00:51:49,320 --> 00:51:51,320
Speaker 8: each other, not just professionally but personally.

905
00:51:51,960 --> 00:51:54,680
Speaker 12: CBS News, I believe, was one of the first COVID

906
00:51:54,760 --> 00:51:57,840
Speaker 12: clusters in New York City in March of twenty twenty.

907
00:51:58,960 --> 00:52:01,840
Speaker 12: And I know that because while I was not working

908
00:52:01,920 --> 00:52:05,239
Speaker 12: technically for CBS News, I was working for Quibi, the

909
00:52:05,400 --> 00:52:09,960
Speaker 12: now incredibly defult Quibby. But I was a development executive

910
00:52:10,080 --> 00:52:13,480
Speaker 12: that was in charge of sixty and six, which was

911
00:52:13,960 --> 00:52:17,960
Speaker 12: like the sixty minutes product, and in I think about

912
00:52:17,960 --> 00:52:20,759
Speaker 12: a week before maybe a week and a half before

913
00:52:20,800 --> 00:52:23,200
Speaker 12: they had to shut down the broadcast center, we had

914
00:52:23,280 --> 00:52:28,400
Speaker 12: had a launch party there that it near CBS, near

915
00:52:28,440 --> 00:52:32,040
Speaker 12: the broadcast Center, in one of the restaurants that I

916
00:52:32,200 --> 00:52:36,080
Speaker 12: remember being there with Susan Zarenski and Bill Owens, and

917
00:52:36,120 --> 00:52:37,680
Speaker 12: everyone was like, we're going to do this new thing.

918
00:52:37,760 --> 00:52:39,440
Speaker 12: It's going to be on Quibbi. We're making this like

919
00:52:39,560 --> 00:52:42,600
Speaker 12: mini version of sixty minutes with Seth Doane and these

920
00:52:42,640 --> 00:52:46,560
Speaker 12: other reporters and it's going to be fantastic. And I

921
00:52:46,640 --> 00:52:49,400
Speaker 12: remember looking at Zee, who I had known for a

922
00:52:49,480 --> 00:52:53,239
Speaker 12: while just through being in television news for many years,

923
00:52:53,840 --> 00:52:57,440
Speaker 12: and looking at her and we weren't wearing masks and

924
00:52:58,840 --> 00:53:00,799
Speaker 12: being like, am I supposed to hug you? Are we hugged?

925
00:53:00,840 --> 00:53:00,880
Speaker 11: Like?

926
00:53:00,920 --> 00:53:01,960
Speaker 7: What do we do right now?

927
00:53:02,120 --> 00:53:02,600
Speaker 8: Is this real?

928
00:53:02,760 --> 00:53:03,040
Speaker 11: Is this not?

929
00:53:03,239 --> 00:53:05,120
Speaker 12: It goes back to kind of what Tara was saying,

930
00:53:05,400 --> 00:53:10,040
Speaker 12: and she was like, I'm a hugger. And I personally

931
00:53:10,120 --> 00:53:14,399
Speaker 12: believe I got COVID from that party, because almost soon

932
00:53:14,440 --> 00:53:16,600
Speaker 12: after that, I was going back and forth between New

933
00:53:16,719 --> 00:53:19,839
Speaker 12: York and d C because I was still partially based

934
00:53:19,880 --> 00:53:26,880
Speaker 12: in DC while working for Quibbi. And it did the

935
00:53:28,000 --> 00:53:31,319
Speaker 12: the fears at CBS had started. Things in New York

936
00:53:31,400 --> 00:53:34,160
Speaker 12: City had were just starting to get worse and worse.

937
00:53:34,680 --> 00:53:37,080
Speaker 12: And I basically told my boss, who also used to

938
00:53:37,120 --> 00:53:39,800
Speaker 12: be the executive producer of CBS, this morning, Ryan kdro

939
00:53:40,040 --> 00:53:44,759
Speaker 12: Ryan looking for Quibbi. It's all very incestuous, really, that

940
00:53:45,360 --> 00:53:47,160
Speaker 12: I was not going to come back to New York City.

941
00:53:47,440 --> 00:53:48,960
Speaker 12: And then a couple of days after that, I came

942
00:53:49,040 --> 00:53:50,800
Speaker 12: down with one hundred and two fever that did not

943
00:53:50,880 --> 00:53:51,879
Speaker 12: go away for ten days.

944
00:53:52,320 --> 00:53:53,960
Speaker 6: We had a colleague who was quite sick and in

945
00:53:54,040 --> 00:53:58,600
Speaker 6: the hospital and she didn't she was she didn't understand

946
00:53:58,600 --> 00:54:00,920
Speaker 6: why nobody would visit her and have COVID. She had

947
00:54:00,960 --> 00:54:03,680
Speaker 6: something else, and none of us could leave our rooms

948
00:54:04,160 --> 00:54:08,800
Speaker 6: and she died, and it was like COVID is not

949
00:54:08,960 --> 00:54:12,680
Speaker 6: only disrupting regular day to day work, it's disrupting that

950
00:54:13,719 --> 00:54:16,640
Speaker 6: all these people can't go see a close friend and colleague.

951
00:54:17,040 --> 00:54:19,200
Speaker 6: And then we actually didn't have her funeral for another

952
00:54:19,320 --> 00:54:21,880
Speaker 6: or couldn't attend a memorial for another two years. I

953
00:54:22,040 --> 00:54:24,719
Speaker 6: was not only coming in every day at a certain point,

954
00:54:24,760 --> 00:54:27,520
Speaker 6: but that was like my only contact with the outside world,

955
00:54:27,600 --> 00:54:29,719
Speaker 6: it felt like, was to come to the studio. And

956
00:54:29,880 --> 00:54:33,120
Speaker 6: I had been dealing with a health battle because I

957
00:54:33,200 --> 00:54:36,799
Speaker 6: had found it I quite severe cancer in the middle

958
00:54:36,800 --> 00:54:38,800
Speaker 6: of it. So to actually be able to come to

959
00:54:38,960 --> 00:54:43,640
Speaker 6: work during all that was a lifesaver because it really

960
00:54:44,320 --> 00:54:48,560
Speaker 6: gave me something to focus on. And everybody was so

961
00:54:48,719 --> 00:54:51,200
Speaker 6: caught up and how are we solving problems that no

962
00:54:51,280 --> 00:54:53,880
Speaker 6: one's looking at the cancer patients. So for me, it

963
00:54:54,000 --> 00:54:56,160
Speaker 6: was this unexpected boon in the midst of all this

964
00:54:56,800 --> 00:55:01,600
Speaker 6: mist of all this misery and and you know, separation.

965
00:55:02,239 --> 00:55:03,920
Speaker 6: So I actually loved coming into work.

966
00:55:04,560 --> 00:55:06,920
Speaker 12: There was at least one or two times where we

967
00:55:07,120 --> 00:55:09,520
Speaker 12: got one of the anchors results while they were on

968
00:55:09,719 --> 00:55:13,239
Speaker 12: TV and during a commercial break, I would come out

969
00:55:13,239 --> 00:55:15,440
Speaker 12: and be like, Hey, why don't you come with me.

970
00:55:16,960 --> 00:55:19,759
Speaker 12: Let let's go outside for a second. And I think

971
00:55:19,800 --> 00:55:21,960
Speaker 12: at least maybe once, I think I pulled Nate like

972
00:55:22,400 --> 00:55:24,360
Speaker 12: he was in a segment in one part of the

973
00:55:24,400 --> 00:55:27,520
Speaker 12: show and then suddenly not there anymore because I pulled

974
00:55:27,560 --> 00:55:29,120
Speaker 12: them and you put a mask on him, you put

975
00:55:29,160 --> 00:55:30,480
Speaker 12: him in a car, and you're like, you gotta go home,

976
00:55:31,160 --> 00:55:34,759
Speaker 12: go home. We need you to leave immediately, and then

977
00:55:34,840 --> 00:55:39,759
Speaker 12: retest everybody in the studio. And it seems funny now,

978
00:55:39,880 --> 00:55:41,239
Speaker 12: but then you're like, what are we going to tell

979
00:55:41,280 --> 00:55:44,040
Speaker 12: the audience? This is his own personal medical business. What

980
00:55:44,160 --> 00:55:46,480
Speaker 12: do we do they're gonna notice? And then I think

981
00:55:46,760 --> 00:55:49,760
Speaker 12: that one time we had to do two more segments,

982
00:55:49,920 --> 00:55:53,200
Speaker 12: didn't say anything until the end of the show, and

983
00:55:53,440 --> 00:55:55,799
Speaker 12: said a little bit of something and then got off

984
00:55:55,880 --> 00:55:57,640
Speaker 12: the air to start to figure out how we were

985
00:55:57,680 --> 00:55:58,680
Speaker 12: going to do tomorrow.

986
00:56:00,280 --> 00:56:01,880
Speaker 11: But there was it.

987
00:56:02,520 --> 00:56:06,200
Speaker 12: It was constantly being thrown some kind of weird curveball

988
00:56:06,320 --> 00:56:09,960
Speaker 12: about how are we going to make this work because

989
00:56:10,600 --> 00:56:13,440
Speaker 12: this virus is still going around and I still have

990
00:56:13,560 --> 00:56:15,479
Speaker 12: to figure out how to do the show and protect people.

991
00:56:16,160 --> 00:56:20,960
Speaker 1: Unfortunately, early on it was April. My mom then got

992
00:56:21,080 --> 00:56:25,000
Speaker 1: COVID and this is before the you know, vaccine, and

993
00:56:25,600 --> 00:56:28,800
Speaker 1: it was like older people and people of color, you know,

994
00:56:28,880 --> 00:56:33,880
Speaker 1: black people, my mom's a black woman, were dying you know, regularly.

995
00:56:34,040 --> 00:56:39,200
Speaker 1: So that was really hard for me reporting on this

996
00:56:39,400 --> 00:56:42,160
Speaker 1: and to try to, you know, remove myself from the

997
00:56:42,239 --> 00:56:47,040
Speaker 1: emotion of when we were talking about the disproportionate you know,

998
00:56:47,880 --> 00:56:51,840
Speaker 1: the elderly and people of color who were dying, and

999
00:56:52,040 --> 00:56:57,920
Speaker 1: that was a really just the first time anything in

1000
00:56:58,040 --> 00:57:03,440
Speaker 1: that way was so personal, and it made it more

1001
00:57:03,680 --> 00:57:08,000
Speaker 1: urgent for me, you know, to almost inform people because

1002
00:57:08,640 --> 00:57:15,440
Speaker 1: I wanted to know as a real kind of you know,

1003
00:57:16,560 --> 00:57:18,960
Speaker 1: I don't want to say victim, but just the feeling,

1004
00:57:19,000 --> 00:57:23,200
Speaker 1: the impact personally, you know, on the home front really

1005
00:57:23,400 --> 00:57:24,760
Speaker 1: was was significant.

1006
00:57:25,520 --> 00:57:28,800
Speaker 4: News pros were driven by the knowledge that their work

1007
00:57:29,120 --> 00:57:33,440
Speaker 4: mattered greatly. Here's Chris Dinan and Simone Swink.

1008
00:57:33,840 --> 00:57:37,240
Speaker 5: You know, I've in network news for decades now, and

1009
00:57:37,720 --> 00:57:40,680
Speaker 5: I know that there's been the discussion the decline of

1010
00:57:40,760 --> 00:57:45,720
Speaker 5: the broadcast networks, but during the course of this pandemic,

1011
00:57:46,800 --> 00:57:51,200
Speaker 5: millions of people turned for their information to the broadcast networks.

1012
00:57:52,080 --> 00:57:54,320
Speaker 5: At one point, we were having thirteen million bluers a

1013
00:57:54,440 --> 00:57:57,520
Speaker 5: night and were the number one show across the ball

1014
00:57:57,640 --> 00:58:01,480
Speaker 5: and broadcasts and came, which is a remarkable accomplishment. If

1015
00:58:01,480 --> 00:58:04,640
Speaker 5: you told me that an uscasts would have that cided

1016
00:58:04,720 --> 00:58:07,720
Speaker 5: number and be in that position, I don't know that

1017
00:58:07,800 --> 00:58:09,360
Speaker 5: I would have thought that was possible.

1018
00:58:09,480 --> 00:58:12,240
Speaker 10: That people turned in great numbers.

1019
00:58:12,360 --> 00:58:14,440
Speaker 5: Because they knew that they would get reliable in sense

1020
00:58:14,480 --> 00:58:16,720
Speaker 5: of the information that they could trust, and I thought

1021
00:58:16,720 --> 00:58:19,600
Speaker 5: that was it's always been reassuring that.

1022
00:58:21,320 --> 00:58:23,160
Speaker 6: You just reminded me of one thing that I forgot

1023
00:58:23,240 --> 00:58:25,560
Speaker 6: that was a very big deal during the pandemic, which

1024
00:58:25,600 --> 00:58:29,000
Speaker 6: is that we kept doing deals and steals and Tory

1025
00:58:29,280 --> 00:58:32,520
Speaker 6: Johnson and the show got something like one hundred and

1026
00:58:32,560 --> 00:58:34,760
Speaker 6: fifty letters. She showed me a lot of them, the

1027
00:58:34,920 --> 00:58:37,320
Speaker 6: number of small business owners in this country that wrote

1028
00:58:37,360 --> 00:58:39,680
Speaker 6: to GMA and Tory and said, you saved our business

1029
00:58:39,720 --> 00:58:42,680
Speaker 6: during the pandemic. This was the only way that anyone

1030
00:58:42,720 --> 00:58:46,080
Speaker 6: could learn what we were doing. And so that meant

1031
00:58:46,160 --> 00:58:48,640
Speaker 6: that if they were in deals and steals, and then

1032
00:58:48,840 --> 00:58:51,200
Speaker 6: Tory told their story and the viewers got a deal,

1033
00:58:51,280 --> 00:58:53,560
Speaker 6: so somebody bought a twelve dollars dishcloth. We literally had

1034
00:58:53,600 --> 00:58:55,680
Speaker 6: people writing to us saying we were able to keep

1035
00:58:55,720 --> 00:58:59,040
Speaker 6: everybody on payroll, We could close payroll people were able

1036
00:58:59,120 --> 00:59:01,600
Speaker 6: to get the healthcare that they needed in order to

1037
00:59:01,920 --> 00:59:04,000
Speaker 6: help the members of their family who had COVID. I mean,

1038
00:59:04,240 --> 00:59:06,520
Speaker 6: the ripple effect just on its own from deals and

1039
00:59:06,560 --> 00:59:09,640
Speaker 6: steals during that time was amazing.

1040
00:59:10,240 --> 00:59:14,960
Speaker 4: There were heroic efforts made by TV's frontline workers. Here's

1041
00:59:14,960 --> 00:59:17,880
Speaker 4: Scott Wilder, Chris Dinan, and Bill Hammer.

1042
00:59:18,320 --> 00:59:20,920
Speaker 9: We asked our news photographers to kind of be the

1043
00:59:20,960 --> 00:59:22,920
Speaker 9: front line of the people who were doing that with

1044
00:59:23,120 --> 00:59:27,000
Speaker 9: our anchors and reporters and contributors, because they're the people

1045
00:59:27,000 --> 00:59:29,840
Speaker 9: who are used to really being at the front lines

1046
00:59:29,880 --> 00:59:34,480
Speaker 9: of adversity and dangerous situations and hostile situations, and so

1047
00:59:35,480 --> 00:59:37,960
Speaker 9: they I like to think that they put a lot

1048
00:59:38,040 --> 00:59:41,320
Speaker 9: of people at ease and they were comfortable continuing to work.

1049
00:59:43,040 --> 00:59:44,200
Speaker 9: You know, I have to go back and give a

1050
00:59:44,240 --> 00:59:45,400
Speaker 9: lot of praise to our talent.

1051
00:59:45,920 --> 00:59:48,440
Speaker 5: You know, we hadn't based anything this dramatic or to

1052
00:59:48,560 --> 00:59:51,880
Speaker 5: Tonian ever in terms of our ability to cover stories.

1053
00:59:52,320 --> 00:59:55,080
Speaker 5: And I would just say that there were heroic efforts

1054
00:59:55,240 --> 01:00:00,840
Speaker 5: by reporters field producers who were actually out in the field,

1055
01:00:01,120 --> 01:00:05,919
Speaker 5: you know, in close proximity to this terrible pandemic, doing

1056
01:00:06,000 --> 01:00:08,840
Speaker 5: their jobs as best they could and doing spectacular work.

1057
01:00:08,880 --> 01:00:10,800
Speaker 10: And bringing home the stories of you.

1058
01:00:11,000 --> 01:00:13,960
Speaker 5: The terrible suffering that was going on, which I did

1059
01:00:14,040 --> 01:00:16,720
Speaker 5: think over time also took a toll on the people

1060
01:00:16,760 --> 01:00:19,080
Speaker 5: who were covering it and the producers who were here,

1061
01:00:19,240 --> 01:00:22,840
Speaker 5: who day in and day out would see very heart

1062
01:00:22,840 --> 01:00:25,920
Speaker 5: wrenching videos and people suffering and in the last throws

1063
01:00:25,920 --> 01:00:26,800
Speaker 5: of their lives as.

1064
01:00:26,720 --> 01:00:29,200
Speaker 10: They hard to deal with, you know, the unthinkable.

1065
01:00:29,520 --> 01:00:32,200
Speaker 5: So it took an emotional pale on people, I'm sure,

1066
01:00:32,240 --> 01:00:35,960
Speaker 5: but to a person, everyone you know, set that aside

1067
01:00:35,960 --> 01:00:39,080
Speaker 5: when they had to and made a point of delivering

1068
01:00:39,120 --> 01:00:41,760
Speaker 5: the news in the most objective way they could.

1069
01:00:42,320 --> 01:00:45,080
Speaker 3: But I would defer to my colleagues who also you know,

1070
01:00:45,400 --> 01:00:47,439
Speaker 3: you didn't see a lot of them on camera because

1071
01:00:47,480 --> 01:00:49,880
Speaker 3: they weren't behind the scenes, but so many of them

1072
01:00:49,920 --> 01:00:52,280
Speaker 3: that they weren't just writing from different states, you know,

1073
01:00:52,440 --> 01:00:55,000
Speaker 3: and producing for different stays. They were in the building.

1074
01:00:55,240 --> 01:00:56,800
Speaker 10: And I mentioned Suzanne, and.

1075
01:00:59,200 --> 01:01:02,680
Speaker 3: That is really important. That means a lot when your

1076
01:01:02,760 --> 01:01:06,040
Speaker 3: leader is here. And yeah, I also think it means

1077
01:01:06,080 --> 01:01:08,120
Speaker 3: a lot of viewers when they know that you're still

1078
01:01:08,480 --> 01:01:11,280
Speaker 3: there for them every day, so you're.

1079
01:01:11,160 --> 01:01:11,880
Speaker 7: Doing what you can.

1080
01:01:12,040 --> 01:01:16,040
Speaker 4: Yeah, after more than a year of quarantines and ppe,

1081
01:01:16,800 --> 01:01:20,680
Speaker 4: the pandemic slowly began to loosen its grip. Their return

1082
01:01:20,880 --> 01:01:25,040
Speaker 4: to normal news gathering and production conditions was a process

1083
01:01:25,240 --> 01:01:29,360
Speaker 4: unto itself. Here we hear from Scott Wilder, Jason Kurtz,

1084
01:01:29,760 --> 01:01:31,560
Speaker 4: Vin de Bona, and John Tower.

1085
01:01:32,200 --> 01:01:34,680
Speaker 9: The majority of our staff cannot wait to get back,

1086
01:01:34,760 --> 01:01:38,200
Speaker 9: and it was can I please have my spare bedroom back?

1087
01:01:38,280 --> 01:01:40,800
Speaker 9: And I please have the space in my living room back?

1088
01:01:41,320 --> 01:01:44,280
Speaker 9: I really, you know, I just can't stand. My kids

1089
01:01:44,320 --> 01:01:48,240
Speaker 9: are tripping over this equipment. So yeah, I mean, you know,

1090
01:01:48,560 --> 01:01:51,960
Speaker 9: those same teams who went and set them up, you know,

1091
01:01:52,280 --> 01:01:55,680
Speaker 9: would would take them back. So we have a plethora

1092
01:01:55,920 --> 01:01:59,200
Speaker 9: of sixty five inch monitors in this building somewhere.

1093
01:02:00,280 --> 01:02:03,640
Speaker 8: It wasn't until after the fact that Drew and I realized,

1094
01:02:03,720 --> 01:02:06,080
Speaker 8: like we never had the benefit of a studio audience

1095
01:02:06,160 --> 01:02:09,200
Speaker 8: giving direct feedback. Like we didn't even think that way

1096
01:02:09,480 --> 01:02:12,120
Speaker 8: until season two when we had a studio audience and

1097
01:02:12,160 --> 01:02:14,480
Speaker 8: we're like, oh, wow, they're laughing. It's not you know,

1098
01:02:14,680 --> 01:02:17,800
Speaker 8: like oh my god, Like they're emoting like we It

1099
01:02:17,920 --> 01:02:20,400
Speaker 8: was funny because we just didn't have it, so we

1100
01:02:20,440 --> 01:02:22,120
Speaker 8: didn't think about it. And then when we had it

1101
01:02:22,200 --> 01:02:24,120
Speaker 8: in season two, we're like, wow, we missed out on

1102
01:02:24,280 --> 01:02:31,200
Speaker 8: like real time feedback, and so that was interesting realizing that.

1103
01:02:31,320 --> 01:02:33,120
Speaker 8: But then we brought them back and we brought in

1104
01:02:33,200 --> 01:02:35,400
Speaker 8: the studio audience in season two, and that sort of

1105
01:02:35,480 --> 01:02:39,360
Speaker 8: obviously changed the energy of the room and brought so

1106
01:02:39,480 --> 01:02:41,520
Speaker 8: much life to the show. Showed that side of drew,

1107
01:02:41,640 --> 01:02:45,160
Speaker 8: that personal connection that she can get from, you know,

1108
01:02:45,320 --> 01:02:48,280
Speaker 8: any individual, and just her love of the audience.

1109
01:02:49,160 --> 01:02:51,959
Speaker 11: Actually, we had to figure out how to reblock the show.

1110
01:02:53,200 --> 01:02:55,840
Speaker 11: What we did was, and that's a really good question.

1111
01:02:57,160 --> 01:03:00,680
Speaker 11: You know, we had a huge group of audience members

1112
01:03:00,800 --> 01:03:05,480
Speaker 11: in bleachers and that was sort of the camera left

1113
01:03:07,160 --> 01:03:11,160
Speaker 11: area of the studio, and we decided not to use

1114
01:03:11,240 --> 01:03:15,600
Speaker 11: the bleachers anymore. We were still trying to figure out

1115
01:03:16,400 --> 01:03:20,600
Speaker 11: if cod if COVID could kick back, you know, and

1116
01:03:20,720 --> 01:03:25,360
Speaker 11: so limiting the audience. We wound up using coffee tables,

1117
01:03:25,800 --> 01:03:31,920
Speaker 11: high school tables, high top tables and scattered around the

1118
01:03:31,960 --> 01:03:34,840
Speaker 11: studio and it was more of a kind of a

1119
01:03:34,920 --> 01:03:38,439
Speaker 11: community look than a bleacher look. And so we've kept

1120
01:03:38,520 --> 01:03:40,560
Speaker 11: that and it works quite well.

1121
01:03:41,000 --> 01:03:43,240
Speaker 2: I'm not a cranky, like get everybody back to the

1122
01:03:43,320 --> 01:03:46,480
Speaker 2: office kind of person. I'm not, but I do think

1123
01:03:46,520 --> 01:03:49,280
Speaker 2: that there's something lost when people aren't like actually physically

1124
01:03:49,320 --> 01:03:51,640
Speaker 2: present with each other, and so like that affects the

1125
01:03:51,720 --> 01:03:54,160
Speaker 2: news too, and that affects it the way we like

1126
01:03:54,400 --> 01:03:57,520
Speaker 2: tell stories interact, and you know, it affects how the

1127
01:03:57,560 --> 01:04:00,480
Speaker 2: anchors are. You know, the show's much better together with

1128
01:04:00,560 --> 01:04:02,800
Speaker 2: then when they're like remote, you still put a shoe on,

1129
01:04:03,000 --> 01:04:05,720
Speaker 2: but it's there's just there's something there. So I think

1130
01:04:06,920 --> 01:04:09,560
Speaker 2: figuring that out and get and you know, getting back

1131
01:04:09,600 --> 01:04:13,560
Speaker 2: to a world where we are truly together again, if

1132
01:04:13,600 --> 01:04:15,800
Speaker 2: that is even a possibility, I think that that would

1133
01:04:15,920 --> 01:04:17,560
Speaker 2: contribute to sort of a better product.

1134
01:04:18,080 --> 01:04:20,840
Speaker 4: Now that we have the benefit of hindsight. What have

1135
01:04:21,000 --> 01:04:25,120
Speaker 4: been the lasting impact of changes implemented during COVID times

1136
01:04:26,000 --> 01:04:29,240
Speaker 4: in twenty twenty. Once I did my fourth or fifth

1137
01:04:29,480 --> 01:04:33,120
Speaker 4: media hit via Zoom, I knew that local stations and

1138
01:04:33,280 --> 01:04:37,680
Speaker 4: networks would rarely, if ever again send a full crew

1139
01:04:38,120 --> 01:04:41,720
Speaker 4: to our offices for a routine news interview. Here we

1140
01:04:41,880 --> 01:04:46,600
Speaker 4: get perspective from Simone Swink, Scott Wilder, Chris Dinan, and

1141
01:04:46,720 --> 01:04:47,320
Speaker 4: Bill Hammer.

1142
01:04:47,720 --> 01:04:51,040
Speaker 6: It shook up people's idea of what was possible, and

1143
01:04:51,120 --> 01:04:53,520
Speaker 6: I think that's always good. This industry is always changing,

1144
01:04:54,320 --> 01:04:55,960
Speaker 6: and that was at least a positive thing to come

1145
01:04:56,120 --> 01:04:58,920
Speaker 6: out of it. I also think, at least for me,

1146
01:05:00,040 --> 01:05:04,080
Speaker 6: I think empathy at work is really important, and I

1147
01:05:04,120 --> 01:05:06,200
Speaker 6: don't think sometimes we talk about it enough. I think

1148
01:05:06,240 --> 01:05:08,680
Speaker 6: a lot of people are dealing with a lot of things,

1149
01:05:08,760 --> 01:05:11,200
Speaker 6: and certainly were during COVID, and you have to get

1150
01:05:11,240 --> 01:05:13,960
Speaker 6: the best show on the air. It's a very competitive environment.

1151
01:05:15,320 --> 01:05:18,440
Speaker 6: But I do think leading with empathy, working with empathy

1152
01:05:19,280 --> 01:05:23,160
Speaker 6: and trying to assume or at least lead with the

1153
01:05:23,240 --> 01:05:25,280
Speaker 6: idea that everybody is trying to do their best work

1154
01:05:25,400 --> 01:05:27,400
Speaker 6: or figure out how to get them there. And that's

1155
01:05:27,480 --> 01:05:29,640
Speaker 6: not always going to work. But if you start from

1156
01:05:30,320 --> 01:05:32,480
Speaker 6: an empathetic but firm place, I think you're going to

1157
01:05:32,560 --> 01:05:37,000
Speaker 6: end up in a better place as a broadcast. And

1158
01:05:37,440 --> 01:05:39,440
Speaker 6: I also think I think COVID was a time of

1159
01:05:39,640 --> 01:05:42,160
Speaker 6: immense struggle for so many people. I think so many

1160
01:05:42,200 --> 01:05:45,360
Speaker 6: people had just so much. They were dealing with family,

1161
01:05:45,880 --> 01:05:49,520
Speaker 6: personal struggles, the idea of just being in lockdown. It

1162
01:05:49,640 --> 01:05:52,240
Speaker 6: was such a disruption to the system in general, and

1163
01:05:52,560 --> 01:05:55,920
Speaker 6: I think that that meant that empathy and patience in

1164
01:05:56,000 --> 01:05:59,880
Speaker 6: so many ways are emerged as key leadership characteristics in

1165
01:06:00,320 --> 01:06:03,320
Speaker 6: a way that I don't think they were held up

1166
01:06:03,360 --> 01:06:04,800
Speaker 6: that way prior to COVID.

1167
01:06:05,360 --> 01:06:08,200
Speaker 9: I think that we're prepared to respond to breaking news

1168
01:06:08,280 --> 01:06:11,920
Speaker 9: in a way that we never were because in certain

1169
01:06:12,360 --> 01:06:16,919
Speaker 9: instances where we've decided to keep or install or lean

1170
01:06:17,160 --> 01:06:19,800
Speaker 9: on something we've already done, we still have the ability

1171
01:06:19,880 --> 01:06:23,720
Speaker 9: to do that right. So that to me is the

1172
01:06:23,800 --> 01:06:26,920
Speaker 9: lasting impact that we can go you know, something could

1173
01:06:26,960 --> 01:06:29,360
Speaker 9: happen at three am and I can call somebody and

1174
01:06:29,440 --> 01:06:32,360
Speaker 9: have them on TV within you know, fifteen minutes, as

1175
01:06:32,360 --> 01:06:36,120
Speaker 9: opposed to dispatch the van getting them into this building. Yeah,

1176
01:06:36,960 --> 01:06:38,760
Speaker 9: the art of learning where and when to do that,

1177
01:06:38,880 --> 01:06:39,920
Speaker 9: I think is the hardware.

1178
01:06:40,760 --> 01:06:43,600
Speaker 5: There have been many examples, of course the American history

1179
01:06:43,640 --> 01:06:46,200
Speaker 5: where you know, the country has stepped up and found

1180
01:06:46,360 --> 01:06:50,720
Speaker 5: a way to deal with something challenging, and this was clearly,

1181
01:06:50,880 --> 01:06:53,040
Speaker 5: you know, one of the most dramatic examples of that.

1182
01:06:53,800 --> 01:06:56,800
Speaker 10: So I think, you know, it's changed the cultures.

1183
01:06:57,000 --> 01:07:00,280
Speaker 5: As you mentioned, the phenomena of working from home is

1184
01:07:00,320 --> 01:07:04,560
Speaker 5: something that people very much embrace and it's allowed.

1185
01:07:05,320 --> 01:07:07,160
Speaker 10: I think it's also a lot of certain confidence.

1186
01:07:07,280 --> 01:07:10,000
Speaker 5: I think that with the advances and technology that we

1187
01:07:10,080 --> 01:07:13,120
Speaker 5: saw this time, and you know, with the kind of

1188
01:07:13,200 --> 01:07:17,080
Speaker 5: success in covering the news during this time, probably as

1189
01:07:17,160 --> 01:07:20,160
Speaker 5: challenging a time as there's ever been in being the

1190
01:07:20,200 --> 01:07:24,520
Speaker 5: journalists because very you're very reassuring that you can do

1191
01:07:24,680 --> 01:07:27,120
Speaker 5: almost anything if you know the will is there.

1192
01:07:27,720 --> 01:07:29,720
Speaker 3: You know, this is the birth of the live mobile van.

1193
01:07:31,360 --> 01:07:34,480
Speaker 3: You have anchors now who are doing entire entire shows

1194
01:07:34,720 --> 01:07:37,680
Speaker 3: from a van, like on the side of a street somewhere,

1195
01:07:37,960 --> 01:07:42,440
Speaker 3: and you don't know where it is. So that's another change.

1196
01:07:43,200 --> 01:07:46,400
Speaker 3: I think It's enabled us from a news gathering perspective,

1197
01:07:47,040 --> 01:07:52,120
Speaker 3: to reach guests who would normally not be available to

1198
01:07:52,360 --> 01:07:55,120
Speaker 3: us because I don't know, you name it, they're X

1199
01:07:55,160 --> 01:07:57,880
Speaker 3: amount of miles or hours away from a studio, and

1200
01:07:58,000 --> 01:08:01,160
Speaker 3: now we could send them the equipment meant where we

1201
01:08:01,240 --> 01:08:04,600
Speaker 3: could broadcast their face and their image and their audio.

1202
01:08:05,360 --> 01:08:08,400
Speaker 3: So that's all changed entirely, and.

1203
01:08:08,440 --> 01:08:10,240
Speaker 6: I think it broke some of the some of the

1204
01:08:10,800 --> 01:08:13,240
Speaker 6: broadcast norms of it always has to be a crew,

1205
01:08:13,360 --> 01:08:15,400
Speaker 6: it always has to be on sticks. There's many, many

1206
01:08:15,480 --> 01:08:20,120
Speaker 6: ways to do things, and the combination of COVID and

1207
01:08:20,240 --> 01:08:22,200
Speaker 6: also the rise of the iPhone, which had already been

1208
01:08:22,200 --> 01:08:25,000
Speaker 6: going on for a while. I think viewers are much

1209
01:08:25,360 --> 01:08:27,960
Speaker 6: I think viewers just want to see whatever it is,

1210
01:08:28,800 --> 01:08:31,320
Speaker 6: and they are much more willing to put up with

1211
01:08:31,479 --> 01:08:35,120
Speaker 6: the aesthetics of a shot that before it might have

1212
01:08:35,200 --> 01:08:39,559
Speaker 6: been deemed not for broadcast. It sort of infiltrated big

1213
01:08:39,640 --> 01:08:42,560
Speaker 6: ways in small ways in terms of that switch over technologically,

1214
01:08:43,080 --> 01:08:45,040
Speaker 6: and I think it changed the esthetic for good. I mean,

1215
01:08:45,360 --> 01:08:47,360
Speaker 6: we use zoom interviews now and a lot of pieces

1216
01:08:47,479 --> 01:08:49,479
Speaker 6: in a way that we would not have five years ago.

1217
01:08:50,280 --> 01:08:52,719
Speaker 6: And I think viewers are adjusted to it. They're fine

1218
01:08:52,720 --> 01:08:54,479
Speaker 6: with it. I don't think they think, oh, that show

1219
01:08:55,120 --> 01:08:57,960
Speaker 6: looks too different or too low budget to watch. It's

1220
01:08:58,080 --> 01:09:00,080
Speaker 6: just that's how people talk to each other now of

1221
01:09:00,160 --> 01:09:00,599
Speaker 6: the time.

1222
01:09:00,760 --> 01:09:04,040
Speaker 7: When the undeniable lasting changes, everybody got used to and

1223
01:09:04,120 --> 01:09:08,840
Speaker 7: comfortable with really lower quality camera and sound that people

1224
01:09:08,880 --> 01:09:11,800
Speaker 7: are setting up themselves. It was now acceptable to be like, yeah,

1225
01:09:11,800 --> 01:09:13,400
Speaker 7: I'll be on your show, but I'm going to stay

1226
01:09:13,400 --> 01:09:17,320
Speaker 7: in Newton, Massachusetts. Or yeah I'll be on your show,

1227
01:09:17,400 --> 01:09:19,600
Speaker 7: but I'm at my third house in Wyoming for the

1228
01:09:19,680 --> 01:09:20,040
Speaker 7: next week.

1229
01:09:20,160 --> 01:09:21,320
Speaker 10: Is that okay? Of course it is.

1230
01:09:21,840 --> 01:09:25,760
Speaker 7: Yeah, And that's just the reality of it. So that

1231
01:09:25,880 --> 01:09:28,479
Speaker 7: was both That's a double edged sword, because the good

1232
01:09:28,520 --> 01:09:31,320
Speaker 7: thing is you could do things more cheaply, but the

1233
01:09:31,400 --> 01:09:33,679
Speaker 7: bad thing is they realized they could do things more cheaply,

1234
01:09:34,040 --> 01:09:35,679
Speaker 7: and that always means jobs in our business.

1235
01:09:36,120 --> 01:09:38,839
Speaker 4: One big change that Vin de Bona and the AFV

1236
01:09:39,040 --> 01:09:41,320
Speaker 4: team made to the format of the show out of

1237
01:09:41,439 --> 01:09:44,599
Speaker 4: expediency has since been baked in for good.

1238
01:09:45,200 --> 01:09:48,160
Speaker 11: You know, up until that point, we brought audience members

1239
01:09:48,320 --> 01:09:55,080
Speaker 11: in winners of not winners, but participants in the contest

1240
01:09:55,320 --> 01:09:56,960
Speaker 11: in with their families.

1241
01:09:56,680 --> 01:10:00,600
Speaker 13: Right right, I've noticed that, yeah, right, And obviously we

1242
01:10:00,720 --> 01:10:05,439
Speaker 13: couldn't do that, so we sent for each show, we

1243
01:10:05,640 --> 01:10:08,320
Speaker 13: sent ring cameras and.

1244
01:10:11,160 --> 01:10:17,519
Speaker 11: Ring lights, with cameras and instructions and once again before

1245
01:10:18,120 --> 01:10:21,559
Speaker 11: tape date, we would make sure that the signal from

1246
01:10:21,680 --> 01:10:25,800
Speaker 11: their router was strong enough so that when we had

1247
01:10:25,840 --> 01:10:31,240
Speaker 11: the families come on, they wouldn't freeze, which they did sometimes.

1248
01:10:32,240 --> 01:10:36,479
Speaker 11: And so but basically we were sending out cause three

1249
01:10:36,560 --> 01:10:39,639
Speaker 11: shows a day, we were sending out, you know, nine

1250
01:10:39,840 --> 01:10:42,439
Speaker 11: sets of cameras, and then they had to return them,

1251
01:10:42,640 --> 01:10:44,080
Speaker 11: and then we had to send them on to the

1252
01:10:44,200 --> 01:10:47,760
Speaker 11: next group of families. So all that was keeping track

1253
01:10:47,880 --> 01:10:52,680
Speaker 11: of not the easiest thing in the world, just good coordination.

1254
01:10:54,000 --> 01:11:02,160
Speaker 11: But what we found was because the potent winners, we

1255
01:11:02,320 --> 01:11:05,880
Speaker 11: set up a system where they came in on flat

1256
01:11:05,920 --> 01:11:10,840
Speaker 11: screens three separate flat screens, and Al would walk to

1257
01:11:10,920 --> 01:11:13,120
Speaker 11: screen one and chat with them, and go to screen

1258
01:11:13,200 --> 01:11:16,640
Speaker 11: two and chat. The chats were much better than they

1259
01:11:16,760 --> 01:11:20,920
Speaker 11: had ever been in studio, really so uh and and

1260
01:11:21,080 --> 01:11:24,160
Speaker 11: interestingly enough, I talked to one of the producers on

1261
01:11:25,439 --> 01:11:29,840
Speaker 11: American Idol and they had the same situation with their

1262
01:11:31,080 --> 01:11:36,479
Speaker 11: home audiences and home participants, where there were much more

1263
01:11:36,520 --> 01:11:40,080
Speaker 11: at ease. Al had more fun with them. So we've

1264
01:11:40,160 --> 01:11:42,519
Speaker 11: kept it and it's not part of the show, and

1265
01:11:42,840 --> 01:11:47,719
Speaker 11: and and it's always what's really funny is the kids

1266
01:11:48,360 --> 01:11:53,240
Speaker 11: are much more at ease. And so you know, you'll

1267
01:11:53,280 --> 01:11:57,000
Speaker 11: see al' sactor when we had a little girl uh

1268
01:11:57,439 --> 01:12:01,080
Speaker 11: last week, and she's going like this throughout the whole thing.

1269
01:12:01,320 --> 01:12:03,599
Speaker 11: She was so excited, and it makes for a great show.

1270
01:12:04,080 --> 01:12:08,280
Speaker 4: The television business was tested and tried during COVID. The

1271
01:12:08,439 --> 01:12:13,240
Speaker 4: industry showed up with creativity and ingenuity. The shows did

1272
01:12:13,400 --> 01:12:17,160
Speaker 4: stay on. Here we'll have Simone Swink, Vin de Bona,

1273
01:12:17,560 --> 01:12:21,439
Speaker 4: and Lindsey Davis reflect on jobs well done, at least

1274
01:12:21,520 --> 01:12:21,720
Speaker 4: for me.

1275
01:12:22,560 --> 01:12:26,320
Speaker 6: I think empathy at work is really important, and I

1276
01:12:26,360 --> 01:12:28,439
Speaker 6: don't think sometimes we talk about it enough. I think

1277
01:12:28,439 --> 01:12:30,920
Speaker 6: a lot of people are dealing with a lot of things,

1278
01:12:31,000 --> 01:12:33,439
Speaker 6: and certainly we're during COVID and you have to get

1279
01:12:33,479 --> 01:12:36,200
Speaker 6: the best show on the air. It's a very competitive environment.

1280
01:12:37,560 --> 01:12:40,679
Speaker 6: But I do think leading with empathy, working with empathy,

1281
01:12:41,520 --> 01:12:45,560
Speaker 6: and trying to assume or at least lead with the

1282
01:12:45,640 --> 01:12:47,680
Speaker 6: idea that everybody is trying to do their best work

1283
01:12:47,800 --> 01:12:49,840
Speaker 6: or figure out how to get them there. And that's

1284
01:12:49,880 --> 01:12:52,040
Speaker 6: not always going to work. But if you start from

1285
01:12:52,720 --> 01:12:54,880
Speaker 6: an empathetic but firm place, I think you're going to

1286
01:12:54,960 --> 01:12:59,880
Speaker 6: end up in a better place as a broadcast. I

1287
01:13:00,120 --> 01:13:02,479
Speaker 6: also think I think COVID was a time of immense

1288
01:13:02,520 --> 01:13:04,880
Speaker 6: struggle for so many people. I think so many people

1289
01:13:04,960 --> 01:13:09,360
Speaker 6: had just so much. They were dealing with family, personal struggles,

1290
01:13:09,800 --> 01:13:12,360
Speaker 6: the idea of just being in lockdown. It was such

1291
01:13:12,360 --> 01:13:15,320
Speaker 6: a disruption to the system in general. And I think

1292
01:13:15,400 --> 01:13:18,880
Speaker 6: that that meant that empathy and patience in so many

1293
01:13:18,920 --> 01:13:23,200
Speaker 6: ways emerged as key leadership characteristics in a way that

1294
01:13:23,360 --> 01:13:26,880
Speaker 6: I don't think they were held up that way prior

1295
01:13:26,960 --> 01:13:27,360
Speaker 6: to COVID.

1296
01:13:28,080 --> 01:13:32,760
Speaker 11: The poignant piece of that is that we kept people

1297
01:13:32,880 --> 01:13:41,160
Speaker 11: working and it was a very very difficult time, but

1298
01:13:41,320 --> 01:13:47,640
Speaker 11: we had work and hopefully we kept America laughing, and

1299
01:13:48,840 --> 01:13:49,920
Speaker 11: you know, that's our job.

1300
01:13:50,400 --> 01:13:53,840
Speaker 1: Well, I think it's made us all more innovative. We're

1301
01:13:53,840 --> 01:13:58,400
Speaker 1: able to see what's possible, for better or for worse.

1302
01:13:58,840 --> 01:14:01,120
Speaker 1: You know, I think that there is a sense that

1303
01:14:02,000 --> 01:14:05,479
Speaker 1: if anything happens, we don't all have to be physically

1304
01:14:06,160 --> 01:14:08,639
Speaker 1: in the building. There are workarounds, you know. So it's

1305
01:14:09,120 --> 01:14:11,479
Speaker 1: it's just a way of rather than looking at everything

1306
01:14:11,520 --> 01:14:15,480
Speaker 1: as a problem, just looking at Okay, there are solutions,

1307
01:14:15,600 --> 01:14:20,519
Speaker 1: and we've seen these solutions happen, and you know, people

1308
01:14:20,640 --> 01:14:26,519
Speaker 1: needed to be clever. And I think that that has

1309
01:14:27,680 --> 01:14:31,640
Speaker 1: really been a big statement for and this is not

1310
01:14:31,920 --> 01:14:35,800
Speaker 1: just you know, for our team, but for the television

1311
01:14:35,880 --> 01:14:40,679
Speaker 1: industry as a whole, just that the news is will

1312
01:14:40,760 --> 01:14:46,639
Speaker 1: remain undeterred regardless of the scenario. And you know, hopefully

1313
01:14:46,720 --> 01:14:49,360
Speaker 1: we do not have to enduse something like that again.

1314
01:14:50,520 --> 01:14:52,680
Speaker 1: But I think we've learned a lot about what we're

1315
01:14:52,800 --> 01:14:55,439
Speaker 1: capable of. Sometimes you don't know until you've really been

1316
01:14:56,000 --> 01:14:59,160
Speaker 1: put to the test, and you know, we certainly were

1317
01:15:00,680 --> 01:15:05,400
Speaker 1: and I think you know, we given the circumstances, I

1318
01:15:05,520 --> 01:15:09,120
Speaker 1: think we all collectively really did a good job of

1319
01:15:09,280 --> 01:15:13,120
Speaker 1: keeping people informed, which really is you know, our number

1320
01:15:13,160 --> 01:15:13,679
Speaker 1: one mission.

1321
01:15:16,760 --> 01:15:20,439
Speaker 4: Well, that's our show my deepest thanks to all who

1322
01:15:20,600 --> 01:15:24,920
Speaker 4: contributed to this passion project of mine that includes Strictly

1323
01:15:25,000 --> 01:15:29,759
Speaker 4: Businesses amazing editor Aaron Grenewald. So thank you for listening.

1324
01:15:30,320 --> 01:15:33,120
Speaker 4: Be sure to leave us a review at Apple Podcasts

1325
01:15:33,280 --> 01:15:37,000
Speaker 4: or Amazon Music. We love to hear from listeners. Please

1326
01:15:37,040 --> 01:15:39,560
Speaker 4: go to Variety dot com and sign up for the

1327
01:15:39,640 --> 01:15:43,920
Speaker 4: free weekly Strictly Business newsletter, and don't forget to tune

1328
01:15:43,960 --> 01:15:47,240
Speaker 4: in next week for another episode of Strictly Business.

1329
01:15:47,680 --> 01:15:50,760
Speaker 9: I think after whatever it was, ten eleven, twelve days,

1330
01:15:51,040 --> 01:15:53,040
Speaker 9: my family was ready for me to come back to me.

1331
01:15:54,080 --> 01:15:54,519
Speaker 10: We miss you.

1332
01:15:55,120 --> 01:15:57,479
Speaker 9: They were ready for go, you know, they were ready

1333
01:15:57,600 --> 01:16:00,760
Speaker 9: for me to go back to work. There were odd times,

1334
01:16:00,840 --> 01:16:05,280
Speaker 9: you know you people were doing schoolwork and and and working.

1335
01:16:05,080 --> 01:16:05,799
Speaker 10: Out of the houses.

1336
01:16:05,880 --> 01:16:08,920
Speaker 9: And how no matter how big your house is, and

1337
01:16:09,000 --> 01:16:10,360
Speaker 9: they don't have a big house. But no matter how

1338
01:16:10,360 --> 01:16:18,479
Speaker 9: big your house is, it's not big enough. H