How Fox News’ Bill Hemmer and Others Survived the Broadcast-From-Home Era
When most news networks closed their studios a year ago this week, writers, producers, bookers and even on-air talent shifted to working from home.
For anchors and showrunners used to barking commands in a control room, it meant finding a way to keep live television and news about the pandemic beaming onto the screens of millions of viewers — most of whom were also stuck at home with little else to do but watch and worry.
Fox News’ Bill Hemmer, host of “America’s Newsroom,” didn’t last long doing broadcasts from his home in Long Island, New York. He was one of the very few on-air talents who continued to work from a network studio. But he faced the challenge of working with a show team that was still remote from Fox’s midtown Manhattan headquarters.
He described to TheWrap what he calls the “trap doors” of cable news, which could be anything from an incorrect chyron to a faulty graphic or an audio issue that causes hosts and guests to talk over each other. The remote production necessitated by the pandemic, he said, “enhanced the possibility that a trap door could be there more often, so our level of attention needs to be applied with a hyper-focus to make sure that we don’t hit one of those trap doors.”
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He found, however, that as television producers were adapting to working from home, audiences were extremely forgiving of missteps, audio issues and the sudden intimacy of seeing a professional in their home environment.
He pointed to another benefit, too: The availability of journalists and experts to get on air quickly. “When we’re trying to get the best guests possible on a particular topic or issue, it’s hard,” he said. “You’ve got to make calls. You’ve got to keep your fingers crossed. Sometimes you’ve just got to get lucky.”
But the pandemic made it easier to book big guests — even on short notice. “With COVID, the availability of getting voices on the air is so much greater than before because the current environment has learned to accept a guest on FaceTime or Zoom,” he said. “The audience accepts it, and I think it has opened up a wide door of opportunity, once the pandemic has passed, that people will continue to accept that. And what that gives us is more options.”
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“The View” (ABC)
Brian Teta, executive producer of ABC’s “The View,” said that their audience has taken the remote “journey” with them, as well, since the show never stopped shooting while hosts and crew transferred to remote work. Everyone involved, he explained, got really good at the technical aspects involved.
“One year ago today, we did our first show without our in-studio audience and then beginning with Joy Behar, the co-hosts went remote one-by-one,” he told TheWrap. “The first remote shows were filmed on laptops with their real homes as backdrops. The hosts were doing their own hair and makeup. Over time, things have evolved to a point where even the guests often ask, ‘Are you all back in studio?'”
Ana Kasparian, host and executive producer of “The Young Turks” on TYT, agreed — but said she misses her production team.
“I do miss the privilege of getting to walk into a professionally lit studio without having to worry about adjusting cameras and mic levels,” she said. “I had taken that part of going into the studio for granted, and this experience has given me more appreciation for my colleagues on the technical side.”
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Every show team in the industry has developed its own way to avoid the pitfalls of remote production. Teta credited “an ‘always on’ Zoom bullpen that re-created the environment of being at the studio” so “The View” hosts and producers could “react in real time to every last-minute change that came down.”
But it also means rolling with the punches. “We realized early on to just roll with it when mistakes happen,” he said. “So the funniest moments have been when Joy Behar has technical difficulties, and her husband/technical consultant, Steve, has to come to the rescue.”
Like Hemmer, Teta has found more opportunities to book big guests remotely — an opportunity that will far outlast the pandemic and its safety restrictions.
Still, the “always on” ethos does have its down sides. When the cameras stop rolling for the day, Kasparian said she tries to force herself to disengage for a while to focus on herself. We are still in a stressful pandemic, after all. “When you’re working from home, it’s hard to compartmentalize your free time from your work. I didn’t know how to stop working at first,” she explained. “But now I make a point to engage in a non-work activity as soon as we wrap the show each day. At first I’d go out for a walk, but now I cook dinner and enjoy a beer.”
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