Conduct Knockout Broadcast Interviews

 Campbell Brown recently did a  bad hatchet job interview on her CNN show when she had a McCain adviser as a guest.  She came off poorly but that was not the end of the damage.  McCain was scheduled to be interviewed by Larry King on the same network, but McCain pulled out after  Campbell Brown botched her interview.  So CNN which would have gotten great ratings and made some nice ad money on the McCain interview lost it all due to the Campbell Brown foul up.  The lesson here is that you have to take your interviews very very seriously because they reflect on the entire network you are on and have far reaching repercussions.  As much as you may have personal feelings on a subject, your job is to get the facts without getting in the way.  Be professional in everything you do and say.

Here is one more example of someone getting in trouble because they said something when they thought the mic was off.   Never, never, never, say or do anything you don’t want to whole world to witness, until you are totally off the set and have taken the mic off.   Check out this link:  http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/07/09/jesse-jackson-apologizes-for-obama-remarks

Here is a link covering an on air interview in which the guest becomes ill.  The host cuts off the interview and goes to break, which I think works.  This kind of thing may happen to you as a host, how would you handle it?

http://www.foxnews.com/video2/video08.html?maven_referralObject=2042237&maven_referralPlaylistId=&sRevUrl=http://www.foxnews.com/

You must make sure you have the right guest in the right place at the right time and you can never be too careful.  In the clip from the link below, we see a BBB reporter interviewing someone she thinks is a legal expert, that is in fact a cab driver.

http://pranks.com/2008/02/27/accidental-interview-on-bbc-news/

You can enjoy this clip, but remember it can happen to you, so make sure you have procedures in place to stop this from happening.

Comments?

Photo: georgevreilly.com

How would you handle a cockroach crawling across the set during an interview?

Here is a real situation and setting the issue of the firings aside, imagine yourself on the set when a cockroach makes a grand entrance.  What would you do?

Fox news:
“Thirty people have been fired by the president of Turkmenistan after a cockroach scurried across the studio table of the nation’s nightly television news program, the Guardian reports.

President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov fired 30 workers from the main state TV station after the roach made an appearance during the 9 p.m. broadcast of Vatan, the nation’s nightly news program, the paper reports. The show — and the bug’s jaunt around the news desk — were repeated at 11 p.m.

Journalists, directors, camera operators and technical staff were among those who lost their jobs, the Guardian reports. Berdymukhamedov had previously ordered the Ministry of Culture to revamp the station.

The nation’s previous president, Saparmurat Niyazov, fired some of the station’s executives after drunken technicians failed to broadcast his New Year’s address, the paper said.”

Please let me know your thoughts.

 photo credit: nostops.org

The reasons for a guest wanting to review the interview prior to airing vary.  Some guests are worried that such things as their statements being edited will distort their positions, or something else will occur before of after the interview, that will put the “wrong” slant on what the guest said. Other guests are concerned that incorrect facts or information will be presented in the interview and they have a desire to make sure only correct information is used.  The most common reason for wanting to approve an interview before it runs, it that the guest wants to make sure they look or sounded like the image they want to project.  They want to make sure they look good and are not taking any chances with how they look or sound.  Guests that have been on a number of interview shows usually have been “burned” at some point by having an interview air that the guest feels portrayed their views in an unfavorable or incorrect light.  Once they have been “burned” guests are more likely to be wary of the interview process and ask for approval.  Sometimes a guest’s legal advisor will want to check things to make sure the guest is not heading for legal issues due to the interview. 

As a rule you should avoid giving your guests approval of the interview as problems of many sorts arise.  The show you produced may end up not running at all due to lack of approval, or be delayed due to the approval process.  Changes the guest wants may change the look or sound of the interview and present a different view that you wanted to obtain from the interview.  Even the length of interview time available may change, thus throwing off the production values of the show. 

Generally the only type of situations guests are given approval over the interview after it is done, is when the guest has so much power over the show that a decision is made that even a less than ideal interview with this particular guest is better than any other option available.  Only top ranking government officials, star power celebrities and such would fall into this classification as a rule.

I would love to hear any comments you have.

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Guests present a quandary to interview show hosts.  In most cases the guest is under the impression that the guest needs the host more than the host needs the guest and in the case of any individual guest this is usually the case.  On the other hand having the guest to interview is what the show is really all about, so in that sense the guest is more important than the host. So the host is in the position of needing the guest to live up to certain standards or the show can be ruined.  Guests must show up, know their material, be presentable and able to convey their information in an acceptable way, stay within the guidelines of show standards, avoid over promoting their own agenda or product and so on.  Even with prescreening guests the host is taking a huge risk when putting the guest on and the chances of things going wrong with the guest are huge.

You cannot trust that the guest will take their appearance on your show as something that is serious business.  You will be shocked to learn that a number of guests treat their appearance as no big deal.  You must do everything in your power to make the guest understand how important they are to the show, their role in the show, and so on.  I suggest you take the time to work with the guest well in advance of the show to cover what is expected of them and covey the importance they have to show. 

Here are some sample points that should be sent and discussed with the guest well in advance of the show.

. You are expected to be (exact location) on (date) at (time).  If you expect any problems with this notify (name and contact information) at once.

. You will be required to be at this location from (arrival time) to approximately (departure time), you will not be able to leave the area during that time.

. We expect you to wear the following attire and it is not furnished by us.

. We expect you to bring any material you will need to use in the interview such as books, charts, tapes, etc.

. It is vital that you are prepared to discuss (subject of interview) in detail during the interview.

. We require you to refrain from promoting you agenda or material unless specifically asked for such information during show.

. We require you to be “politically correct” in your on air discussion and refrain from swearing, being rude or irritating to the audience in any way.

Some guests respond to the” carrot” in that learning what they will gain from their appearance will make them better guests.  Other guests respond to the “stick” in that things such as damage to their reputation, etc, in the event of a no show or bad appearance, will bring them around.  Whatever route you take, it must be done in order to have the caliber of show you want.

Many people are surprised to learn that the kind of interview style they use on their show is a choice that needs to be made. And it is one of the most important decisions involved in the show. Many times this decision is made by the producer or program director when casting whom to use as the host for the show.  In that case they probably chose a host that has an interview style matches the “feel” they want for the show. 

In the event you have not been given a predetermined role to play it is imperative that you carefully study the interview style best suited for the show and do some serious soul searching to be sure you can deliver the style that is required.  It is extremely difficult for most people to be “hard” interviewers, when their natural style is “soft” and vice versa.  You can probably move yourself up or down a notch or two, but a complete change is almost impossible unless you are a trained actor. 

So how do you go about choosing an interview style for the show?  You look at the show type: entertainment, hard news, political talk show etc. the audience demographics (target audience), the type of guests you will be interviewing and so on to begin to form a picture of what type of host fits in with all of that.  It may help to study competitive shows and decide if you want to mimic that style of interviewing or do something different in order to set yourself apart.

You interview style is part of your persona and your persona is a big part of an interview show.  Even though the guest is the star of the show, your persona as the host and your subsequent interview style is what creates the feel for the show and is what keeps your audience returning or bolting. Your interview style can range form being nice to hostile. You can be known for asking “hard” questions or you can be known for “soft” questions.  Things like being politically correct or not come into play in your interview style.

So what do you think about this?

The sound of your voice is can matter a lot or hardly at all.  It can be a plus, or neutral, but if you get feedback that your voice is irritating in some way, you will need to address the issue.  Remember as the interviewer you should be striving to stay below the radar of the audience in terms of being noticed and your voice can help or hurt this effort.

The sound of your voice can be broken down into a number of factors.  One of the most noticeable aspects of your voice is your accent.  As a general rule the less of a noticeable accent you have the better off you will be.  What is referred to, as the General American accent is what should be strived for.  You will hear this accent used by most of the anchors on network TV plus many of the most prominent people in broadcast.  In cases where the host’s personality or persona is a driving part of the show, their accent could reinforce their image.  In cases where the host’s persona is not a main feature of the show a noticeable accent could be a distraction.  Having a noticeable accent could hurt your chances of moving to another show even if it is OK on your current show.  Let’s face it, most people in the broadcast industry will be changing their jobs a number of times during their career, and anything you can do to make it easier to move to another position will be in your self interest.  So a regional dialect may not be noticeable in that region, but would be a drawback to moving to a spot in another region.

I recommend that you take courses in diction, breathing, voice acting and other related courses.  These are generally available at acting schools but may also may be found at schools that train voice over people (voice actors), of lesser value but still useful if these other options are not available would be training by a singing coach or a vocal coach.

Please let me know what you think.

On some shows having perfect teeth, great hair, and good looks is mandatory, on other shows content is king and the physical characteristics are not that important.  Being handsome or beautiful seems to fit with entertainment shows where celebrities are interviewed.  One the other hand celebrities are interviewed regularly on late night or talk shows in which the host is not particularly attractive from a physical standpoint.  The decision seems to rest with the look a particular show is going for. 

Also matching the age range of the target audience is usually a requirement.  Youth shows generally have younger hosts, whereas traditional news oriented interview shows have hosts that are older.  This also reflects the age range of the target audience.  At this point in time opportunities for TV hosts start to drop off for men and women, once they reach approximately 40 years old with the trend moving to even younger cutoffs. 

So what can you do about this, how much can you control your looks?  Quite a bit actually, if you are willing to invest effort and money to achieve it and take the risks involved.  Hair coloring and hairpieces are a start if you are fighting an older look.  We know diet and exercise can help give most of us a more attractive body, which could move you in the more attractive direction.  Further up the line is cosmetic dentistry and surgery.  Having beautiful straight, white teeth appears to be within reach of most people having the will and ability to pay for it.  Also cosmetic surgery has done wonders for the appearance of some people in the media.  At this point there are real risks involved in pursuing cosmetic surgery and it is not something to taken lightly no matter what the ultimate payoff

It has been said that you can never be too rich or too good looking and as a rule I agree with it, but as far as you looks affecting your TV career I honestly cannot form a ridged opinion on it.  

What do you think?