I knew that producing live election coverage during a pandemic wouldn’t be easy, but nothing could have prepared me for what happened on Tuesday night.
When Alexander Song, my co-producer, and I pictured election night, we envisioned an exciting night in the media center with our hosts, a remote team of reporters, live guests, and engaging content. Alex, Stacy, our faculty advisor, our team of reporters, and I had a five and a half hour plan detailing our election night coverage. Little did we know that the system would crash after just seven minutes of being on air.
Alex and I had created rundowns that timed everything down to the last minute. Obviously, I knew live election developments would adjust that scheduling, but I felt confident knowing that I always had something to go to next. I knew when each guest would come on the air, when it would be a one-shot of a specific reporter or a two-shot of the reporter with the hosts, and even when we would transition to a student-produced package.
Just seven blissful minutes and then the live streaming system we were using in the media center was down. We were off the air and all I could see on the screen was “no signal." I was speechless. In those first seven minutes, everything was going according to plan and suddenly I felt as though I had no control.
Before everything went dark, I felt in control and eager to execute our extensive coverage plan. The ATVN election team had planned to interview a wide variety of guests, ranging from political analysts, students in battleground states, reporters, and more. We wanted to give a voice to young voters and also bring in experts to contextualize the election results. Our reporters thoughtfully selected and confirmed interviews with nearly 40 people.
Alex, Stacy and I mapped out our election coverage weeks in advance. We had planned a mental health moderated discussion, a deep dive into California propositions, senate race coverage, and more general election coverage that involved our hosts, reporters, and impressive live guests.
In addition, Alex and I wanted to incorporate Annenberg students' packages and photo essays into the show. We budgeted time to hear from reporters about California propositions like Proposition 22 and factors that influenced students' votes. Since we are a student-run news organization, we wanted to represent students in our coverage. Our show’s most valuable addition to election coverage was incorporating diverse student voices that could speak to being a first-time voter in this historic election.
Our plan seemed foolproof, but no one could have anticipated the YouTube livestream ending when we were just seven minutes into a five and a half hour show.
Just seven blissful minutes and then everyone was working to find a solution. The OBS Ninja software we were using to livestream and bring in reporters was not responding. Our technical experts rushed in to the control room and tried to come up with a solution.
After two hours of troubleshooting and revising our plan, we finally made it back on the air. The OBS Ninja software was no longer able to bring in our live reporters, so we were only able to have our two hosts, Ella and Zoe, and the two reporters in the Annenberg forum, Nikki and Luke, on the air.
The hardest thing was telling our incredible reporters that we could not get them on the air. The reporters had been prepping their discussion points and live guests for weeks, so it was difficult to tell them via Zoom that they wouldn’t have an on-air opportunity.
Fortunately, we figured out a partial solution. Stacy suggested that the reporters record themselves discussing their area of expertise, so once they sent those videos in we were able to have them join us on the livestream in a different capacity.
Election night was not what we had planned, but we still managed to be on the air for two hours. Ella, Zoe, Luke, and Nikki were powerhouses and contextualized the results in key senate races and battleground states. They seemed like seasoned professionals and we had more than six hundred people view our show. We even had a viewer tune in all the way from Australia!
As a producer, it was difficult to figure out where we were going next when we had lost all of the live guests and reporters that I planned to have on the air. One of the key takeaways from my experience is to always have a backup plan… and then a backup plan for that backup plan.
I also learned to let go of what I can’t control and instead focus on what I can. After producing shows remotely for the past few months, I have become accustomed to being able to check the rundown while editing the show.
During live coverage, things move a lot faster. When a state was called I was feeding the information to the hosts and having Alex cue up graphics. I had to work quickly and communicate clearly.
Live election coverage taught me that I can’t control every small detail. But I learned to love the spontaneous nature of live coverage and the rush that came with it. I am so grateful for this experience, and I hope to produce more election coverage in the future.
Producing live election coverage during the pandemic was not easy, but it was certainly a night I’ll never forget.