CATHY YUNGMANN/ SUBMITTED PHOTOThis semester I took an internship at The 10! Show on NBC10. To clarify a couple points; if you’ve never heard of it, it’s like a local Regis and Kelly.
And no, it’s not named The 10! Show so it can air at 10 – which it doesn’t. The network is NBC10, hence, The 10! Show.
A typical day at The 10! Show looks something like this: show up by 8 a.m. and start setting up the green room and making the coffee.
The coffeepot has been broken for about three months, so the coffee making involves an intricate set up of bowls and spoons and measuring cups – just to give you an idea of how the day starts.
Next up is making the host’s note cards. Sounds easy but this is the deciding factor of your day. If the note cards take you no more than 45 minutes, you know the morning will be fairly easy.
Depending on how many events are being covered and how many guests are on the show that day, the script is constantly changing. So if the note cards take you closer to two hours, you know you’re in for a morning of chaos.
While the note cards are being made, the guests and audience start trickling in. Walking the guests in is never a big deal, unless you have no idea who they are, therefore the walk alternates between awkward conversation and awkward silence, or they are a regular guest and you already know they’re not nice.
Other than those rarities, you get to meet really great people who do really interesting things. You also lose any star struck you may have had when meeting celebrities because you realize that they really are normal people and, for the most part, are genuinely nice. Many times, it’s the D-list celebrities (if they’re on a list at all) that are high maintenance. The big names usually just go with the flow.
If a big name is booked for the show, a large part of the morning is devoted to wondering whether or not they’ll show up. One celeb canceled less than an hour before taping claiming he had laryngitis. It was the same excuse he had used the first time he canceled.
Another clock-toting reality TV star canceled because he didn’t make his flight. Shouldn’t that be an oxymoron?
While the audience is enjoying the show, everyone backstage is in a routine of getting guests in and out of the studio. Most of the time, the guests are moved to our conference room because the green room is the size of a small closet.
Our conference room has doubled as a hair and makeup area for models, a rehearsal room for a band and a changing area for mascots, among other things.
During the time they’re not on air, the guests are being babysat to make sure they don’t wander the building; it’s easier on everyone to not have to explain why a large shark mascot is walking around the newsroom.
While the audience watches Bill and Lori tape promos for the next day, the interns are down in the lobby with the giveaways for the day.
The audience makes out pretty well most of the time and no, the interns don’t go home with all of the free stuff that gets given away.
After the show, the rest of the day is devoted to preparing for the next show. The guests leave and the studio quiets down until the next morning. The 10! crew has an afternoon meeting that plans the next show and any big shows that are coming up.
After the meeting, the next few hours involve finding the material to make the promos for the upcoming shows, updating the Web site and calling the next day’s audience to make sure they’ll actually show up.
A day at The 10! Show is never the same twice. One day you’re walking around with the Harlem Globetrotters, another day you’re chatting with Lifehouse and yet another day you’re playing with baby tigers. Some days are less exciting than others but you can never say it’s dull.
