A morning at the Loews Miami Beach with CBS “Early Show”


Sara Marzougui recently had the opportunity to be part of a live broadcast of the CBS Early Show thanks to an invitation from show producers, who personally invited students from FIU’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication to be part of the pre-Super Bowl XLIV mania in Miami. Marzougui, a print journalism major originally from Tunisia, had this to say about the experience:

I hesitated at first because I am more of a print journalist, but going to the CBS Early Show was not a waste of my time. It was very interesting to see the chaos behind the seemingly calm of the show. I like choosing my words carefully when I am writing an article. None of that on TV! It is live and a lot of things are going on simultaneously. There is a script, but the notes are succinct. In addition, at some point, Dave Price, one of the anchors, couldn’t find his notes and during the shot where he was sitting in the water, his notes got wet and were not as readable as he wanted them to be.

A lot of yelling is involved because the natural sound is very loud, whether it is the music the DJ is spinning or the audience cheering. The audience’s main concern is to be seen by their friends and family, which makes them not very manageable: some jumped in the pool when they were not supposed to, messing up the setup of a shot.

Basically, TV is like theater: there is a lot of preparation, but so many things can go wrong and being able to improvise is very important. Writing is more like a movie, there is a lot of cutting and remakes, very much like editing and revising articles.

It was a great learning experience.

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