Pity the poor news crew that tried to interview a woman at her home. They got a big surprise as show on the news clip below:
http://www.foxnews.com/video2/video08.html?maven_referralObject=8736606&maven_referralPlaylistId=&sRevUrl=http://www.foxnews.com/
When you are talking to a prospective guest for your show, there is one fundamental question you must have an affirmative answer to. Will they open up and talk freely on your show?
The bottom line is that you not only want the guest to come on your show, but you want them to open up to you. If you get a guest to come on your show, but they are just going to give you canned talking points and sound bytes, what is the point? This is not a knockout broadcast interview; this is just filling a time slot. What can you say to get the guest to come on your show and really get into the subject, say the unexpected and tell people something they didn’t know? There is the core of your mission in dealing with the prospective guest. You need to put on your salesperson’s hat and show the prospective guest how it will be a “win/win”. If you don’t walk away with this agreement from the guest, you are heading for a boring interview and this should set off the alarm bells that you have more convincing to do. Maybe you need to go back and find a new angle to excite the guest, or maybe you need a new guest and/or topic. You are offering your guest a chance to become part of broadcasting history and you need to make sure they are on the same page as you are regarding delivering a fresh, exciting, truly knockout interview.
Here is cutting edge information on how you can use technology to help your interviews. This is a story of how WFOR made history in June 2009 by producing an entire news story using only the iPhone 3GS. Read the story and think of how you can use similar technology in your interviews, it might make things previously not practical due to time and budget restraints. Welcome to the new world. Here’s the link: http://cbs4.com/inside/iPhone.3g.3gs.2.1135374.html
Here is very interesting post that appeared on twirlit.com, which speaks volumes about what it is like to do interviews in daytime TV:
By Germain Lussier on August 12, 2009
Daytime television isn’t usually known for hard pressing questions. It’s usually nothing more than a glorified puff piece. So when a host asks an interesting question, it makes news.
Regis Philbin has done just that when talking to “Jon & Kate Plus 8″ star Kate Gosselin, who is making the media rounds in New York City. While taping an interview Tuesday, Philbin just came out and asked her if she thought she and Jon would ever get back together, according to the New York Daily News.
Probably taken off guard because of an army of protective publicists, Kate fumbled before answering, “I can’t and won’t answer that. I keep certain things private, and that’s one.”
Why Kate? You are on television doing interviews and this is what people want to know? It’s a legitimate question, you can’t give an honest answer?
Well, Regis decided to throw back his – admittedly uneducated – opinion.
“I think you [and your husband] will get back together and live happily ever after,” Philbin said. “I think everything is going to work itself out — he’ll say he’s sorry, that he loves you and everything will be good.”
The show then went to commercial with an apparently shocked Kate.
Maybe that second part was inappropriate but Regis was just being positive. It just so happens he decided to ignore that Jon has been seen across the globe with various different women while she was home with eight kids.
In this interview a movie reviewer from KRON-TV is interviewing Quintin Tarantino and pretty much makes all the mistakes an interviewer can make, she interrupts the guest, she makes her own agenda clear and so on. And of course the guest, Quintin Tarantino will have none of this and gives as good as he gets. So was this a bad interview or was the whole thing good showmanship?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7L2ukSJFgCM&feature=related
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