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Jan172010
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NFC Champions |
It seemed like everyone at Fox was working today. Myself and the other two PM PA’s were called in for noon today. I slept in this morning and spent nearly all of my waking hours at the station. We did a pregame show from 2-5 and then a post game show after today’s Saints game. WVUE did a three hour pre-game show for the championship matchup at 5:40. I was at the station well before air time but it didn’t seem that me or the other desk personnel had any role in it. I suppose I was called in early just to help with the phones which weren’t that bad. What I saw of the pre-game show seemed to go pretty smoothly. There were only a couple minor hiccups. The broadcast differed from our previous shows in that we didn’t have anyone adjacent to the Superdome. Instead, Fox8 cosponsored a stage with Coors on South Rampart street at Girod. John and Nancy were positioned on a platform some distance from the stage. Bob Breck appeared on stage to introduce a couple of the musical acts. We also had reporters scattered around to cover the tailgating downtown. We went off the air at five and the FOX Sports pre-game show started. Without an actual newscast this evening, most of the newsroom staff was largely free to watch the game in its entirety. I know this log doesn’t need to document the game itself in detail. It won’t be forgotten anytime soon. I can say that it was like a lot of game, down to the wire… more so than usual. There were a good number of people in the newsroom to watch the game. Me and the other assignment desk folks, Mike, John and Nancy and the directors and producers were there. They had food brought in at five which was nice.The game was a see-saw of momentum changes. Neither team ever led by more than a touchdown. At the end of regulation the game was tied. The Saints won the coin toss for first overtime possession, kicked a field goal and won their first trip to the Super Bowl.Everyone at the station was “visibly elated” with the win, to put it mildly. I was ecstatic myself, in shock really. Immediately after the game ended we could see scores of people flood Bourbon Street which was looked nearly deserted seconds before. The police scanners lit up as well with various crowd control traffic. Overall however, things were pretty calm considering the insane number of people in the streets. Over the course of the evening there were no major crime incidents.About a half hour after the game ended and the trophy presentation took place, we began our own post game show with fan reactions, reports from downtown, at the dome, highlight clips, etc. It went for a good while too. We were on the air until 1:45 AM. I finally went home after we finished the broadcast at around two, finishing up a 14 hour workday.