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August 11, 2021 1:40 pm  #1


CTV T.O. News: I'll "Thank You" To Please Stop Doing This!

It happens a lot on TV but nowhere was it more evident than the past two days on CTV's Noon newscast. In both cases, it involved a remote debrief with reporter Kevin Gallagher in Ottawa, who was finishing up a report on air with a final closing tag. As he signed off and said, "Back to you," Michelle Dube did the inevitable. She said, "Thank you Kevin."

This was followed by silence, while they waited for him to say "you're welcome." Except on both occasions, he never did. This awkward pause lasted only about 2 seconds, but it felt like an eternity. Each sat in their respective split screen staring into their respective cameras with no sound, Dube waiting for a reply, Gallagher frozen on air thinking he was done. It was truly cringeworthy. 

I've noticed CFTO does this all the time - waiting for a final acknowledgement that too often, never comes. Or else it does and the "you're welcome" gets cut off and all we hear is "you'r---" and it's off to another story. 

What I don't understand is why they just don't make a blanket policy for all their live hits and interviews. The anchor gets to say "thank you" and then they immediately cut off the other person's mic, get them off camera and move on. It is an incredible waste of valuable air time and when it doesn't work - which it doesn't most of the time - it's so awkward it makes the viewer literally squirm. (I also notice CBC TV does this a lot, as well.)

I once worked in a TV newsroom where this had become such a distraction that our news director finally ordered an edict that the "thank you's" and the "you're welcome's" would be completely eliminated. It was tough at first, because it had become so ingrained. But you know what? It really sped up the show and made things move at a much faster pace. 

So I hope someone at CTV decides to put this in place. Make it a policy. It eliminates all doubt about what to do, fills in that awful silence and I guarantee you, after a week or two, absolutely no viewer will notice. 

Well, except maybe me. 

Thank you and you're welcome!

 

August 11, 2021 1:51 pm  #2


Re: CTV T.O. News: I'll "Thank You" To Please Stop Doing This!

RadioActive wrote:

It happens a lot on TV but nowhere was it more evident than the past two days on CTV's Noon newscast. In both cases, it involved a remote debrief with reporter Kevin Gallagher in Ottawa, who was finishing up a report on air with a final closing tag. As he signed off and said, "Back to you," Michelle Dube did the inevitable. She said, "Thank you Kevin."

This was followed by silence, while they waited for him to say "you're welcome." Except on both occasions, he never did. This awkward pause lasted only about 2 seconds, but it felt like an eternity. Each sat in their respective split screen staring into their respective cameras with no sound, Dube waiting for a reply, Gallagher frozen on air thinking he was done. It was truly cringeworthy. 

I've noticed CFTO does this all the time - waiting for a final acknowledgement that too often, never comes. Or else it does and the "you're welcome" gets cut off and all we hear is "you'r---" and it's off to another story. 

What I don't understand is why they just don't make a blanket policy for all their live hits and interviews. The anchor gets to say "thank you" and then they immediately cut off the other person's mic, get them off camera and move on. It is an incredible waste of valuable air time and when it doesn't work - which it doesn't most of the time - it's so awkward it makes the viewer literally squirm. (I also notice CBC TV does this a lot, as well.)

I once worked in a TV newsroom where this had become such a distraction that our news director finally ordered an edict that the "thank you's" and the "you're welcome's" would be completely eliminated. It was tough at first, because it had become so ingrained. But you know what? It really sped up the show and made things move at a much faster pace. 

So I hope someone at CTV decides to put this in place. Make it a policy. It eliminates all doubt about what to do, fills in that awful silence and I guarantee you, after a week or two, absolutely no viewer will notice. 

Well, except maybe me. 

Thank you and you're welcome!

The strange thing is, the Thank-you part is already at the beginning, is it not?
"Thank-you for being here with us today"
"thanks for having me..." 
& then the chatter starts. No?
If so, then a quick thank-you at the end is all that is needed. 


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RadioWiz & THE Wiz are NOT the same person.

 
 

August 11, 2021 2:37 pm  #3


Re: CTV T.O. News: I'll "Thank You" To Please Stop Doing This!

RadioActive wrote:

What I don't understand is why they just don't make a blanket policy for all their live hits and interviews. The anchor gets to say "thank you" and then they immediately cut off the other person's mic, get them off camera and move on. It is an incredible waste of valuable air time and when it doesn't work - which it doesn't most of the time - it's so awkward it makes the viewer literally squirm. (I also notice CBC TV does this a lot, as well.)

We constantly see this all over. It's just sloppy broadcasting.

 

August 11, 2021 2:44 pm  #4


Re: CTV T.O. News: I'll "Thank You" To Please Stop Doing This!

Thank you RA and I couldn't agree more with Mike Marshall's take.

This has been bugging me for a long time and actually I first noticed the trend on CNN a few years ago.  It is now common on MSNBC, and here in Canada, on the CTV & CBC news networks.  Over the course of a 60 minute timeslot,  it can make for a fair bit of wasted time;  depending on the anchor.

Last edited by Media Observer (August 11, 2021 2:50 pm)

 

August 11, 2021 3:57 pm  #5


Re: CTV T.O. News: I'll "Thank You" To Please Stop Doing This!

I miss the days of analog / digital ENG and SNG links...

When the station / network is using bonded cellular technology, the problem is very evident...  loose tosses to the reporter before they start talking, and loose throw backs to the desk...  not much that can be done about...  1.5 to 2 sec delay for the typical bonded cell type system... 

Easier / cheaper for the photog to carry the small bonded cell kit with their news vehicle, than having an ENG/SNG truck roll to the scene with a separate operator...  Understanding that some areas / situations will always warrant one of the larger SNG trucks, but those days are getting less and less....

Bean counters rule....

 

 

August 11, 2021 3:59 pm  #6


Re: CTV T.O. News: I'll "Thank You" To Please Stop Doing This!

This is a classic generational thing where old school folks like most of us here grew up with things like you shouldn't say 'thank you' to a reporter after a live hit or use terms like 'finally today' at the end of a newscast, etc, etc....what's wrong with saying 'thank you'?...I say thank you to the plumber after he fixes my sink, to my neighbour when he returns my recycling bins....it's what we all do naturally each day...it's just normal and polite....I see a lot of this on the U.S. newscasts too like ABC World News Tonight...David Muir would say thank you to the damn cameraman if he could...and that's fine by me...

Last edited by Johnny B (August 11, 2021 4:00 pm)

 

August 11, 2021 4:25 pm  #7


Re: CTV T.O. News: I'll "Thank You" To Please Stop Doing This!

The problem isn't saying thank you in my mind. It's when there's no hard and fast rule about it and so sometimes, the interviewee says you're welcome and sometimes they don't. The issue is when they hang onto dead air and leave both anchor and subject hung out to dry waiting for an answer to the "Thanks" that never comes. 

It looks awkward and stilted. And I know you've spent enough time in radio stations to know that two seconds of awkward silence on air can feel like an hour. And it's 20X worse on TV, when you can see them patiently waiting, with one expecting an answer and the other just sitting there padding out the end of the report, thinking they're done.

What I'm saying in essence is make up your mind and tell your people which way you want to do it. If you want the "you're welcomes" and the rest, then tell them to do it. Every time. If you don't, cut it completely. (It IS a waste of airtime which just adds clutter and contributes nothing to the broadcast, so I'm more for the latter.) But decide you're going to do it one way or the other. And stick to it.  

In the end, it's not about manners. It's about pacing. So I suppose in my mind, this should really be a "thankless" job!

     Thread Starter
 

August 11, 2021 9:48 pm  #8


Re: CTV T.O. News: I'll "Thank You" To Please Stop Doing This!

On NBC Nightly News they don't waste that kind of time.  It's always, "Our new overlords from the far side of Mars will arrive tomorrow at noon.  Lester?"
"Thanks.  The CDC has new masking recommendations tonight..."

They say his name and then disappear from the screen.  Then he says thanks before rolling right in to the next story every single time. 

 

August 17, 2021 12:58 pm  #9


Re: CTV T.O. News: I'll "Thank You" To Please Stop Doing This!

Frankly, I'm not entirely sure why I watch CTV's Toronto newscast since they keep doing things that really bug me as a viewer. The latest instance actually happens all the time and it's tremendously annoying. 

I happen to be one of those people who like to see a TV weather forecast, even though, yes, I can look it up on the web. I just prefer the way it's presented on the tube. CTV has an irritating habit of doing a promo for their weather, then throwing to break with a key that says "Weather is next." Or sometimes, "Weather is next in 2 minutes."

OK, I'll sit through those spots but you then have to deliver. Instead - and they do this 99% of the time - they return and instead of the weather, I get an endless stream of other stories, sometimes financial, sometimes community-based, and too often an interview or debrief about a topic I could care less about. 

I don't know about you, but if I were standing in line in, say, a restaurant and the maitre d' told me, "you're next," I would expect to get the first free table. It seems that if CTV were running the place, I'd be waiting another hour while 17 people were let in in front of me. Apparently they don't know that the word "next" implies it immediately follows. 

Sure enough, on Tuesday's noon news, they did the promo, threw to break and then came back with 4 minutes(!) of a live chat with their financial expert Pattie Lovett-Reid before the forecast they'd promised me almost 10 minutes earlier was coming up "next." 

It's just another little irritant in a newscast that often seems to display too many of them. I can't wait to see what they do "next." Which will probably be half an hour later. 

     Thread Starter