My Life as a Production Assistant for Educational Television Shows

I worked as a production assistant for educational shows recently for a school district. These shows went out on B cable of the local cable station and were performed live. I wanted to write this to share a day in the life of a production assistant for live math shows.

I arrive at work an hour before the live math show starts. I set up the props according to what show is on that day. There are different props for different shows. I turn on the teleprompter while I am in the studio room. I take out the ear pieces for the hosts of the math show for that day and set them next to their chairs.

I type in the script for the teleprompter on a word document and edit it. I ask my supervisor if there is any prize we will be giving away that day and to what caller number. I open the teleprompter application on my computer in the control room. The teleprompter application is a program on the computer I use in the control room. It's a black screen with white writing. When I copy and paste the script from the Word document, I change the writing from black letters to white letters.

Before the show, the "talent" shows up. The talent are the hosts of the shows for whichever show it is. The math show hosts' ear piece and microphone are attached to them and there is a sound check. Then we do a quick run through of the script on the teleprompter for the beginning and ending of the show.

Now we're ready to go live. The producer is on a microphone in the control room where he counts down the beginning of the show in the hosts ear piece and for everyone in the control room to hear.

A recorded intro to the show starts and as soon as it's over, I begin rolling the teleprompter with a dial according to how fast the hosts read the script aloud. When the host announces that they are ready to receive callers, I switch gears.

There's a four line phone system next to me and a clipboard with a pen. I answer the phone for students calling in to solve math problems live on the air. Before putting a caller on the air, I announce to the producer the name of the caller and from what school. In turn the producer speaks into the microphone which goes to the hosts' earpiece and I take callers on and off the air from there.

Before the show ends, I type into the teleprompter the name of the caller number who won the prize for the day. When the hosts are ready I start up the teleprompter again for the ending of the show. And then the show closes out for another day and it's time to close everything down and shut off the equipment for the day.