As if
I wasn't down enough, right? Let me get the
explanation of that debacle
out of the way
first:
So,
just like last time - I was completely
comfortable (suprisingly so) - I just
feel like I belong there. Weird huh?
They walk me in, sit me down and
I say hello to Julie. Only later do
I realize, the stage manager is
missing. She's the person that tells you
how the blocking of the segment - where to
look, so on. I was so comfortable it
never even occurs to me. Julie is talking
to the control room about a line to her
script that's added she wasn't aware of,
but she seems ok with it. If I look to my
right I can see a monitor that shows
our 2-shot, and then we start.
Julie starts off
and there's apparently a problem with her teleprompter
as she messes up her first lines (which turns my name
into Adam Kont - and if you didn't know better you'd
swear she said cunt - lol) - then it comes back out to
us and everything is fine. Watching it again I came
off pretty seasoned. That was about to change. LOL.
She throws it to me and I notice in the monitor
that it's on the 2 shot - so I turn and look into
that camera and the teleprompter doesn't have my
script. I'm trying to remember what the script was
supposed to be when this dude, we'll call him BOB,
runs over waving his hands and going to a different
camera to look in. One I never even noticed was
there. LOL. So I introduce the first act and when
that piece comes up - all HELL breaks loose. Bob
is yelling -
"WHERE'S THE STAGE MANAGER!!!!". Julie
is yelling something in the control room and the guy
is running around frantically apologizing to
me...
Then
I introduce the 2nd act. While that
plays...
More apologies,
people yelling and pointing - I'm actually laughing at
this point, but I'm a little pissed off because guess
who looks like the idiot? Bob is talking to the
control room: "I'm running BLIND here,
I don't know the shots" I introduce the
final act and again while it's playing eveyone's
talking, yelling and apologizing. Julie goes:
"WHY DIDN'T WE BLOCK THIS?
WHAT'S THE NEXT SHOT." It was quite
humorous.
But it's all good
- we go to the introduction of the winner and Julie
asks me who the winner is... I think to
myself: "Well I'm not making that mistake
again..." and I remember to look into Camera 1 and
start to announce the winner. Of course NOW they've
changed it to the 2 shot. ?!!? Again, I have no
way of knowing this. There are lights on the cameras,
but not very obvious, and you're reading copy... Bob
has to look at the monitor to see which shot it is and
then runs over to the 2 shot camera as Julie laughs
and tells me we're in this camera now.
I laughed of course and had fun with it. I
certainly come off comfortable but just frustrated.
Like how ridiculously unprofessional is this? And to
every single person in America, except those in the
studio, I look like the unprofessional one. After
we're clear -Julie just apologizes profusely, the
"guy" all but hugs me he feels so bad. Tammy is asking
Bob "was I supposed to do something?"
I was so fuggin'
pissed. I mean after the news last night with Up &
Adam, this was almost too much. I know the right
people understand what happened, but no matter what -
I look bad. I don't really mind, as I've looked goofy
before - but when it's COMPLETELY someone else's fault
it just has this twinge of "unfair" to it. And again,
yesterday kicked my ass so hard and now this.
I literally wanted to crawl into a hole and
I intend on not moving from this hotel room until
my dad gets here Saturday afternoon. I'm tellin' ya -
the depression is gonna hit, and hit hard - I'm
bracing myself.
Got to talk with
Steve about some of my concerns with especially the
"internet fueling television" model. He brought
up a good point... I'll paraphrase:
"You know
_____ from MTV?" (I didn't, nor do
I remember his name now) "Well he got fired
recently for not doing enough with the internet.
Execs are being pressured to show they're being
pro-active and truth be told, no one knows exactly
what that means. We're signing deals with yahoo,
signing deals with youtube - we're trying to show
that."
So what he was
saying was that - the business model can be literally
the catch-phrase of "internet" and get the development
money. He has a point. He finally just said, "Don't
worry about man, we're gonna take care of you - Vinnie
is the head of late night, he knows what he's doing."
The last part was a nice way of him saying - back the
fuck off, you don't know more than the head of late
night. And I was immediately submissive - LOL.
I love Steve, I know he's got my best interests
at heart and I will back off completely here.
I didn't cross the line, but I walked up to
it - he pointed that out and I understood. Then
Tammy came up to me and reminded me that I had to
shoot a piece for the pitch to Nancy Tellum (2nd only
to Les Moonves) and the meeting was over.
It was nice
because I had totally forgotten about it, and
Nanci Ross reminded Tammy. It was a good sign that
everyone else is really on-board with this. The taping
went well and it adds a nice touch of professionalism
to it with me being on that set.
Afterwards we went
back to the CBS News building and I was able to
sit down with Nanci and just straight up ask her:
"What the fuck". LOL. Not exactly like that, but
I asked her "what happened". She said she
honestly had no idea. She was told a TV show, she
was told starting in the big markets first, selling to
affiliates. The first she heard of this internet thing
was at that lunch. So that made me feel a bit better.
She also tried to ease some of my fears about getting
sponsorships and whatnot but I'm still not buying
Aerosmith no matter what they tell me. LOL. She just
said: "Don't worry about it". Fair enough.
That's 2 polite "Butt-outs".
The bottom line
is, there's only one head of late night at CBS.
Period. You go his route, or you go no route at CBS.
If he says we circumvent Worldwide Pants...then so be
it. If it's because he has poor standing with them?
Nothing I can do about that. Vinnie gave me this
opportunity, he named the damn show, and it's in his
court to deal with those logistics.
I control the creative end.
But I did
look cute today:
You know what's
weird? I look thinner on TV somehow. How does
that happen? Anyway, enough happened today that
I was able to avoid the eventual breakdown, but
it's comin'. It's gonna be a bit more anti-Britney
though. Grow my hair out, don't shave - lay in bed for
a week. If it wasn't for my dad coming here Saturday
afternoon I would never leave my hotel room. I'd eat
and drink myself into the next week until I had to be
on the air, and then I'd go home and continue until
the feeling subsided. I'm ignoring everything because
I have shit to do right now, but when that goes
away - look out. I know myself well enough to
know it's gonna be rough.
But I'll get up
again. The fight won't end. I'll give it everything
I've got.
