How CNBC is launching a news show during a pandemic

Alex Weprin of The Hollywood Reporter examined the launch of the new CNBC news show anchored by Shep Smith.

Weprin writes, “As it happens, Smith’s team has had to adapt quickly to getting their message across via video. Not only is Smith and CNBC launching a new evening newscast, but they are doing so amid a pandemic that brings with it limitations and challenges that grounded much of the TV business for months.

“And so, the production meetings are mostly held remotely over Zoom or Microsoft Teams, with some staff, including senior executive producer Sandy Cannold and executive producer Sally Ramirez beaming in from their offices, a small number of producers sitting at their desks in a largely empty newsroom, and the rest joining from home.

“‘You are launching a shuttle without half the people or more in mission control,’ Cannold told The Hollywood Reporter. ‘That is our challenge.’

“The protocols are part of a new normal: weekly COVID tests, masks, socially-distanced control rooms, all part of a gameplan to get Smith’s return to cable news off the ground. ‘We will have the people in-house that we need to launch the show,’ Ramirez says.”

Read more here.