Worst Anchor Crosstalk Stories

[Vertical Velocity]

Alright, we all have them. What are some of the best/worst stories on crosstalk after you just finished your weathercast?

Mine would be after just finishing my 7-day, I walk back to the desk and the first thing the co-anchor says is "So, are you just guessing?" graemlins/face_banghead.gif Needless to say, the ND called him immediately after the show.

[TAFKA wacowx]

Filling in in the mornings at WSEE in Erie, just after Dave Price left. I got back to the desk and tried to be funny in my way. I don't remember what I said exactly, but obviously my co-anchors were used to Dave's brand of humor and not mine and I got dead silence and a look like "what the?".

I didn't really remember it, but it has survived on the blooper tape.

Needless to say, they grew to love my humor eventually and got a big kick out of working with me when I filled in for the new morning guy months later. Absence makes the heart grow fonder I guess smile.gif

Other than this moment, which I watched around a year later on the blooper tape, I don't really recall any major crosstalk faux pas in my career.

[MACROburst]

I walk off camera as they take the five day forecast. It shows a major cooling trend and I say "We're a long way from those hot, dog days of summer..." and my newsie looks at me and says "Mmmm I love hot dogs!" Nice when they pay attention!!! :rolleyes:

[ January 28, 2005, 12:08 PM: Message edited by: MACROburst ]

[forecastguy]

Mmmmm. Open-face club sandwich. *drool*

[kmfdmatt]

Originally posted by forecastguy sees his shadow:
Mmmmm. Open-face club sandwich. *drool*hahahaha Best...Homer... Drool... EVER!

[WXFORECASTER]

"Tomorrow, showers and thunderstorms all through the day with temps around 60."

Anchor: "So it is going to be pretty nice tomorrow jon?"

OMG i hate that!

[Bob Sakamano]

Originally posted by WXFORECASTER:
"Tomorrow, showers and thunderstorms all through the day with temps around 60."

Anchor: "So it is going to be pretty nice tomorrow jon?"

OMG i hate that!Ditto, I hate that too.

Came back to the desk one time with a very rainy 7 day. Anchor says, "Well, not even the dogs will want to go out and poop."

What do you say to that? :D

[maddawg]

I finish my 7 day, sit down at the desk, come up on camera talking about a nice forecast. The female anchor replies, "My aunt and I went shopping one time. I found this cute dress...etc", never mentioning anything about weather. Completely speechless, I look at the male anchor to help bail be out. He replies with nothing more than a shoulder shrug, ON AIR. Gotta love those ditzy moments.

[ThatCanadianGuy]

My co-anchor tries to sound like she's up to speed on met stuff and once said, "this cold snap sets a record for this date correct?"

I said "no. it's cold but not a record"

She later tears into me saying I made her look stupid on the air.

All I could say was, "you were wrong. I corrected you. You made youself look stupid. Next time ask before you open your mouth"

She had nothing to say to that.

[ January 29, 2005, 02:48 PM: Message edited by: ThatCanadianGuy ]

[kmfdmatt]

I used to work with an anchor who would ask me questions often that involved basically getting formal reports from NCDC. I had no problems saying on-air, "That would require a little bit of research."

[That wx girl]

I had an anchor say to me at the end of the show...So, its going to be "Butt Cold" tonight huh?
I was a little stunned and said yeah some cold air is moving in let's go to the 7 day.

I also had a different anchor, (same station) say "So you had rain on Thursday yesterday morning and now you don't what's up with that?"

Gotta love small markets

[Major Kaos]

anchor: as dry as its been here lately... tomorrow's rain will sure be welcome.

weathercaster: what do you mean?

anchor: nevermind.

[Heavy T-Storm]

I have a first weather segment at the beginning of my show and I have a weather headlines graphic. On days its going to be windy I'll write something on there to the effect of "A Windy Day"... Invariably my co-anchor will ask.... "I see that word windy! What does that mean?" graemlins/face_banghead.gif

[inthefog]

working in my first on-air year with a not-so-natural anchor who felt the need to relate every story to the next. Upon coming out of a 2-year old boy drowns in a lake story, she turns to weather (with rain at the time) says, "well I guess we also have some water to deal with!"

In shock, I tried to recover and said, "a few showers, but in with all respect, nothing serious like we just mentioned..." then continued on. Sometimes a ditzy anchor can be the most mind-bogglingly insensitive person on earth.

[Grotto]

My co-anchor has started our first cross-talk at the top of the show talking about how bitterly cold it is. She has done this for the past three weeks. Every morning. Sometimes she has been right...below zero wind chills...but most of the time it has been right about "average". It drives me NUTS. I have mentioned on-air several times that it is not really that cold, and that we are right about where we are every year at this time...and she will stay say, "It is bitterly cold out there."

I also get the 7-day forecast full of storms and God's wrath...and then come back for cross-talk like, "Okay...looks good. Thanks."

Is there a creative way that anyone has come up with to combat this disease??

[Grotto]

Cripes. She just did it again...even after I said it was warmer than "average"...

[WxSnake]

I like when neither anchor says anything at all - just stares at you with that plastic teevee smile.

One time I wrapped up and sat down, and it was obvious that I was finished talking - they just stared at me blankly; I guess they thought I was going to say something else.

After about 5 seconds of silence I said, "The end.".

Give me a break.

[Grotto]

I think that would have been a riot, Snake. Sometimes there is just no way to get out of one of these situations without making the anchors look dumb. They just leave no option sometimes.

I admit to rarely listening when they are reading news...but I listen enough that I know what is going on. Why do so many anchors COMPLETELY tune out while we are doing weather? They know we are going to have some cross. Why not pay at least a bit of attention so they can have something intelligent to say?? Is it that hard??

Sorry...I am having a frustrating morning. Must be Monday.

[WxGuru]

Anchorette says to me, "It was a chilly day today."

Me: "That's because you spent the day in the air conditioned news room...our high today was 87."

[AutoTranz]

Originally posted by Grotto:
I think that would have been a riot, Snake. Sometimes there is just no way to get out of one of these situations without making the anchors look dumb. They just leave no option sometimes.

I admit to rarely listening when they are reading news...but I listen enough that I know what is going on. Why do so many anchors COMPLETELY tune out while we are doing weather? They know we are going to have some cross. Why not pay at least a bit of attention so they can have something intelligent to say?? Is it that hard??

Sorry...I am having a frustrating morning. Must be Monday.At least your anchors stay at the newsdesk. Our anchor's like to take piss/smoke breaks during weather.

[Qvec]

I had an anchor/producer that was running minutes heavy. While a package ran she asked for a ton of time (this was so common I don't remember the actual time).

As the package ran, she told me to pay attention to it because she wanted to comment on it.

After the 30 second monologue (not a brief comment) relating the story to her experience (kind of) ... I was clueless what to say. "That's nice."??? "Awwwww"? It was a cutesy story, but not exactly riveting.

I just said ... "the weather forecast right after this".

I couldn't save it. I could never save it with her. One of my more frustrating experiences.

[Qvec]

I forgot the best one!

Imagine a weathercast where I show current snowfalls ... winds ... discussion of drifting snow and ADDITIONAL ACCUMULATIONS ... the anchor comes back with "so when is the storm going to hit?"

I almost said "stick your face out the door" but instead said "people to the North of town will tell you it has been here for a while".

Semi-save.

[Grotto]

Originally posted by Auto Tranz:
[/qb]At least your anchors stay at the newsdesk. Our anchor's like to take piss/smoke breaks during weather.[/QB][/QUOTE]

I never said they stay at the desk. Lots of bathroom breaks...

[tvtnews]

years ago in news, I was producing and anchoring my own weekend show. my weathercaster didn't want me cutting her. I was insanely heavy and asked her to go shorter than her normal 3 minutes (three!).

She kept talking about how cold it was in fargo and minot and probably medicine hat or something.

I couldn't do much. I could have ordered the director by phone to come back to me. But I couldn't really do that.

She went more than 4 minutes, even after the floor manager was dislocating his shoulder with the wrap sign for a minute. Perhaps to spite me. I tore into her but she didn't care.

However, there was one other time I fell asleep during her weathercast. Arms crossed, head down, waking up to the director in my IFB screaming my name. That happened once when I was on the morning show too.

[Bob Sakamano]

graemlins/cheers2.gif

[fistoweather]

Coming out of national package and into wx tease...

-Well we were certainly blessed with another beautiful day here in the..

(after several t-storm warnings had earlier been issued)

This is the go to phrase for this particular anchor.

-Night before recent ice storm here... "this is definitely going to be the coldest night of the year".

well, not really, in fact it will be about 15 degrees warmer than the coldest night so far.

-this is one of my favorites... just the other day... "sunny, cloudy today, it's hard to believe its actually February.

:confused: graemlins/iamwithstupid.gif

don't even remember what i said back to these... just tried to correct her without sounding mean... I think I said something completely unrelated after the last one... First of all, sunny and cloudy??? okay, maybe sunny early, cloudy late, but it was obviously cloudy all day. Then what does it mean that you can't believe its actually February?

Again... :confused:

[MI_Wxman]

We're told never to make our anchors look bad, but sometimes....when the bait is out there, you just have to weigh the consequences and play the odds.

After an 11pm main weather forecast which I said that we would hae cloudy skies overnight...ya-da...ya-da...ya-da.... I return to the desk and low and behold..... She turns to me and say's "So, are we going to have partly sunny skies tonight?" After a quick "Eddie Murphy" look into the camera, I just turned to her and smiled. Sometimes "silence" can speak "volumes".

graemlins/iamwithstupid.gif

[tv4(mer)caster]

I had a former fill-in co-anchor when I was in MI who actually had a lapsus linguae.....

"It sure is nipply this morning"....LOL!

I answered in one of my next bump teases, that "I would keep Central Michigan abreast of the snowy forecast"

Floor director just about peed in his pants.

Honest to God.....