Used to skip over news bloopers in post-production edits. Now I leave them in on purpose.

Back when I was editing news packages for a local station in Memphis about 4 years ago, I would cut out every single flub and glitch. If an anchor stumbled on a word or the teleprompter froze, I'd trim it out and make the segment look perfect. Now I work freelance and I deliberately keep those little moments in the final cut for certain segments. It makes the broadcast feel more human and real, plus viewers actually comment on them more than the polished parts. The shift happened after I saw a blooper reel from a sister station get more shares than their top story that week. Has anyone else noticed that audiences respond better to imperfect content than flawless edits?

3 comments

3 Comments

violag8011d ago

The real question is whether leaving in the bloopers actually improves viewer trust or just gives them a cheap laugh. Did you test keeping a flub in a hard news segment versus a lighter feature piece to see which got a better response? Because I can see a teleprompter freeze during a city council vote feeling sloppy, but a weather anchor messing up a city name in a fluff piece feels charming. Viewers are already suspicious of TV news being too slick and scripted, so a tiny crack in that polish might help them feel less like they are being sold something. But if every single segment has a stumble, it stops being genuine and starts feeling like a gimmick. Where did you draw that line for yourself?

nina_taylor11d ago

lol yeah hard agree on the line between news and fluff stuff. A stumble during a serious city council report just makes you look unprofessional, but the weather guy messing up a town name is gold. Keep it to lighter segments only and it feels human, not sloppy. Slip one into hard news though and viewers just think you don't know what you're doing. Gotta keep that line strong or it all falls apart.

angela_morgan9d agoRising Star

So @violag80, did you hear about my friend who left a flub in a hard news segment and got chewed out by her boss the next day?