The Mystery Behind Teases

While working as lead producer this week, I made sure to set aside time to select the best teases and superteases.  When selecting a tease, I search for a story that is timely, appeals to human interest, and sparks the natural curiosity.  The best teases are those that are a bit mysterious with a quirky edge.  While writing a tease, I try to not reveal the whole story in order to keep the viewer interested.

For this Tuesday’s show, I selected the Redondo Beach breaking news shooting, the Republican primary, and the Ohio high school shooting.  I wanted all of my teases to be the most discussed stories of the evening.  Originally, I placed the Republican primary as the first tease and the Redondo Beach shooting as the second tease.  But, around 5:00, the Redondo Beach breaking news story continued to develop as police officers named a person of interest.  Around 5:15, David recommended switching the Republican primary and Redondo Beach teases.  Even though re-writing the cold open and welcome at the last minute was very stressful, I’m so glad I did.  It not only provided valuable breaking news experience as a lead producer, but the Redondo Beach story was local and still developing, so it clearly deserved the first tease spot.  While writing my teases, I made sure to make each story sound as timely as possible.  I discussed how the police investigation was ongoing in the Redondo Beach story to highlight the fact that it was breaking news; I explained how the polls were just closing in the GOP primary to relay the fact that numbers were still coming in; and I focused the Ohio shooting on Tuesday’s court appearance, instead of rehashing the shooting from Monday.

For my superteases I selected the fish oil benefits, new iPad, and free Pancake Day stories.  I knew I wanted to tease the pancake story, even though it is risky teasing a kicker since it might get floated, because it was a local story that would attract a wide audience—especially college students searching for free food!  While selecting all three teases, I knew I wanted them to relate to any viewer; health, technology, and food stories can reach an extremely diverse audience.  Also, I made sure to word each tease so that it didn’t give everything away, and hopefully made viewers curious enough to keep watching!