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Live From Studio 1A: Long-winded Meredith Cracks Up

As we have mentioned before here on the blog, the entire show is timed out to the nanosecond. Every segment is slotted for a specific amount, to make sure that we get everything into the show. But of course, it's a live show and sometimes segments run long, causing some anxiety in the control room. This morning, we had a funny experience with timing, at Meredith's expense.Meredith interviewed Tim

As we have mentioned before here on the blog, the entire show is timed out to the nanosecond. Every segment is slotted for a specific amount, to make sure that we get everything into the show. But of course, it's a live show and sometimes segments run long, causing some anxiety in the control room. This morning, we had a funny experience with timing, at Meredith's expense.

Meredith interviewed Tim Russert, and she was scheduled to wrap the interview around 7:17. At 7:19, Meredith and Tim were still going, despite our producers in the control room yelling "wrap up!" in Meredith's ear. And then, just when we thought they were finishing, Meredith still asked one more question. The interview was going really well, and we were able to get a lot of info into the segment, but still... time was tight. So everyone in the control room decided that Meredith was asking for it, and they started teasing her. Did she not hear us telling her to wrap up? So even while Tim was answering the last question, our producers were whispering in Meredith's ear, giving her the business. She almost lost it.

Meredith was laughing, but pulled it together to finish the segment and throw to Matt, to introduce the last story of the half-hour. But it didn't stop there. Especially once we went to commercial, everyone got into the act. Matt was teasing her. Everyone down in the control room was laughing and going after her. Meredith was cracking up, throwing her arms up and literally doubling over on the anchor desk. She can tease with the best of them, and she can certainly take it in good stride as well. I think she was laughing the hardest of anyone. And we still managed to get everything into the show before our commercial break -- so as our friend Len Berman would say, nobody got hurt.