On Sunday’s edition of NFL RedZone, longtime host Scott Hanson announced during the fourth quarter of the matchup between the Philadelphia Eagles and Buffalo Bills that personnel inside of the studios needed to evacuate the premises. Outlining a scenario that never occurred during his broadcast career, Hanson explained that viewers could hear the alarm blaring over the top of his right shoulder and that the control room left the most competitive game on the screen. Before leaving the studios, he expressed that while they did not know the nature of the emergency, everyone was remaining calm and following protocols.
“So to be continued, hopefully, although this game is in the fourth quarter,” Hanson said. “I will come back and give you a live update if and when I am able to. Thank you for your understanding and your patience, and here is 3rd-and-13 for the Buffalo Bills.”
On Monday morning, 610 Sports Radio co-host Josh Klingler mentioned the emergency and how people who were watching RedZone were witnessing something brand new on the program. Fescoe, who was watching another game in the process, had the program on a different television on mute and had no idea it was happening. Yet he did look up several times and realized that the Eagles-Bills game had not moved from the screen, leading him to think about what could be going on.
“He’s a pro – Scott Hanson – he’s done this thing for a while,” Klingler said. “And so I guess the production facility in New York or New Jersey took over for a little bit.”
Fescoe was amazed at how Hanson’s statement on the air ended in repeating the down and distance within the game rather than leaving the studios immediately upon his explanation. The dedication to the craft he displayed reminded Klingler of when 610 Sports Radio broadcast from a stairwell in the midst of a tornado. Despite the ambiguous emergency, NFL RedZone remained on the air and presented viewers with a game that was in the critical stages, and those involved in the program were eventually able to re-enter the studios.
“We don’t know what’s going on here, but you’ve got to protect Scott Hanson at all costs, don’t you?,” Fescoe said. “He is, other than the football personnel people, the players and the coaches; he’s like one of the most famous NFL people right now that everybody knows.”
“I’m surprised they didn’t go, ‘Well, we’re going to keep one person in the studio in Scott Hanson, and the rest of them need to evacuate, but we’re going to keep this thing on the air,’” Klingler replied.
An on-air contributor for the program articulated that a viable backup plan for the program could have been to take Hanson’s phone and put it against the screen so he could continue to commentate to the audience. The production could then take a remote outside to switch between the games so fans would not miss the pivotal witching hour, which Hanson has long affirmed is where wins and losses are often decided. In order to see the games for himself, he could use NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube and YouTube TV, although Fescoe believes that Hanson would have cursed out the service for limiting the amount of games he can watch in multi-view mode.
“But people would watch that; that would be entertaining,” Fescoe said. “I think the one thing that we did learn through COVID is that the media doesn’t have to take themselves seriously when it comes to this production stuff. Throw a headset on a guy in a hotel room and call it a day. Hanson outside doing games off his phone would have been epic. It would have been spectacular.”
