By Richie Zyontz
FOX NFL Lead Producer
Editor’s Note:Richie Zyontz has been an NFL producer for FOX since 1994 and is in his 23rd season as the lead producer. He has more than 40 years of experience covering the league and has produced seven Super Bowls. Throughout the 2024 NFL season, he is providing an inside look as FOX’s new No. 1 NFL team, including NFL legend Tom Brady, makes its journey toward Super Bowl LIX. Read more behind-the-scenes stories from Richie Zyontz here.
Upon entering our television truck, one’s eyes can go off in many directions.
Monitors blanket the front wall. Work stations are set throughout in a fashion logical only to those who man them. And there are so many dials and switches that it reminds one of what the inside of a spaceship might look like.
Well, the Captain Kirk of our operation is technical director Colby Bourgeois and our “Starship Enterprise” can’t flourish without his deft mind and nimble hands. Controlling a board with 1,100 button options, this job is not for the faint of heart or for the fat of finger. It also requires a special temperament. Any producer or director will cite the TD as the true brains of the outfit. With Colby, that goes double.
[Related: More from Tom Brady | More from Richie Zyontz]
The front row in a production truck consists of producer, director and technical director. The TD listens to the cues from the director and hits the appropriate key in response to every command. Nothing appears on your screen without the TD punching the right button. Amid the occasional organized chaos of live television, the TD must float above the fray and methodically keep the show afloat.
We’ve all taken different paths to occupy our current seats. Colby was a tinkerer as a kid, and used that curiosity to study math and electrical engineering at Arizona State. That led to work at a local station in Phoenix, and ultimately a jump into network sports in 1998. For the last 18 seasons, Colby has sat at the elbow of…
Source link : https://www.foxsports.com/stories/nfl/behind-scenes-foxs-nfl-crew-brady-mahomes-meet
Author :
Publish date : 2024-10-22 13:40:59
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.