Behind-The-Scenes Look at Live TV

Or, My Zumba Appearance on Good Day New York and How Anything Can Go Wrong on Live TV.

OK, OK, so it wasn't that bad. Probably the hardest part was being up 'til 12:30am (had to get my bag ready; had to wash my hair; had to take 3 different outfits with me "just in case") and then getting up at 4:30am to make myself TV-ready and catch the bus at 5:30am.
I took the subway from the bus station to the upper east side. By then it was starting rush hour and the subway was getting full. I squeezed into the subway train and actually saw a sliver of open seating in between two men. I plunked myself down and squeezed my tush in between them. Despite being crowded and packed in like cattle, I noticed it was strangely quiet. Almost eerie. I guess that's normal? Everyone was quietly staring at their shoes or into blank space for the whole ride. I actually cracked myself up by just imagining myself (after squeezing into my seat) turning to the men beside me and saying loudly, "HI! My name is Shelley! What's your name?" That would've startled the heck out of them and everyone else! I didn't do it for two reasons.
1) I couldn't have done it with a straight face...or maybe even without bursting into fits of hysterical laughter (I was experiencing some nervousness due to the t.v. appearance)...and...
2) Someone would have reported me. Reported me to whom, you ask? I dunno, but to someone. There's those signs all over the subway that say "If you see a suspicious package or activity on the platform or train, do not keep it to yourself. Tell a Police Officer or an MTA employee. Remain alert and have a safe day." I'm sure someone would've reported that as suspicious behavior and I would've been cuffed and taken into custody. Then I would've missed the t.v. appearance. So, I kept my funny little joke to myself and just quietly chuckled under my breath. And stared at my shoes.

I arrive at the Fox 5 Studio and meet up with the other instructors. Most of them I know well but one or two were new to me. We go up to the Green Room where there are some super skinny (and I mean skinnnnnnnny) models and a couple of guys with guitars. We review the steps with the music that the Zumba office gave us and the Fox 5 people to make sure we're all in sync with each other, etc. In the meantime, a woman comes into the green room and starts gushing all over one of the guys with the guitars. She's saying what a huge fan she is and how she has all his tapes (she's actually waving tapes in front of his face) and gets his autograph and picture. We all start looking at each other like, who the heck IS that guy, and maybe we should be gushing and getting our picture taken, too?!? We eventually figure out that it's Richard Marx (blast from the 80's) and we do take a picture with him. He was really nice. And he's cut his hair since then...


When it's our turn, they take us into the studio and hook microphones up to 2 of the guys. Meanwhile, I watch Mike Woods do the weather in front of a giant green screen and gloat to myself for just a minute since I know half the women in NY and NJ watch Fox 5 news just because they have a crush on this weatherman. I'll admit he is a handsome man, and very very tall. We all get into our places; I pick the middle, ignorantly thinking I would be seen better if I was in the center. Unfortunately, it just meant I was standing directly behind the anchorwoman and you couldn't see me well at all. We watch the pre-taped segment (which was great!) and then they cut live and turn the cameras onto us. The anchorwoman says she's ready to see some steps. This is the cue for the Zumba music to start and for us to start a salsa step. But the music doesn't start so the anchorwoman tries to stall for a moment. The music STILL doesn't start. The other anchorwoman tries to stall for a moment. The music STILL doesn't start. It felt like an eternity.

Eduardo (our fearless leader) starts the step anyway and we all try to follow with no music. They finally did start playing some kind of music but I have no idea what it was. It wasn't our Zumba music and it wasn't salsa and it didn't really have a beat or anything. I think it might've been elevator music. It was very faint and far-away sounding. In fact, when it first started, I honestly thought it was someone's cellphone ringing! We all just kept trying to follow Eduardo and kept smiling and tried to not feel like complete idiots. At one point I completely stopped (while everyone else kept going) because I couldn't hear any music over the loud-mouth anchorwoman and they were yelling at her to wrap it up. Ugh! I jump back in and keep smiling.
The worst part is they kept toting the phrase "you can burn 1,000 calories/hr" with Zumba. The average is 600-800 calories/hr but someone somewhere once said 1,000 calories so they focused on that. And then at the end, the two anchor people behind the desk skeptically wondered out loud, "Burn 1,000 calories an hour doing THAT?!" I can't blame them. If all they had to go on was watching us shuffle our feet side to side with no music? I'd wonder if I could burn 10 calories an hour doing that! Ugh.

Oh well, hopefully it will not deter anyone from taking a class. Afterwards, Eduardo and I grabbed our bags and practically ran screaming from the building. (Strangely there were no paparrazi or fans waiting for us outside the studio). Poor Eduardo felt the same as I did, perhaps worse since he was leading. I thought he did a tremendous job given the difficult circumstances. Luckily we rode the subway together for awhile until he got off at his stop and I continued to Soho to do some shopping. That way I only had to stare at my shoes for part of the ride. ;-)

Here's the link to the Fox 5 show, in case you missed it.