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Craig Ferguson Finishes His Tuesday Show by Flashlight After Power Failure

Oct 28, 2009  •  Post A Comment

When wind knocked out power to CBS Television City in the middle of taping on Tuesday, “Late Late Show’s" Craig Ferguson just kept going, by flashlight, reports the Associated Press.

He was interviewing actress Alicia Silverstone at the time.

–Elizabeth Jensen

10 Comments

  1. Wouldn’t the cameras and control booth have lost electric too?

  2. Nice “stunt” that made it into the news.
    I wonder if anyone will logically wonder how they continued “taping” if the power was actually out? Does CBS actually have all the VTRs and Cameras on backup power? But not the lights and air conditioning?

  3. A surprisingly large number of facilities have backup tech power for their audio and video systems but not for stage lighting or full studio air conditioning. I am not familiar with the details of Television City, but I’d be surprised if there was emergency power for lighting in more than a small number of studios. It wouldn’t be the first time somebody finished taping a show by flashlight.

  4. reminds of the time i was shooting an indoor wedding during a severe thunderstorm. i use 10 cameras for every angle from hallway to audience reverse, all on battery. power went out, wedding went on with candlelight, video captured the fun without interruption, as no AC being used. congrats to craig staff for thinking on feet, and the show going on.

  5. To paraphrase Mr. Ferguson, “It’s a great day for Duracell!”

  6. Having worked at Television City when a power outtage hit. I can assure you that the studio went dark except for emergency safety lights. Some tech power would stay to keep the facility on-air, (but CBS West Coast today runs out of NYC, unlike when I was there, it rolled out of TVC). On-camera lighting demands too much juice. The switch over generator would never handle the sudden high demand. Of course a producer might opt for some drama over and above reality for some extra Press…Hey, it IS Show-Biz!
    Peter Bright

  7. Craig only did the 2 minute closing by flashlight.
    The show was 3/4 through when the outage occured and went immediately to commercial. The second interview segment was pretaped.

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