Tale of the comet

No, not the "tail" but the "tale."

So last night one of the weather people tells me there's a comet that will be visible at night. Now I love this kind of stuff, like last year when all those planets aligned. Great, I'm thinking. When can I see this?

The weatherperson didn't say.

Where can I see this?

Nope, no info on that either except that it is in the constellation Leo. Like I have any clue where that is. No graphic showing me what star or planet to use as a point of reference, no time that I should go outside. Do I TiVo Jack Bauer to see this thing? Do I have to get up in the middle of the night? There are only a million stars in the sky. I guess I can check out each one.

Hi-ho, hi-ho, off to an astronomy website I go. (I sure wasn't going to the station's website. If they're gonna make me work, I'll go someplace that gives information without making me do so.) I find out this is a green, double tailed comet (Who knew?) and read a lot of interesting stuff about it.

So I found out where to look for the comet, stayed up late and went outside with my binoculars.

Point is, the weatherperson really missed the boat. On a day when nothing was happening here weather-wise, having something unusual to talk about can really make the weather forecast interesting. What actually is a comet? Why does it have a double tail? This one had never been in our solar system, so where did it come from? Could it hit earth and do we need Bruce Willis to save us? But rather than take the time to make an informative graphic that showed me where and when, all I got was a homework assignment. And I'm too old to be doing homework.

The weatherperson made me work, and when I watch TV, I shouldn't have to do that. A simple graphic would have given me the information I need.

Always put yourself in the viewer's place. Does your story need more information, a graphic, to simplify things? Don't pull this "for more information, go to our website" garbage. If I wanted to go to your website, I wouldn't we watching TV! Assume the viewer is doing nothing but watching you, so put as much information as you can into your story. Or, in this case, the weather forecast. Instead, all I got was a tease, and that's something a producer writes.

Bottom line, I blew off the rest of that newscast to get information on the comet.