Cylons. Androids. Rookie anchors.
Many times it's hard to tell them apart. Sometimes I look at resume tapes and expect a young anchor to say in a monotone, "Good evening. I'm Joe Reporter. Take me to your leader."
When you're starting out on the anchor desk, you want to nail your script perfectly. No stumbles, no mispronunciations. Perfect diction. So you focus. And focus some more.
And the end result is Bambi staring into the camera. The look is unnatural, the delivery sounds like a computerized voice.
Yet when these people track their packages or do standups, the look and delivery are completely different.
So why the Marty Feldman bug-eyes? Why do you sound like a Borg drone?
Live TV makes all the difference. If you screw up doing a standup or cutting voice track, you can do it again. If that happens while you're anchoring, your life is over.
Actually, it isn't.
There are tons of classic bloopers online from network household names and major market anchors. No one fired them for stumbling here or there, or having to correct a word.
Because they all looked natural when it happened.
Viewers want to watch human beings deliver the news. We've said it before; talk, don't read. When you're on the set, don't think about being live; concentrate on talking to the one person behind the camera. Tell that person a story as if you were on the phone or sitting in a restaurant. If you worry too much about how your face looks on camera, it's going to look unnatural.
Relax your face. Pilates instructors have a great line: "soften the jaw." Don't project your voice, let the microphone do the work. Smile when the story calls for it. Don't read an intro to weather or sports, have a conversation with the sports anchor or weathercaster.
The most successful anchors are those who are natural, and act the same way off camera as they do on camera.
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