Muppet mayhem kicked off early this morning with our morning senior producer @deniserehrig tweeting at 4 a.m.: “Turning 44th Street into Sesame Street! Today’s show brought to you by the letters G and M and A.”  

While we jammed together the first part of our show deciding what to lead with on a slow news day, the logistics of the Sesame Street takeover took over the back office and the control room. At 6 a.m., our producer Morgan running muppet traffic turned up with a small issue – “We can’t have a whole row of muppets in the control room.” So we moved Elmo, Grover and Rosita back into the “Bubble” to run the top of the show.

How did they choose their seats? Morgan confided, “I don’t know if I’m producing them or they’re producing me.” From out in the studio, George and Robin asked, “Who’s in charge back there?”

 George had to leave on assignment so one of the Sesame Street gang offered to fill his seat at 8:00 a.m. Grover hopped into the chair alongside Robin. So where was his script? Two minutes before the “hellos,”  Denise turned to our executive producers: “You want me to give talking points to Grover?” Turns out when you brief the blue one, he just shreds the script and improvises. 

The pop news heat index got a bubbly lift from the trio that popped up at the newsdesk –   Elmo and Rosita joined Grover to add some new sound effects to Lara’s culture round-up. Back in the control room, so much laughter, we almost didn’t time the segment correctly.

 More later, including all the details on the most memorable weathercast we’ve probably ever broadcast.