To the thousands of commuters on the I-75/85 connector through Atlanta, Warner Bros. Discovery’s 28-acre corporate campus looks sleepy on this Tuesday. But inside the confines of its 300,000-square-foot production facility, there’s a palpable energy brewing.
Little do those commuters know that three of the parent company’s major studio shows—NBA on TNT, NHL on TNT and MLB on TBS—are taking place inside that building in a few short hours.
In one of the common areas, the Stanley Cup rests on a table, surrounded by roughly 30 staffers from the NHL on TNT production team. This is where senior vice president of production and programming Scooter Vertino has called a meeting at 3:30 p.m., ahead of Tuesday night’s playoff-driven show. With arguably the greatest trophy in sports centered in the room, he reminds his team the regular season is behind them, and the stakes are higher heading into the first-ever season TNT will exclusively broadcast the Stanley Cup Final.
“A lot of our staff played sports, and [preparing for the NHL playoffs] is the next level of that,” he said. “I’d imagine that philosophy is shared by a lot of our folks—our [meeting] area is akin to a locker room if you will.”
And similar to a locker room, this 30-minute meeting is a moment for colleagues to break down the final game plan, from how they’re going to highlight New Jersey Devils star Jack Hughes’ first playoff game to why they need the camera guys to be more aggressive with crowd shots to capture the atmosphere. NHL on TNT producer David Gibson says executing the show takes full collaboration from the more than 40 people contributing and touching the property.
“Meetings and formats are great, but the bottom line is, when the light goes on you have no idea what’s going to really happen,” he said. “We’re at our best when we go off script a little bit and just react.”
Going off the script is a theme at Warner Bros. Discovery’s Techwood campus, where talent and producers alike are encouraged to be authentic to create genuine connection with audiences. And this philosophy is more evident on this night with the three studio shows happening within a short walk from each other.
“I’m a big Stanley Cup guy, and this is crazy because this is the first time ever with us getting the Finals,” Charles Barkley, an analyst on TNT’s popular flagship show Inside the NBA, said in an interview. “We’ve obviously known the baseball guys, but it’s exciting to have all three [shows] in here for the first time.”
Barkley, who is expected to make an appearance on the NHL on TNT telecast this postseason, has epitomized not sticking with the script on Inside The NBA, alongside Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny Smith and host Ernie Johnson. To keep the show feeling conversational and not contrived, Johnson prefers his Emmy-award winning trio of analysts not to attend in the NBA on TNT production meetings.
“Besides, you could never get those guys to come in three hours before to talk about that stuff,” Johnson said, laughing. “You want it to be fresh because if all the announcers are there, then people are voicing their [opinions], and the show becomes what was talked about in the meeting. You want to let it rip.”
Tuesday provided a good example. Minutes before the show went live, Barkley approached 13-year-old Cooper Farley and his mother, who were mere onlookers in Studio J, and playfully roasted the young man for wearing a throwback O’Neal Lakers jersey. Barkley didn’t stop teasing Farley even when the show went live, informing folks at home of the situation, seamlessly taking an unscripted moment and inserting it into a national broadcast. That was, until O’Neal threatened Barkley to stop the disrespect.
“This is the best time of the year,” Barkley said. “NBA and Stanley Cup Playoffs, and No. 1, we can see vacation down the line.”
Inside The NBA has become the gold standard for sports television shows—and that’s evident around the building, as MLB on TBS and NHL on TNT take notes. Similar to Inside the NBA, the NHL on-air talent also doesn’t attend production meetings; host Liam McHugh only attends so he can be the traffic cop. As the crew looks to elevate from their first season last year, Anson Carter, Paul Bissonnette, Henrik Lundqvist, Wayne Gretzky and other rotating analysts aim to convey the same organic camaraderie that’s in their group text conversation to the audience.
“We look at [the NBA on TNT crew] because they set the standard when it comes to sports television,” Carter said. “We’re also cognizant that we have to be ourselves, so we don’t put that much pressure on ourselves to live up to who they are, but we know there’s a standard to reach. We want to be the best hockey show, period.”
Bouncing from Studio J to Studio F, where NHL on TNT is underway, another underlying theme is the steady effort to reach the next generation of fans by highlighting moments in pop culture or interacting with viewers in real-time via social media. For example, TNT commercials and the NHL’s social media had recently been hyping the identity of someone named Gordo St. John, who was expected to help “bring some spice to broadcasts.” On Tuesday night, NHL on TNT revealed that St. John’s character is played by actor and Rangers fan David Harbour, a star of the popular show Stranger Things.
“This is a place that fosters creativity and taking chances,” associate creative director Tyler Lassiter said. “Everything we’ve done over the years on Inside the NBA sets us up to do something different [elsewhere]. We don’t have to do things the same way we’ve already done them.”
With the NHL on TNT show underway, NBA on TNT is just beginning at 7 p.m. ET. Outside of the studios, staffers are moving to their respective posts while others are having conversation in backrooms with talent like Buster Posey, who replaced MLB on TNT analyst Jimmy Rollins at the last minute. In a nearby production room, analyst and former NBA star Steve Smith is cooling down after leaving the NBA TV set and chopping it up with company staffers. Vice president, coordinating producer Jeremy Levin and coordinating director Steve Fiorello are tucked away in one of the control rooms nearby sitting side-by-side as they juggle trimming the NBA studio show in a time crunch as the playoff action returns to air.
But viewers at home probably don’t notice, because they’re getting a healthy dose of laughs. On this night, Barkley’s left eyebrow appears half-shaven, becoming one of the running jokes. In a matter of minutes, art director Alex Houvouras, sitting a few rows behind Fiorello and Levin, has digitally edited footage of Barkley without eyebrows, creating a bizarre yet comical image for the world to see.
When asked about the strategy behind these creations delivered in real-time, Houvouras, the studio’s “meme guy,” says that it’s simpler than you might think.
“Honestly, what we’ve always done here is try to do what we think is funny and make each other laugh,” he said. “If we’re going to laugh, the chances are somebody else is going to laugh.”
After more than 20 years of doing the show, everyone from Houvouras to Levin has learned that it’s about being prepared for changes on the fly, especially when dealing with unpredictable personalities like O’Neal and Barkley.
“Controlled chaos is a great term for it,” Levin said. “We might have a format and plan, but we have the ability to pivot at any point and not be tied to a piece of paper… Operating in those moments is what we’re built for.”
While the other two studio shows are deep into their runs, Studio D down the hallway—a massive, greenscreen-heavy home to MLB on TBS—is about to go hot for the first time tonight with analysts Curtis Granderson, Pedro Martinez and Posey, and host Lauren Shehadi. Minutes before the show starts, Martinez is cracking jokes on set while Granderson is off to the side anxiously doing a footwork warmup as if he’s about to lead off again for the New York Yankees. His routine helps put a smile on the faces of his cohorts as the red light turns on.
“All of them genuinely like each other,” chief content officer Craig Barry said of all the analysts. “The idea of liking to come to work and liking who you work with plays a huge part. I always say, if you’re having fun, whether you’re in front or behind the camera, chances are people are having fun watching.”
Around 10 p.m. ET, the night slowly begins to wind down at the Techwood campus, as dozens of staffers have left the building for the day. But the rare studio-palooza moment, fueled by the playoff intensity across the networks, isn’t lost on the production teams. So much that the company makes sure to capture it all with a group photo with all the Hall-of-Fame talent together, marking one of the unique days of the year.
For an analyst like Martinez, it’s a full-circle moment to be talking baseball with former foes who are now his colleagues and working alongside other former star athletes in other sports.
“I feel like I’m with my family,” he said. “I can trust everybody and know what it’s all about. I’m extremely happy and blessed that I can come to a job that I really want to do.”
(This story has corrected the name WarnerMedia to Warner Bros. Discovery in the first and seventh paragraph.)