The days tend to run long for Turner Sports Senior Producer JEREMY LEVIN, who works on the net's nine-time Emmy-winning "Inside The NBA" studio show, but he wouldn't have it any other way. Levin: "When you're having those moments in the show that hit and resonate, there's nothing you would trade that for. It's such a great experience." Levin took some time out of his busy day to walk THE DAILY through his typical schedule.
8:00am: I’m lucky, I don’t set the alarm clock in my house. My wife, JESSICA, gets up early to help get my son, BODE, off to school at 8:00 so I’ll wake up then to see him before he leaves. I’ll reply to a couple emails and sometimes I'll also watch some NBA TV in the morning to see what they did on "GameTime" the night before.
9:00am: I’ll make some breakfast, usually a smoothie, and then I’ll take my daughter, ABBY, to school. After I get home is when I’ll typically dive into more of the work-related stuff, so reading box scores from the West Coast games and catching up on all the news that happened late at night that I may have missed.
11:00am: I typically try to be at the office around 11:00 to hit the gym in our building so I can get a workout in before my day starts. Some weeks are better than others, but it is important because it helps me clear my head a little and stay fresh. I’ll exercise for about an hour, shower up and then grab some lunch from our food court before heading down to my work area.
1:00pm: I’ve prepped the format for the show earlier in the week, but I’ll dive a little deeper and make sure all the ideas that we had are typed up in our system and are updated with any new information. Around this time is typically when ERNIE JOHNSON shows up, so I carve out 15-30 minutes with him to go through what we have scheduled and if we have any guests. It’s nice to have that meeting with him early because it ties into the formatting.
3:00pm: Next thing on the agenda is a conference call with both remote producers for the doubleheader of games that night. We’ll discuss any storylines that we should be aware of, which players may not play or anything else of note. Then we’ll just confirm the timing of the telecasts, any graphics and make sure we’re all on the same page with all the sales elements and how we’re executing our sponsorships.
4:00pm: By this time the rest of our staff has arrived at the office, so I’m just checking in with them quickly in case there are any questions.
Levin loves the fact "Inside the NBA" is a collaborative show in which all staff can contribute ideasMARC BRYAN-BROWN
5:00pm: We’ll have a full rundown production meeting that includes everybody on our staff, probably 20-30 people in the room. Ernie will go to that, all of production staff will go, a lot of our technical staff will come as well because I’m going line by line through the format for the show. What I love about “Inside the NBA” is that it's a super collaborative show and everybody has ideas to contribute to make it a better product.
6:00pm: We have dinner catered for us, which is very nice, so everyone goes and eats before the show starts. That usually takes about an hour, and by that time KENNY SMITH, SHAQUILLE O’NEAL and CHARLES BARKLEY are coming in. Typically, I won't go over anything in the show with them and just check in to see how they’re doing.
7:15pm: We’re in the control room, running through a technical rehearsal of the show to make sure things run smoothly or make changes as needed. If it’s a typical 15-minute pregame show, Ernie will get on set around 7:40 and we’ll show him any elements or graphics we have. The other guys will roll out around 7:55 and get mic'd up for the show at 8:00.
8:00pm-1:45am: On air.
2:00am: As soon as the show is over, I’ll make the rounds and say goodnight to everybody. I’m one of the lucky ones with only a 10-minute commute back home, but the adrenaline is still kind of kicking from the show and I probably had a coffee around 10:00pm, so it’s not exactly easy to jump right in the bed and go to sleep. Sometimes I’ll just read a couple articles or check the Twitter feed, which is probably not a great way to unwind, but it’s just something to help settle me down. I’ll generally try to head to bed around 2:30 or so.
