How to prepare your CEO for a TV interview

Getting the top executive ready for an on-camera appearance is a principle that government communicators should strive to achieve

Here is your situation: It’s a muggy summer morning and you’ve made the CEO of your agency get up before dawn to conduct a satellite interview with The Today Show. There are two minutes to showtime. The segment producer is going over the interview logistics with the CEO and points to a small TV below the camera that she can use during cutaways to view a video news release you gave the network. Your CEO then turns to you and asks, “Have I seen the video that Matt Lauer is about to ask me to describe?”

Your answer to this question is a measure of your preparation. Thoroughly preparing your CEO for an on-camera appearance is a principle that government communicators should strive to achieve. Yet, before your agency head even gets on-camera, the public affairs officer generally has two primary tasks related to managing the network interview request: