How Quickly Television Has Adapted

I was watching Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives the other night, and was amazed at how quickly they had adapted the show to deal with Covid -19.  Usually Guy Fieri goes around the country in his vintage Mustang, visiting small restaurants turning out amazing food.  Because he can not do that right now, they have adapted.  Guy has a spectacular outdoor kitchen in his home in Northern California.  He has returned to restaurants he visited in the past, asked the chefs to send them the ingredients for one of their famous dishes, and let Guy cook the dish in his outdoor kitchen.  Thanks to Zoom, the four chefs he highlighted were on the screen, Guy in the middle doing the cooking at their direction, and a lot of chit chat going on between Guy and the various chefs.  It was a thoroughly entertaining show.  I was amazed at how quickly they got the show up and running.  There's a lot of technology involved, but it worked.  What a great adaptation to a difficult time.

Of course news shows and programs like 20-20, have also adapted.  Everyone is broadcasting from their homes, and have been for several weeks.  Television has changed the way they do things so quickly, I find it amazing.  Meterorlogists  broadcasting from their homes, Chris Cuomo coming to you live from his basement,  all the investigative reporters working from home.  I have to confess that I love looking at their homes?  They're usually in the kitchen area or the living room or a study.  The one interesting thing I have noticed is that all the reporters have bookshelves in the background.  They're all readers!!

Several years ago NBC tried to have Fritz Coleman, longtime weather man in LA, do the weather in both LA and San Diego.  Apparently it didn't work at that time.  My guess is, that today it would.  Very interesting how things change.  I try to look at the good, which is difficult right now, but I am optimistic because of our ingenuity.  Where there's a will, there's a way, and television has certainly figured out a way to continue to bring us quality programming.