Fox News GOP town halls in Iowa took planning
DES MOINES, Iowa – While many families were busy with Christmas and New Year’s Eve celebrations, Fox News was preparing to present three backto-back town halls in Des Moines with Republican presidential candidates.
The town halls, which began with former U.N. Ambassador and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley on Monday, all took place at the Iowa Events Center.
A town hall for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was held Tuesday and the final town hall was set for Wednesday night with former President Donald Trump – at the same time CNN was slated to air a live, televised debate between Haley and DeSantis. The town halls were moderated by Fox News hosts Martha MacCallum and Bret Baier.
Getting the set, lighting and camera equipment there were just some of the tasks that took place over the course of the holidays.
The Des Moines Register took a look on Tuesday afternoon, the same day as DeSantis’ town hall, to learn what it takes to produce the televised event.
The set was quiet save for the recurrent sounds that seemed straight out of a futuristic sci-fi flick but actually were of cameras syncing, Scott Wilder, executive vice president of productions and operations, explained.
The day of a town hall is “fairly calm,” Wilder said, in part because it’s largely set up by then. Also, a town hall had already been crossed off Fox News’ list at the time of the Register’s visit.
Seats, about 200 of them, were arranged in rows for the live audience. Cameras were set up near the stage.
How should a moderator approach their role for a town hall? Martha MacCallum had an answer. “Bret and I are there to facilitate the conversation,” MacCallum said. “To give the audience of voters an opportunity to ask a question to the candidate. And then to follow up when there’s a need to follow up because our job is to do our research, to be ready to sort of pin down an answer or to challenge an answer where that’s required. And make sure that we are providing that balance and that background that might be needed to follow up that question or to get it to the next stage of depth in terms of what’s true, what’s not true.”
Viewers might have recognized the set, previously used for Republican presidential primary debates held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Simi Valley, California, last year, Wilder said.
The archway spanned 60 feet across the stage floor, which was naturally gray in color but reflective of the ambient light, producing a shine. At the center of the stage floor was a large image of the presidential seal (and where MacCallum, Baier and the presidential primary candidate would sit). A video wall adorned the back of the stage, creating one large, seamless display.
The set’s design allowed crews to position a camera facing the audience – or in the case of a debate, where the moderators would be seated to face the candidates – so that it’s not “awkwardly in the background,” Wilder said.
Ensuring candidates could hear questions and the audience could also is important, but so was the audio for people tuning into the town hall across America. “We worry about program audio,” Wilder said of a rehearsal. “That’s the audio that the audience at home watching on TV hears. That’s the most important thing, right?”