Newscast Rundown

A newscast rundown is the master blueprint a news producer builds for each broadcast. It lists every element of the show in the exact order it will air: anchor reads, packages, voice-overs (VOs), voice-over/sound-on-tape items (VO/SOTs), live shots, two-shots, weather, sports, teases, commercial breaks, and the goodbye. Each row typically includes a slug (short story name), the reporter or anchor responsible, the format, the estimated runtime, the back-time, and any technical cues for the director, graphics operator, and teleprompter.

Rundowns are usually built inside newsroom computer systems such as AP ENPS, Avid iNEWS, Octopus, or Ross Inception, which sync the running order with the teleprompter and the studio automation. The producer constantly adjusts the rundown up to and during air to hit the show's total runtime, drop stories if breaking news arrives, or reorder blocks if a live element fails.

A typical local half-hour newscast is divided into blocks (A-block, B-block, C-block, D-block) separated by commercial breaks. The A-block carries the lead story and the day's heaviest news; later blocks usually move to lighter content, weather, and sports. Network shows such as the NBC Nightly News or the BBC News at Ten follow similar logic but with longer packages and fewer breaks.

For political researchers and MUN delegates, the rundown is the artifact that reveals editorial judgment: what led, how long it ran, who was sourced, and what was cut. Scholars studying agenda-setting (McCombs and Shaw, 1972) often reconstruct rundowns to measure story salience. Leaked or archived rundowns — for example those reviewed during the 2004 Rathergate inquiry at CBS — can also document how a network handled a contested story in real time.