It’s a bit hard to tell for absolute certain but I reckon it was a stunt organised by Sydney radio station 104.9 Triple M (including the guy wearing some form of branded t-shirt), who’s “Grill Team” breakfast program just so happens to be currently running a “No BS Grand Final Lunch” competition!
Also while I’m here, some use of the left hand side videowall for a brief segment on the NSW Government’s container deposit scheme:
I don’t think it is too much of a problem with Hot Seat. From what I’ve seen it seems to take a fair amount of time to get someone to answer a question and the warning cover up is only there for 5 seconds or so.
Possibly the best option I’ve seen is where some US stations squash the program into the top of the picture to fit the news alert.
Although I certainly don’t mind seeing quirky report PTCs from usually straight-faced reporters, this one from Peter Stefanovic is arguably a bit too casual looking…
Also, it’s probably a good idea not to have reporters doing a live cross and a pre-recorded “look live” during the same bulletin whenever possible. This was from Jayne Azzopardi before the first ad break:
Which of course, means the in-studio piece explaining to viewers that the time change for Daylight Saving happens on the first Sunday in October (which due to that calendar quirk which means this year it’s not happening over the Labor Day/NRL Grand Final weekend for the first time since 2012 and thankfully, also the last until 2029) was pre-recorded earlier in the day:
