The Megyn Kelly Show is a Masterclass — If You’re Paying Attention
What you can learn from her Jake Tapper Interview. Plus YouTube's new podcast chart and how I plan to use it to help you!
**Put politics aside for this issue of the SOTVO newsletter! I am looking at one episode from The Megyn Kelly Show**
In March YouTube began it’s own top podcast list. The shows making the top 50 are not only podcasts on the RSS feed but also video first shows on YouTube.
What do I mean by video first?
They put video of the front burner not the back burner.
These shows craft content with both audio and video in mind.
This is the space I have been exploring and working in since leaving my producer role at CNN in 2022.
If you are about to launch a podcast, consider YouTube and its algorithm’s demands before you hit publish. In 2023, I discussed how to incorporate video in an interview with Streamyard.
Each week, I plan to go through this YouTube chart to find shows I haven’t binged before to help you level-up before you hit publish.
Will I be reviewing? Kinda!
As a television producer and new media strategist I am uniquely positioned to provide a critique you can leverage to benefit your own content creation journey.
This week we are starting with The Megyn Kelly Show.
I did NOT select this show at random.
I wanted to watch The Megyn Kelly Show for her conversation with
. I meant to watch it sooner but didn’t then the FULL INTERVIEW was published on YouTube and I was reminded to WATCH. I will talk about strategy, so get through this newsletter for that!Three Take Aways from The Megyn Kelly Show’s Ep.1076
#1 - Make a strong promise: This episode hits the mark with a long detailed open script kicking off the interview with Jake Tapper and
. Megyn Kelly explains why they are joining the show and promising to deliver the audience information they crave: answers.Off the top she says, “Today a deep dive into the decline of President Biden’s cognitive health while in office, including never before heard stories very close to the president and a true reckoning of the media’s role in the democrat party’s attempted cover-up.”
This is a PROMISE, also known as a hook or tease. Offer a promise at the top of your show to give your audience a reason to stick around and SUBSCRIBE. You want your audience to know what they can expect from the episode and YOU.
Here is a link to Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s book, “Original Sin.” »To buy, use my link, which supports my mission to help you think like a producer. «
#2 - Exclusivity sells: Tapper and Thompson joined the show for their first long-form interview, which the show rightly pointed out. I highly suggest finding a way to make your conversation stand out from others and make your show sound exclusive.
#3 - Television production still applies: As a television producer I appreciate a solid open to a show with facts, sound, and reporting. The highly produced package reviewing the timeline of events was high-end and hard for a cable news team to put together, let alone an independent network. (I would love to know how they source content with these details and visuals. I will talk more about this)
To create an open like this first think like a producer. Lay out who, what, where, when, why, and how. Script out the details you would want to know about the guest, topic or book you are discussing. Pull clips, facts and news to support the points needed to tell the story ahead of your guest.
As a podcaster, revamping my show, I stopped crafting long opens because of time, however, after watching The Megyn Kelly show, which also airs on the radio, I plan to produce up my open scripts again. So if you decide to take this approach write out the open script and record it AFTER the interview is recorded. I’ve tried to do it ahead of time but then I wound up adjusting it afterwards, so simply plan a rough draft but don’t record the intro until after your interview.
Think Like a Producer: Content Strategy
This is the clip to the FULL INTERVIEW which has, as I write this more than 200K views and runs more than 60 minutes long.
They published the FULL Interview as a BONUS after the initial chat climbed to 500k+ views. I am not sure if this was a different cut or if it simply did not have the huge lead script. Either way this was a smart strategy. Reposting content is something content creators do on Instagram, so I loved seeing this down on YouTube.
Additionally the team broke out clips from the long interview running 7-10 minutes in length.
I highly recommend cutting clips of this size after the long-form exists on YouTube either as a video or as a podcast, audio version. I do not suggest clips before the long-form runs course.
Clips provide your content with LEGS.
If at first the long-form conversation did not succeed you can pull out trending and topical aspects of your conversation that might resonate with a more specific thumbnail or tile if also posting as a podcast bonus clip.
From what I can see, The Megyn Kelly Show created 7 forms of long-form content from the initial interview and then created conversations with other guests weighing in on the Jake Tapper Interview.
This stacking is a great way to build interest in your content and channel.
So before you hit publish game out how you plan to repurpose the interview and the amount of work it will take to do it well.
Creating Long-Form Content Requires…
Strategy
Passion
A TEAM!
While watching this episode of The Megyn Kelly Show I found myself continuing to watch content on her channel, landing on this episode which was a combination of Megyn’s appearances on her network’s programs. (We will talk Networks on another issue)
I really enjoyed her conversation with
As a producer I appreciated his line of questioning and the points he raised about being a strong interviewer.
Mark mentioned how in order to deliver a strong interview you not only need questions but a strategy. This is something I discuss in depth but never write about! Check out his interview with Megyn Kelly.
In addition to discussing how she produced the conversation with Jake Tapper he also asked personal questions.
Her response to why she started her YouTube show may resonate with YOU!
Mark asks her what her big break was since leaving NBC. Megyn explains what moved her to become on camera ready with her own show.
Rough quote: “If they didn’t have the madness of the George Floyd Mania in 2020, I might still be sitting on the couch. It was the sanity that the country came under that got me up and off my couch and willing to broadcast in my children’s playroom with no video camera and two listeners. So in a way that was a break for me. That the news cycle came in and just touched on all these things that are really important to me like fairness and justice and due process and facts about cops that were being misrepresented left and right that I got off that couch and started what turned out to be a good show.”
Before you produce a show make sure you have the drive to push through the beginning. Creating long-form content as an independent creator can be grueling, time consuming and thankless. You could hustle for months or years without pay. Not everyone is as successful as The Megyn Kelly Show, but you can learn a lot from the shows hitting the charts, so take time to binge before you create. Don’t have time for that? SUBSCRIBE to this SUBSTACK as I make my way through content online and share what I find useful.
Production Services
If you need a team to oversee your long-form project or social media, reach out to (ON CAM) Ready.
I am available to consult as your personal executive producer.
Great content and review. A lot to unpack with the production side of Megyn Kelly and her interviews. Thanks for sharing your producer perspective.