Updated: 09/28/2009 7:16 AM KSTP.com | Print |  Email
By: Vineeta Sawkar

SAWKAR: The People Behind The Emmy

For 4 straight years, 5 Eyewitness News has won an Emmy for the Best Daytime Newscast. This year we won for our coverage of the one year anniversary of the 35W bridge collapse. While you saw me field anchoring at the scene of the new bridge, there were so many more important people behind the scenes who truly earned this Emmy. In the center of the picture is the woman who was the center of all the planning. Executive Producer Katie Hamner lead the way when it came to preparing for the big newscast. It's not easy to send one anchor to field anchor on location but she had it perfectly arranged and put together many elements of our coverage ahead of time to make it look smooth. Our wonderful show producer Amanda Theisen was calm and steady as we interviewed Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Mayor R.T. Rybak live on the scene. My field producer Brandon Benavides was stellar on location as we moved around and tried to give viewers the best angles as the sun came up.

There were many other people like my floor director Trish Juers, photographer Jeff Ganahl, reporter Susanna Song and live technician Chris Knoll who rounded out our coverage that morning. Not to mention the crew back at the station who made everything run so smoothly.

Anchors are only as good as their crew behind the scenes. I am blessed to work with some amazing people who go out of their way to make sure I look good. Cheers and kudos to them for making another Emmy possible. They truly are the best and I am lucky to work with them.