What a Rundown Really Is, and Why Every Cue Sheet Needs One

Ask three people in a gallery what the rundown is and you may get three answers. One means the list of stories, another the minute-by-minute timing, a third the script. In plain terms, a rundown is the running order of a live programme: every item in sequence, with its planned length, who is on camera and where the picture and sound come from.

I come to this from the audio side, so I read a rundown differently from a director. I look for where microphones open and close, where a guest joins, where a package plays with its own sound. But the document is the same for everyone, and that is the point. It is the single page the whole crew agrees to follow.

When we plan live show workflow for a team, the first job is often just settling what the word means in that building, so nobody is working from a private version.

A useful rundown is short on prose and long on facts. Each line is one item: a number, a slug or short name, the planned duration, and a running total so the producer can see at a glance whether the programme is ahead or behind.

Beside that sit the practical columns. Who is presenting, which camera or source opens the item, which graphics are needed, and what sound is expected: studio microphones, a remote guest, or a recorded clip. The aim is that a person who has only just sat down at a position can see what is about to happen to them.

Anything that does not help someone do their job in the next few minutes belongs elsewhere. A rundown crowded with background notes gets ignored under pressure, and an ignored rundown is no better than none.

• Item number and short slug
• Planned length and running total
• Presenter and opening camera
• Sound sources and graphics needed
• Back-time for the end of the programme

The rundown tells you what happens and in what order. The cue sheet tells you exactly when to act. A cue sheet picks out the moments that need a trigger: roll the clip, bring up the guest microphone, cut to camera two, drop the lower third.

Think of the rundown as the map and the cue sheet as the turn-by-turn directions. Both are needed, but they are read at different speeds. The rundown is glanced at to keep the shape of the programme in mind. The cue sheet is followed closely at the moment of action.

Mixing them into one crowded page is a common habit in small teams, and it works until the first unexpected change. Keeping them apart means a late swap of two items alters the rundown order without forcing everyone to relearn their cues.

Back-timing means working from the fixed end of the programme towards the start. If the show must finish at a set moment, every item has a time by which it must begin for the whole thing to land. Those times are written on the rundown and checked as the programme runs.

The practical effect is that a producer never has to do sums in the middle of a live broadcast. If the running total is thirty seconds over at the halfway point, the gap is visible, and a decision can be made early: trim an interview, shorten a link, drop an optional item.

Optional items deserve a mention. A well-planned rundown carries one or two that can be cut or stretched without anyone panicking, marked clearly so the gallery knows which items are the elastic ones.

A rundown on paper does nothing until it is spoken. Talkback, the intercom between the gallery and the studio floor, is how the order becomes real. The language used there should be as agreed as the document itself.

Short, repeated phrases work best: a standby call before each item, a clear go, and a consistent way of naming cameras and sources. When everyone uses the same words, nobody has to guess whether a call was meant for them.

From my work on speech clarity, I would add one thing. Talkback is heard in earpieces, often in a noisy room. Keep calls brief, say names before instructions, and leave a beat of silence after a standby so the next word is heard cleanly.

• Standby before every item
• Name the camera or source first
• One voice calling the cues at a time

A rundown is a draft until it has been run through. In rehearsal, items overrun, transitions take longer than expected, and a graphic arrives a few seconds late. Each of these should be noted and the planned durations changed to match reality.

The aim of a rehearsal is not a perfect run but a truthful document. If an item always takes ninety seconds in practice, writing sixty on the page only moves the problem to the live broadcast.

Afterwards, keep the version that was actually used. Next time the team has a starting point built on real timings rather than hopeful ones, and new crew members can see how the programme usually unfolds.