Something unprecedented happened during Sunday’s broadcast of NFL RedZone, and it had nothing to do with any of the games going on.
Rather, just before 7:15 p.m. ET, the broadcast’s host, Scott Hanson, announced that an alarm was going off inside of the NFL Studios in Inglewood, California, and that the crew — including Hanson — had been told that it would need to evacuate.
“Ladies and gentlemen, this is a first in my 20-something-year broadcasting career,” Hanson said. “We have an alarm going off in the studios of NFL RedZone right now, in our studios here in Inglewood, California. We are being told we need to evacuate the building. We don’t know the nature of the emergency. You can probably hear the alarm going off. The alarm going right over the top of my right shoulder here, as it is something that is absolutely unprecedented for us.”
REDZONE EVACUATE!! pic.twitter.com/zV3JIp4CYS
— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) November 27, 2023
With two games still going on in the NFL’s 4 p.m. window, the RedZone broadcast then cut to CBS’ broadcast of the matchup between the Philadelphia Eagles and Buffalo Bills. Minutes later, Hanson returned and informed viewers that he had been given the OK to remain in the studios, which resulted in him continuing to narrate the RedZone broadcast despite the alarm still going on.
“As we come back into the studio right now, I am reminded of an old Chinese proverb, which says: ‘may you live to see interesting times,'” Hanson said as he returned to the RedZone airwaves. “I’ve never had this happen before. I’m sure all of our professionals haven’t either, but we soldier on with the top five plays of the day.
— sportsvids99 (@sportsvids991) November 27, 2023
No word yet on the cause of the alarm, but props to Hanson for remaining calm and collected on live television despite the uncertain nature of the situation.
