Recently in The Intern Diaries Category

Z-Day

It was a blustery Chicago morning.  As we rolled into work half awake and caffeine dependent, something was different.  It was finally here: Z-Day.  The day when the greatest guest of all summer was set to arrive.  Troy Bolton--sorry, Zac Efron--was coming to the studio and it would never be the same.

Because Zac has taken the title of ultimate teenage heartthrob, we were greeted by extra security as we tried to make our way around the station.  His publicists had us on lockdown.  No autographs, no pictures, and DEFINITELY no web cam.  We were no better off inside WGN's doors than the screaming, adoring tweens across the road.  Turns out, we were worse off.

We tried to think of ways to look busy.  Dean saved Liane by giving her the job of transcribing aka sitting in the studio a few feet away from the legendary Troy Bolton and jotting down his infamous answers in his interview with Dean. Margo, Megan, and Katie tried to sneak into the studio, but they were promptly ordered to leave by Zac Efron's publicist.  Even the midday interns came in early to catch a glimpse of their High School Musical hero.  In the end, we were no better off than the viewers at home.  We were even worse off than the tweens outside, who were graced by Zac's presence in an impromptu visit on his way out of the studio.

Still, the day was not a total loss.  It was exciting to see the station host a star with that magnitude.  Anyone who can get tweens out of bed and into our parking lot at five in the morning is certainly something.  Z-Day was magical just like any Disney moment should be, and it was one of the most exciting and best days of our internship.

Hey everyone,

It's been a pretty slow day today.  Dean's off globe trotting in south of Spain for press junkets on Knight and Day, so I haven't had a huge list of things to do.  It's been mostly sitting with editors and working on his Toy Story interviews.  Sad news though.  The Backstreet Boys were planning on coming this week but they had to cancel because of a scheduling conflict.  I don't know about everyone else, but I'm disappointed.  They were definitely a front runner for my favorite boy band in the 90s.

Recently we've had a lot of cool guests in here.  I got to meet Alex from Real Housewives of New York City and Pam Grier, who was in a lot of 80s movies like Coffy, and more recently in Jackie Brown, the show Smallville, and Just Wright.  It's always weird to see celebrities in person.  They really are normal people.  I'll make sure to post more celebrity citings!

Liane

Hi everybody! I'm Margo, a general Morning Show intern. It's my fourth week here at WGN. So, not only are our old (and wise) interns gone, but we still have some new ones coming in. Today I met Whitney. She is going to be a general Morning Show intern as well. Matt and I have tried to show her a thing or two, but it hasn't really been that busy today. It sounds like a pretty exciting week though. Everybody is really excited about the Blackhawks victory last night!! We're trying to have a little pep rally for tomorrow's show (Let's hope for dry weather). Also, Alex and Simon from the Real Houswives of NYC are supposed to be in studio this Friday. Well, I know this is a fairly short entry, but Matt is too busy on Twitter to add any opinions. Have a great week!

Hi everyone!  Looks like it's my turn to take over the blog, so here we go. 

Today is Tania and Allison's last day.  It's so sad to see them go.  Not only will they not be around to answer all my random questions, but it's been so fun to work with them.  They've been a huge help to me and I'll defintiely miss them.

It's crazy that I've already been here for three weeks.  The days have flown by and I've already learned a ton.  I've also met some amazing people.  Today Nelson and Willie Garson were on set.  Nelson had a great performance and Willie was hysterical.  He's Stanford from Sex and the City, so it was really cool to see him in person. 

Now I have to get back to downloading trailers.  Dean has a big summer movie preview coming up, so this whole week has been about downloading summer trailers and pulling sound bytes.  Check it out on Monday!

That's it for now.  Time to wish Tania and Allison goodbye :( but hopefully I will be able to keep you all just as entertained!

Hello there,

Today is mine (Allison) and Tania's last day interning here at WGN. It's been so much fun and saying our goodbyes is really hard. Tania was crying the second she walked in the building! lol Everyone here has been so amazing and has taught us so much. We both worked really hard and at times we became frustrated because this is no walk-in-the-park. But we've made it to the end and now it's hard to leave. I've grown up watching the WGN morning show and now Tania and I are a part of it's history. We've seen lots of cool guests and segments and we've made memories and friendships to last a lifetime.

The new interns are awesome and I know they'll do an amazing job. I can't wait to see what being an Intern is like through their eyes. Thank you for going through this journey with us and hopefully you will see us as we grow in our careers. Have a great summer Chicago!

Allison Rodriguez & Tania Kostova

Hello there!

I haven't written in a while and I'm sorry about that. I had finals for school so I was studying hard ; ) We've been training all the new interns for WGN these past couple weeks so you will get to meet them through here. They are all so cool so I know you'll like them. Today is very exciting. On the show we had a person tell us what our sleeping position says about our personality. It was so interesting and funny to see Pat and the other guys demonstrate the different positions. Then we had two of the stars from the CW show Vampire Diaries come on to give Dean some scoop on what we can expect from the show and some new shows coming to the CW. We had Robin Givens on too! She is so pretty and talented so it was nice that she would wake up so early to be here with us. But the biggest buzz in the newsroom (at least from the guys) was Victoria's Secret model and Orlando Bloom's main squeeze, Miranda Kerr. She brought some models to show off some items from VS. And believe me, all the guys flocked to the studio to see that! lol Well that's a little bit about today. If you missed any of it, just watch it on wgntv.com. Next week is my last week : ( And we'll start to introduce the new interns who will start to blog.

Allison Rodriguez 

Hey everyone!

Michelle here...Tuesday was my first week without the lovely Morgan here with me L  On the positive side, we have some new interns!  Soon you guys will here about all the experiences of the summer interns and what they get to do!

Tuesday, I trained Matt and Margo.  They're the new "general" morning interns, the job Tania and I have been splitting since January.  Those lucky kids-they have each other to lean on.  Their days overlap, so they've been learning from Tania and me.  Tuesday, they learned the ropes on what the interns do here.

Then after they left...I had to log.  As Morgan has mentioned, logging is a necessary evil.  You're transcribing word-for-word what someone says.  It takes a while, but it helps so much when it's time to write scripts for the news stories.

Right now, I'm working with Larry Potash on a story...that's why I was logging.  It's about a German Jewish man who came to the United States, and was drafted to the US army during World War II..  It's going to air around Memorial Day-keep an eye out for it!

Now weather...anyone else tired of this rain?  Here's to hoping the commute is better for us all next week!

-Michelle

Hey all!

::Cue Vitamin C:: Today is my last day interning at WGN :(

I'm so glad I got the opportunity to spend my last semester here.  Everyone was so helpful and I learned so much...let's just hope all this information can help me get a job!

Yesterday we had Vincent and the director from the new documetary "Vincent, A Life in Color" on the show.  It was so cool to hear about his story and learn about the man we all see downtown in those brightly colored suits!

In bigger news, thanks to Paul, Larry and Robin re-commited themselves to each other!  So now we can all breath a sigh of relief that the two will anchor together for a long time...or until a youger/hotter male anchor comes along for Robin.  The thing I love the most about the morning show is that everyone has a sense of humor!

E! premiered Mily Cyrus' new video "Can't Be Tamed" last night and if you ask me she's following very closely in the footsteps of Britney Spears...Slave for You/My Perogative anyone?  I wouldn't be surprised if you got their even faster, I mean at least Britney was in her twenties!

So I hope you've learned a little bit about what the morning show is like for the interns from our blogs.  If you've been an intern you kind of know what we go through but if not, hopefully we've given you a good perspective.  Keep reading to see how the other interns finish up their semesters and to meet the new summer interns! I know they'll never be a group like Spring 2010, but give them a break...they've got big shoes to fill :)

Thanks for reading all of my nonsense, and have a fantastic summer!