Our Big Moment

The Video Music Awards Opening Act — MTV News’ Big Moment — starts in 26 minutes. In an hour and ten minutes, they’re going to throw to a poll we’re running on the fly. After that, I’ll start breathing.

Our in time was 3 p.m. So I slept in ’til 9:30, then rolled around in bed worrying about tonight’s details, and imagining all the things I’ll do on vacation in Nantucket next week. Then I went for a run through Central Park and over to the Hudson. It’s a beautiful day in New York, clear and cool, which bodes well for running, and putting on an awards show.

Now I’m sitting tight, hoping the network stays up (we have three remote producers for redundancy), hoping the pizza comes soon (my stomach is full of butterflies), and hoping everything goes as planned.

If it does, we’ll be producing two days worth of content in six hours, and we’ll be on the receiving end of a week’s worth of traffic in one night. Then, somewhere around 3 a.m., the News Online team will retire to our favorite watering hole on 46th Street, and get our drink on. Stay tuned!