It’s 11:20 p.m. on a Thursday in September, and Dak Prescott takes a knee, his work done for the night. With 22 completions from 27 attempts, 221 yards, and two touchdowns, he has led his Dallas Cowboys to a 20-15 win over the New York Giants and more than earned a rest before next week’s matchup.
But for Le An Soto, sitting in a monitor-packed production trailer some 100 yards from the field, the final act is just beginning. As global head of production operations, she quarterbacks the inner workings of Amazon Prime’s Thursday Night Football (TNF) program: the pre-game, halftime, and post-game shows, and of course the on-field action itself. Right now, she’s keeping track of the post-game coverage, listening in on the director and producer of the post-game show that’s about to kick off.
As global head of production operations, Le An Soto is charged with keeping the TNF broadcast moving down the field.Like any good QB, Soto is running her game plan while constantly scanning her surroundings for potential problems, and preparing potential solutions. And like any good QB, she must stay calm under pressure.
Because week in and week out, Prime brings the resources, effort, and production quality to TNF that most networks reserve for playoff games. Pulling out a win requires the monitoring and maneuvering up to 300 crew members, over 50 cameras, a team of on-air talent working from a collapsible set that is fully built and operationalized in six to eight minutes, and myriad more moving parts—any one of which may require special attention at any moment. Whether it’s a logistical issue, a technical challenge, or a hungry host, it’s Soto’s job to keep the TNF broadcast moving down the field.
Soto has been in the sports production business since college, with a résumé that includes stints at Fox Sports, ESPN, and Tennis Channel.“Anytime big things happen, they come to our truck,” she says.
Here’s how she and her crew run Prime’s big game day, every Thursday night.
The game plan
The TNF crew’s day starts Thursday morning around 11 a.m. eastern, a good eight hours before the pre-game broadcast hits the air. The first order of business is the on-site crew meeting, where everyone’s brought together to review the plan of action for the day. This is no small affair. To work alongside the 175 weekly TNF crew members who travel from game to game, Soto’s team works closely with production partners to hire another 50 to 75 vendors and locals to operate cameras and audio, serve as runners and production assistants, help on the technical side, and more. “It’s a playoff-caliber production size,” Soto says.
Producing a broadcast on site is a complex challenge, but creates “a different vibe and excitement,” Soto says.That description also fits Prime’s next-generation fleet of eight mobile production units, which Soto notes is “quite massive compared to your normal broadcaster.” That size can be an inconvenience—the trucks sometimes don’t all fit into the stadium’s standard TV compound and can end up in far-flung parking lots—but it includes all the elements Prime needs to deliver a best-in-class broadcast from the site of the game. One hosts the team focused on the game broadcast itself, another is for the pre-, halftime and post-game coverage. The other mobile units consist of audio, video and engineering equipment and servers, have areas dedicated to providing replays from Prime’s cameras, broadcast booth equipment and edits, and a separate truck that carries the TV set that folds up for easy transport.
Soto sits with the planning and logistics folks in the production trailer, which oversees the whole shebang. “We're here to make sure that all of the areas are covered, from technical to operational to logistics,” she says. She stays in touch with various teammates by texting, calling, “and running around.”
The 11 a.m. crew meeting is the first step of many to make sure the only “big things” happening are the plays made on the field. Once everyone has the rundown for the day, the crew assumes their positions, setting up their cameras, audio equipment, and work stations and prepares to test and fax all production elements and equipment to ensure functionality for air. The production crew in the trucks starts gathering taped elements like sound bites and building b-roll packages that might be useful for the broadcast. The production managers and production coordinators look ahead to the pre-game show, arranging the props needed for the sorts of stunts the hosts have a taste for, whether it’s a round of Quiz Bowl or a go-kart race outside the stadium. The on-air talent—Charissa Thompson, Richard Sherman, Tony Gonzalez, Ryan Fitzpatrick and Andrew Whitworth—have rehearsals before going on air, a basic run of show in which they go over their topics of discussions.
The 'TNF' broadcast team works from a collapsible set that can be put together in six to eight minutes.It helps that they’re not starting any given Thursday from scratch. The trucks typically park and power Monday, which allows for technical set-up, so come game day the crew doesn’t have to worry about getting the power turned on or the fiber optic cables in place, and can focus on tasks like running audio checks and linking up cameras. Crew members frequently hang out at the stadium on Wednesday night, to get a sense of how the setting sun will affect their lighting needs.
Veteran approach
Experience helps, too. “We travel a group of veterans,” Soto says. People who know how to plan and run complex events, security experts who can work with local law enforcement, transportation pros who know the best way to get Charissa & Co. from a hotel in downtown Boston to the Patriots’ Gillette Stadium no matter the traffic. “We make sure that when we go into a city, we have the right team.”
Soto runs a crew with as many as 300 members, a mix of traveling employees and local hires.Soto is herself a veteran, naturally. She’s been in the sports TV business since graduating from college, abandoning her goal to become an entertainment lawyer after she got to watch the taping of a studio show while interning at Fox Sports during her senior year at UCLA. Diploma in hand, she started working her way up, spending time as a runner, production assistant cutting tape, editing, working as an associate producer on the sidelines, and after a few years landing at ESPN, then at Tennis Channel. With each role, she took on new challenges and responsibilities, and that drive brought her to Amazon in 2020, to help make Prime a sports destination.
“What excited me about Amazon was building,” she says. “Streaming was coming up and I wanted to be a part of that change. And you rarely get an opportunity to launch sports properties, especially at new networks, ever.”
And now, sitting in her tan leather swivel chair, watching a bank of monitors, she’s ready for whatever tumult the combination of sports and live TV throws her way.
Recovering fumbles
And yes, tumult inevitably accompanies a production that’s not just live, but on site. Running a traveling studio adds complexity, but also the charisma that makes TNF worth watching, no matter who’s playing. “It’s a different vibe and excitement,” Soto says. “You can see the chemistry with the talent and the team.”
And as TNF, now in its third season, looks ahead to marquee games like the second annual “Black Friday” matchup and its first playoff game later this year, Soto’s job is to keep things moving.
“I'm sitting in the truck listening to the producers and directors talking to talent, watching the game coverage,” she says. And while she makes sure she gets outside throughout the day, checking in on other trucks and teams, she's most effective inside her trailer, managing and watching her team do its thing.
Prime brings the resources, effort, and production quality to every 'TNF' broadcast that most networks reserve for playoff games.“We act as air traffic control,” she says. The player who sees the whole field, who keeps everyone safe and on the move.
Managing an issue can be tapping the technical manager who can fix the cord someone tripped over, knocking out a camera. It can be getting a last-minute credential for somebody who needs to be on the field, or updated notes to the broadcast booth after an injury.
“If you hear a director say, ‘Hey, why did that camera go black,’ we're making sure that we tap into the technical manager or engineers and someone's on it,” Soto says. “If you hear Al Michaels is hungry, we've got to make sure a runner gets him his meal.”
The end zone
As the players head for the locker rooms, the Prime broadcast switches over to the post-game show, where the crew talks through the Giants’ rough start to the season and the Cowboys’ return to .500. The banter adds lightness to the analysis. “You want to watch guys that you think are just having a conversation up there,” Tony Gonzalez says of his team’s approach. “Guys sitting around at a bar talking about football games.”
“We act as air traffic control,” Soto says. The player who sees the whole field, who keeps everyone safe and on the move.Still in her trailer, Soto knows better than anyone the difference between that impression and the work that gets it to viewers. Her team will be here as late as 3 a.m. or so, packing all their equipment back into those eight trucks. The fleet will depart right after strike and head off to their next venue—if it’s across the country, Soto will hire double-team drivers who can keep the wheels rolling 24/7. Then it’s just a matter of unpacking again before Thursday, and doing it all over again.
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