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participants actually fell asleep eating his pizza.
    Ask Anything was born.
    Dr. Jennifer Freeman, of Macon Ob/Gyn, was our first Ask Anything interview. To follow was a researcher who studied children with autism, a former architect who built entire cities out of toothpicks, and a zoologist who was bringing in baby Bengal tigers. WSGA viewers had selected every one of them.
    We’d posted the list of top experts on our website, then encouraged people to email with questions. Ask Anything was scheduled to run Monday through Friday at 5:30 during our first full week of sweeps.
    Before his vacation, I’d pressed Drew to go live with the interviews, but he overruled me with the possibility that the “experts” might be a little nervous. “Let’s see how it goes,” he cautioned. “You never know with live TV.”
    Being the token on-air alpha female, Alyssa was assigned to Dr. Freeman. Tim could handle the others. The two had chatted amicably when introduced, and I hoped the interview would come off more like a conversation. We’d put them on the noon set, which resembled a living room with cushy chairs, a thick area rug, and a small table between them.
    I checked my watch. We were ready to get started.
     

Chapter 9
     
    Joe swiveled in his chair, bouncing one knee up and down, while Drew shifted from side to side behind me. They were like teenagers at their first prom, gangly and awkward.
    “Would you two quit it? You’re making me nervous, Drew, and I’m not the one in front of the camera,” I chided, taking a small bite of a stale Honey-Bun. “No more vacations for you, if you’re going to come back more keyed up than you left.”
    Drew eyeballed me. “Well, ‘Mother Hen,’ I hear you’re adding babysitting anchors to your list of duties here at WSGA.”
    “Ha. Ha. You know I was just trying to help—” I covered up half my face with my notebook, and shot an inquisitive look at Joe. He shrugged.
    “Didn’t hear it from him.” Drew cut in. “Alyssa was whining about it in the break room. So, no more champagne for Tim after-hours at the station.” He smirked. “Unless we’ve got a web-cam going and I get to supervise.”
    The two fist-bumped and smirked like teenagers at a high school football game.
      “Gosh, great, Drew. That sounds fabulous,” I crinkled up the Honey-Bun wrapper and tossed it at him.
      He dodged it and laughed. Still smiling, Drew leaned in to the mic and nodded at Joe. “Alyssa, you two ready to go?”
    On set, Alyssa surveyed Dr. Freeman, who nodded. “We are.”
    The plan was for Alyssa to take the questions I’d selected from viewers and delicately rephrase them so as not to offend or reveal identities. She had a stack to choose from. Alyssa did better sticking to a script, and didn’t ad-lib often, but Drew wanted to give this a shot.
    “Let’s get ’er done,” Drew pretended to chomp on an imaginary cigar.
    Alyssa straightened and gave a final glance to the mirror she kept Velcroed under her seat. She checked her toothpaste-white smile one last time, twisted both earrings, and pursed her plumped-up lips. If Dr. Freeman noticed, she was too polite to give any indication that Alyssa was overly self-absorbed. I gave a fleeting thought to inviting a psychiatrist on the show, but the urge to analyze Alyssa’s childhood might be too overwhelming. Or bizarre.
    As scripted, Alyssa introduced the concept of the show and ran through the ground rules.
    We were ready.
    “Dr. Jennifer Freeman, welcome,” Alyssa said and glanced at her notes. “It’s great to have you here with us today. Our viewers have sent in lots of questions!”
    “I’m glad to be here,” Dr. Freeman smiled.
    “We’re focusing today, of course, on women’s issues. Many of our WSGA viewers have asked about the importance of yearly mammograms. What’s the current recommendation?” Alyssa asked.
    “It depends greatly on a number of factors, including a woman’s age and family history of breast