When Alex Honnold free-climbed Taiwan’s Taipei 101 Skyscraper for Netflix’s Skyscraper Live, the heads behind the scenes had to prepare for a grizzly circumstance.
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What happened if he fell?
Almost morbidly, the team didn’t really have a plan in place for the climber. If he fell, then he’d be in a lot of trouble. But they could at least shield our eyes at home in case he lost his footing.
Skyscraper Live host Elle Duncan spoke to Page Six about what they’d do if Alex Honnold fell. Firstly, they made sure the weather conditions were as perfect as possible for the climber. “We actually employ meteorologists who can really look at the charts and really tell us the weather patterns,” she explained.
But when the weather conditions were perfect, it was all down to Honnold.
Netflix Had A Plan In Case Alex Honnold Fell During ‘Skyscraper Live’
Netflix broadcast the event with a 10-second delay, in case they had to terminate the broadcast at any point.
Jeff Gaspin, VP of unscripted series, told the outlet, “What are we going to show? What are we going to say?”
“We just made the very simple decision that if, God forbid, something happened, we would just cut away within that 10-second timeframe, to either a wide shot of the building … or we could have cut to the desk where [Elle Duncan] would have said something like, ‘Something’s gone wrong. We’re going to end our broadcast for now. Please pray for Alex.’ Nothing more than that – then it becomes a news story.”
Elle Duncan had that statement written on a card, which served as a “reminder of the stakes.”
“We all had a lot of confidence in Alex,” Duncan said. “But what if there was an earthquake? What if a storm came in? There were just a lot of intangibles and extenuating circumstances outside of his control that led to this idea that this man’s life is actually at stake in front of everyone.”
“And certainly you wonder, if it was to happen and you have to sort of be the face of it, how do you handle it with the delicacy that’s required, with the tone that’s required?”