As anyone who watches Sunday morning political chat shows knows, the key feature they all share is their roundtable discussions, packed to the brim with news-makers and news-shakers and people who pithily comment on both. All of the shows have got them, but there is only one Sunday morning show whose roundtable is a "Powerhouse Roundtable" -- ABC News' "This Week With George Stephanopoulos." The thing is, though, you can't just say you've got a "Powerhouse Roundtable" and expect people just to accept it as a fact. No, no, you've got to go out and create the indelible impression that your roundtable is a House of Power.
And on this score, "This Week" has lately opted to create that impression by injecting some real dynamism into their broadcast. Where other, lesser shows might simply state at the outset of the show that they will have guests around the roundtable that day, "This Week" opts for flash and action. At the beginning of their broadcast, they don't just introduce their guests, they show them steaming and stomping through the Newseum. They turn corners, walk down hallways and stairs, emerge through doors and elevators, and otherwise whoosh through the space like a clip from "The Newsroom" with the sound turned off. Even those not caught by the cameras in the act of pundit perambulations are still hard at work. They are in intelligent discussions, or caught studying the news of the day by the invasive cameras -- prompting that classic "Oh, I didn't see you there" look when they glance up from their newspapers.
And it is not weird or artificial looking at all! Truly, there is no doubt that the "This Week" panels are the true and worthy claimants to the title "Powerhouse." So, in tribute to all of them, we have prepared a celebratory mastercut to document the esprit and élan of those who come to "This Week" on Sunday. But at the end, we raise more questions than we answer! Specifically, who is the one guy who doesn't seem ever to show up for these Powerhouse pow-wows? The answer may surprise you, unless it doesn't.
[Video produced by Hunter Stuart]
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