For news anchor Todd Kunz, the show must go on. Despite the efforts of one spider's ill-timed cameo, the KIDK local news anchor barely bats an eyelash, continuing on with his monologue about the redevelopment at a Wyoming landfill.
As Kunz stares into the camera, a large grey spider can be clearly seen dropping down from the ceiling, past Kunz's lapel mike and then presumably continuing down to the floor.
Although it appears from the video that the spider was climbing down the newsman's navy blue blazer, Kunz wrote on a blog post about the incident that it was actually a safe distance away.
"I didn't know whether to laugh, keep going or acknowledge it," Kunz wrote. "I actually saw in dropping down during the previous story and thought to myself, 'This is not going to be good. Watch it stop right in my view.' Sure enough, it did."
Viewer watching at home in Idaho Falls, Idaho were quick to call the station, concerned for the weeknight newsman's safety. Kunz had recently returned to KDIK in August, following stints at the KVOA News 4 in Tucson, Ariz, according to the channel's website.
The only real reaction to the spider drop was from KIDK's chief meteorologist, Steve Cannon. In his forecast teaser the weatherman referenced an incoming cold front coming, "like a spider dropping from the ceiling."
Kunz's cool response is in stark contrast to the abundant examples of fellow anchors and weatherman freaking out, for lack of a better word, at the sight or even mention of the eight-legged arachnids.
In 2009, KXLY4's chief meteorologist Kris Crocker did not appreciate a spider dropping down onto her blazer during a segment. The perturbed Spokane, Wa. weatherwoman brushed the insect off and stomped on it repeatedly, telling viewers "I'm not kidding!"
But the award for the best on-air reaction by far has to go to Fox59 Morning meteorologist Jim O'Brien, who fled the green screen and threatened to leave the studio after being taunted with a tarantula by news anchor Ray Cortopassi. Cortopassi's co-anchor Angela Ganote can be heard pleading for calm in the background of the clip, posted in 2011, telling her squabbling coworkers that someone still has to do the weather.