Part of television’s appeal is its sheer possibility. Channel-flip for just five minutes and everything from talk shows to soap operas, sports games to sitcoms flicker across the screen. TV Productions class has tackled an impressive range of those genres, from the infamous news comedy of “Perry Primetime” to a more recent foray into sports live streams.  

Perry broadcasting has a sports live stream in which they stream the games onto a website. Junior Joran Palacio explains the process, “The live-streams are completely separate from Primetime and PNL”.

The convenience of live-streaming is enjoyed by Serrano: “I like the live broadcasts. I think they are very well-done.” The sports broadcasting team is very advanced at Perry. Many people watch the live-streams and enjoy the commentary, usually done by Palacio.

Bernier is very pleased with this group of students. “They’re just willing to listen and learn how to do it right. They know how to take criticism and they have taken a ton of initiative to make it better”.

Generally, the advanced class divides up and Bernier assigns work. The live-stream team however, usually is working on other projects. “The sports guys have always got stuff going on” Bernier says, “I like that it’s free-form and I let the students create what they want to”.

Perry broadcasting has evolved through many phases. When the school opened in 2007, the idea was that the class would run a news show called “Perry Primetime” focused on events happening on campus and in the community. The show followed that format for nearly six years. In 2013, “Perry Primetime” changed the format to a short segmented comedy – it was a news parody that was a hit with most students on campus because the show did not take itself seriously, they had fun.

However, the “Perry Primetime” crew pushed the envelope and were briefly discontinued for “on-air inappropriate behavior,” according to a 2013 Precedent article. This would impact all future TV productions students.

“The ‘Primetime’ guys kind of screwed it up for everyone else,” Bernier said. “It went from doing serious stuff to not really doing any serious stuff.”

Following the “Primetime” era, the class began “Puma Nation Live” (PNL) last fall. “PNL” was also run by students in the broadcasting class but never took off quite as much with the students.

Around the same time period, “Perry Podcast” took off. The show followed a similar format as “Perry Primetime”, a comedy. The show created about three episodes before following suit and disappearing.

The live-stream team is always busy with games, matches and meets; their main focus is making the sport broadcasts interesting and professional. The live streams can be found on CUSD Live – AZSports360.