NFL RedZone has been forced to evacuate its personnel at its California studios, as an alarm sounded off during Sunday’s coverage of games, with host Scott Hanson branding the situation as ‘unprecedented’.
The alarm went off with a little less than 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter of the Buffalo Bills-Philadelphia Eagles game.
‘Ladies and gentleman, this is a first in my 20-something-year of my broadcasting career,’ Hanson warned the channel’s audience at first. ‘We have an alarm going off in the studios of NFLRedZone right now, in our studios here in Inglewood, California.
‘We are being told we need to evacuate the building. We do not know the nature of the emergency. You can probably hear the alarm going right over the top of my right shoulder, here, as it is something absolutely unprecedented for us.
‘We have this game on, the closest game, the Philadelphia-Buffalo game. Our control room needs to evacuate at this time. The studio, in which I’m standing needs to evacuate at this time.’
Scott Hanson, NFL RedZone’s host, stood by himself in the studio while the alarm went off
‘We are all good right now, we’re remaining calm ‘ NFL RedZone’s host further said in a bid to reassure channel viewers. ‘But we are following protocols as I’m sure you all would at your places of work.
‘So to be continued, hopefully, although this game is in the fourth quarter. I will come back and give you a live update, if and when, I’m able to.’
Later on, while an automated voice was shouting ‘attention, attention,’ Hanson, 52, stood by himself in NFL RedZone’s studio, letting its audience know: ‘And we come back into the studio, right now. I’m reminded of an old Chinese proverb, which says: ”May you live to see interesting times.”
‘I never had this happen before…’ Hanson added. ‘I’m pretty sure that all of our professionals haven’t either…’
Once the emergency was dealt with, Hanson tweeted: ‘Well, that was…. interesting. Alarm has stopped. Apparently all clear. Still waiting on details.
‘Thanks for watching NFL RedZone week 12! One to remember.’
NFL Media later shared on X, formerly known as Twitter, that ‘there was a false alarm at the NFL Network studio and thankfully there was no fire.
‘No business functions, including NFL RedZone, were interrupted.’