MIA: Something very few people know about being on TV.

By MIA FREEDMAN

Last week, I took my 7yo daughter with me when I went to do my regular segment on The Today Show. She was excited to see what goes on behind the scenes and I was excited to see her excited.

First, we met Luke Mangan on our way in, prepping food for his upcoming segment.

The significance of that was a little lost on her but walking through an empty studio on our way to hair and make-up, we saw the National Nine News set and I popped her up behind the desk for a quick photo.

Then she watched the talented hair and make-up professionals transform Mummy into something suitable for television, before we went into the Today studio and walked over to the sound table to have my microphone put on.

Having done TV appearances for a decade, I barely notice any of it, even the weird stuff. Especially the weird stuff. Like the fact that, as my daughter watched on, wide-eyed, a strange man stuck his hand down the back of Mummy’s dress to clip a radio mike to my bra-strap.

And then, after the segment was over, a different stranger had to reach down to take the microphone off. Again, I barely noticed.

It suddenly occurred to me that such a display may prompt questions. Questions like “Why does that strange man have his hand down Mummy’s dress?”

To which all I could think to answer (in my head, she never actually did ask it) was: “The important thing is that Mummy CONSENTED.”

As a magazine editor friend of mine noted: “There’s always that point you reach doing TV when you literally can’t remember how many soundmen have seen your arse and you don’t even care anyway.”

That’s a few more dollars in the therapy jar right there…

Had I been wearing pants that day, my daughter would have seen the sound guy doing this (taken this week):

And the view he would have had would have been this:

Such a dilemma for the poor sound guy: does he attach the mike to my flimsy harem pants or to the more sturdy fabric of my high-waisted fat-sucking undies? Hmmmmm.

I can’t begin to tell you how often this has happened to me and I never remember when I’m getting dressed to go on TV. The basic rule is that you need something for the radio mike pack to clip onto – it’s about the size of a phone but twice as heavy so it pulls stuff down.

Then the mike itself needs to be threaded through your clothes.

Dresses are hopeless because there’s nothing for the pack to clip onto. That’s when bras come into play.

Every sound guy (and one or two girls) I’ve ever worked with has been lovely, respectful and discreet – but you’re almost always in a hurry and that’s how you can end up with your dress up or someone ferreting around the back of your underwear.

Maybe it’s the sound guys who need the therapy……

Flick through the gallery of Mia appearing on the Today show:

If you had to go on TV right now, what would the sound guy see?