This article was written by Mark J. Burns and published on Sport & State, a new media company founded by Clay Travis that is built around sports, culture, original voices, and live conversation.
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Two decades ago, Florida State co-ed Jenn Sterger was another 20-something undergraduate student attending a college football game.
But a 10-second camera shot of Sterger, combined with a one-liner from ABC sports broadcaster Brent Musburger, sent team message boards into a frenzy as her popularity exploded across Facebook and MySpace, effectively becoming one of the Internet’s first viral sensations in college football.
“1,500 red-blooded Americans just decided to apply to Florida State,” said a giddy Musburger when the camera operator panned to Sterger, who sported a bikini top and Cowboy hat during the Seminoles’ game against the Hurricanes on Sept. 5, 2005.
20 years ago today, Brent Musburger saw Florida State’s Jenn Sterger in the FSU stands & was ready to risk it all. 😍 https://t.co/CqVdQStbJq
— College Sports Only (@CSOonX) September 5, 2025
What could be interpreted as a seemingly innocent and innocuous broadcast shot, leaving Sterger with newfound celebrity stardom, an appearance in Playboy, Sports Illustrated byline, and future job with the New York Jets, isn’t exactly that — actually, it’s precisely the exact opposite.
Production personnel, producers, and camera operators traditionally convene ahead of gametime to determine a broadcast strategy for how they want to convey the multi-hour telecast to the TV audience. Depending on the network and executives’ central broadcast philosophy, part of that conversation may be where they could incorporate fan shots, players’ families, and celebrities into the show.
“I try to direct a game as a fan, so I put myself on the couch at home,” said Pete Toma, a veteran freelance director for live sports who has worked with MLB, PGA Tour, and CBS Sports, among other sports entities.
“What would I want to see? I want to see fans enjoying the atmosphere, living and dying with every pitch, and going through the emotions because they’re passionate about the players and the outcome. … Ultimately, we are trying to entertain people at home.”
According to Toma, baseball in particular offers producers and directors the best fan shots because of the downtime between pitches, pointing to his favorite memory when he directed a 2015 San Diego Padres vs. Pittsburgh Pirates game. His crew tracked two young Bucs fans from before the first pitch until after the team’s win and their special interaction with outfielder Andrew McCutchen.
“The fans are as much of a story sometimes as what is happening with the game,” added Eric Weinberger, who once served as Executive Producer of NFL Media where he oversaw studio programming and Thursday Night Football and is the current President and Executive Producer of Bleav Podcast Network.
“College football has gotten very good at using the student body to show America a little bit of the DNA of the school, and that’s super fun.”
Main character energy
A call-out to highlight a specific fan or group of people can come from anywhere during a broadcast: the production truck, a spotter, perhaps a sideline reporter, or arguably the two most important people on the broadcast — the play-by-play caller or analyst.
“It can’t be an afterthought because what you see on TV is never really an accident,” Weinberger said. “These guys and gals in the trucks are so good. The primetime ABC football game, Big Noon Saturday, the NLCS — these are the best men and women doing it.”
On Sept. 26 at The Swamp, a camera operator had a hand — and certainly a lens — in Peyton Blomquist‘s lucky day.
The Florida freshman is the most recent co-ed-turned-main-character this football season as an ABC/ESPN camera operator zoomed in — and that might be an understatement — on the 18-year-old blonde in a low-cut black top during the Gators’ home win over Ole Miss.
The cameraman zooming in is CRAZY 😭 https://t.co/G5QNcLHNhG
— BrickCenter (@BrickCenter_) September 26, 2026
The Zeta Tau Alpha sorority sister, who is approaching 100,000 combined followers on Instagram and TikTok, publicly identified herself postgame, eventually leaning into the viral nature of her clip.
On Instagram, Blomquist posted a carousel of gameday content with the cheeky caption, ‘Work the cut.’
Ole Miss alumna Sara Smith also became a household name during the early stages of the 2026 season. She became Internet famous in September as she cheered on the Rebels during their 41-38 win over Louisville, leading to a barrage of crazy Instagram DMs from admirers — I hate to spoil fans’ interest, but Smith is engaged.
But I digress.
For Smith and Blomquist, their appearance at any given football game wouldn’t be common knowledge, unless maybe they dated a star player. They wouldn’t necessarily be listed on a seating chart distributed to production staff ahead of kickoff.
So, the men and women responsible for scanning the sidelines and crowd for additional fun elements to incorporate into the game broadcast could have spotted them pregame, during a media timeout, or even at halftime.
Camera personnel likely also tipped off those in the production truck about the eventual incoming shot, which could be given a ‘yay’ or ‘no’ by the director. In other words, it’s not a coincidence when an attractive fan makes her way onto TV sets across America.
Hotty Toddy we’ve got a Nashville shootout! https://t.co/V4BlLmXy0o
— Girls On Gameday (@GirlsOnGameday) September 7, 2026
“They’re so prepared for these shots,” Weinberger said. “Then it takes another step of how do you use it? When do you go to it? How often do you go to it?”
An eye for the shot
Enter Katherine Webb-McCarron. You remember Miss Alabama, don’t you?
In 2013, the then-girlfriend of star Alabama quarterback A.J. McCarron, graced ESPNairwaves as Musburger gushed over her during the 2013 BCS National Championship Game. Everyone involved in the production likely knew the exact section, row, and seat of Webb-McCarron, who quickly drew Musburger’s attention.
“Wow, I tell you, you quarterbacks, you get all the good-looking women,” he said. “What a beautiful woman. Whoa. So if you’re a youngster at Alabama, start getting the football out and throw it around the backyard with pops.”
Now, when the camera finds pop star Taylor Swift or model Madison Beer in a luxury box cheering on their husbands’ NFL team, albeit maybe less cheering for Beer these days, you know there’s an actual method behind including those shots into the broadcast. For the NFL and its media partners, now in their WAG-ification era, those five- to 10-second clips are designed to elicit some type of viewer reaction but also convey the magnitude of the game itself in order to attract more interest and eyeballs.
“When you see Taylor Swift at a football game, whether you’re mad or you’re happy, it definitely makes it a bigger event,” Weinberger said. “Or Jack Nicholson on the sideline of every Laker game. It’s like, ‘Oh, that’s the place I’m supposed to be.’ ”
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