My Co-op at the Dr. Oz Show

An apple a day keeps the doctor away, right? Not for me, luckily. Last semester, I worked at the Dr. Oz Show as a production intern and got to work with Dr. Oz himself. I had quite the whirlwind experience: moving to New York City, working full-time for the second largest media company in the world, and interacting with celebrities as an industry professional. And boy did I have the time of my life.

But let’s back up a bit, before winning the co-op lottery, to how I got here. I started out as a mechanical engineering major. Pull your chin off the ground. Yes, you read that correctly. How did I, an engineering student, end up working in television instead? Well, about half way through my first semester in engineering as a college freshman I decided, “nope, this is not for me” and immediately became undeclared. Through my major exploration process I tried and felt “bleh” about several majors. In fact, I actually switched from being undeclared to a combined Political Science, Philosophy, and Economics before settling on International Affairs with a minor in Communication Studies. That seems like a sharp turn, and it was. My freshman year I decided to do a dialogue to Israel and Palestine to study the conflict. There, my interest in international affairs was reaffirmed and I decided that policy was not for me, at least not as a career. I decided instead that the best route to help people is to educate and get information out there, which is how I came to decide that I wanted to go into news and maybe work with NGOs as a hobby.

Fast-forward to last spring, I applied to any co-op in media I could find to get some experience because, well… I had none. Luckily, the Dr. Oz Show management reached out to me, and the rest is history.

Well, not really: it only ended in December. But my time there flew by in a blink of the eye. I started mid-summer in ninety-degree heat that I thought would kill me. Thankfully, I made it to my orientation where I was fortunate enough to meet the show executives and my supervisors, who were the business managers for production on the Dr. Oz Show. I knew more about television in my first week than I learned in my past twenty-years of watching television. And I’ve got to say, it’s so much harder than it looks. I learned how to pitch ideas and work out the kinks with the medical team. I had hands-on experience learning to do research for a script, write it, and then work through it with superiors and Dr. Oz. I sat in on meetings to run through the entire show with producers, the director, and Dr. Oz. I was on set almost every day either as a stand-in during rehearsal or helping out backstage. However, I couldn’t help but fangirl on occasion. While on set, I interacted with celebrity chefs, politicians, doctors, and movie stars. My most memorable moment was waiting in line for the bathroom with the entire 30 Rock cast while Alec Baldwin waited for the elevator behind me. Honestly, one of the weirdest situations. However, while working there I had my fair share of faux pas. While I was rounding a corner in the hallway, I ran directly into Dr. Oz. And I mean full on collision. As if this wasn’t embarrassing enough, it happened on multiple occasions, almost weekly.

Overall, my experience was one for the books. I’m so grateful for everyone I met and the knowledge I gained. I wouldn’t change it for the world.

 

By: Liz Hood