Q Talk

[proudlyfromNJ]

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@banned again wrote:

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Also, have you considered the time it takes to learn the products and know what is required to present them?  How about production meetings? 

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No I haven't: my familiarity of hosts working at QVC is purely superficial. If you notice in my original post I used the phrase appeared on-air: that which is measurable. I imagine the hosts schedule their off-camera work just before or after their on-air shift but of course I wouldn't be able to track that. Their off-air work could consist of production meetings as you said, photo shoots, promo and voice-over recordings, answering their Facebook messages, meeting with guests at the studio tour, and much more, which is a considerable amount of work.

My understanding is that part-time hosts appear on-air three times a week, full-time four or five. If you saw a list at the end of the year of how many on-air shifts each host had for the year, it would be very obvious that the hosts (not counting maternity or medical leaves, new hosts and departures) that had the least amount of shifts were part-time, the bulk of the list would be full time hosts, and the very top of the list (Lisa Robertson is again an example) would be hosts that QVC has identified as a big moneymaker and place on air as many as five times a week.

It's a similar principle in television programs: the actors on the most episodes are on contract, the next set are recurring, finally the ones appearing the least are guest stars or under-five.

Part-time in QVC terms might be a term QVC uses for hosts that try to schedule their work duties into three days a week, possibly still accumulating over forty hours a week. This might be an attractive offer for some hosts: Jane Treacy after taking a year off with her family, Laurie with her newborn Jeannie, Lisa Mason on her return to QVC in 2015 after years taking care of Gino, David Venable who is often in the process of writing a cookbook. 

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@banned again  I find this info very interesting. A lot here I didn’t know. How did you find this information? 

[Johnnyeager]

I find the notion that hosts spend a lot of time "backstage" to learn about products to be patently absurd.  So many of them are frequently, chronically, ill prepared and seem to be seeing the items for the very first time on camera.

[Caaareful Shopper]

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@Spurt wrote:

Here's what Sharon had to say about a host's life

https://www.qvc.com/content/insideq/a-day-in-the-life-host-sharon.html

Here's what David had to say

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/17/david-venable-food-informants_n_1959484.html

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Exactly @Spurt   The hosts are not part-time.  Some hosts have more on-air shows than others, but they all have days when they are in the office all day for either meetings, vendor training sessions, presentations, etc.  Whether they are good at learning their products is besides the point (there are always good and bad students of any subject or line of work). 

Hosts sometimes present to other hosts on specific topics of retail and social media -- they take turns.  This was highlighted by Jennifer Coffey sometime last year on her FB page.  They have cubicles just like other employees, where they sit and conduct their office work (many examples of this on hosts' social media pages as well). 

That's the one good thing about the hosts' social media pages -- it takes away the facade that they are merely hired to be the 2-hour face of QVC on a specific day.  The majority of their job is extremely unglamourous and tedious.

[DJs mom]

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@Spurt wrote:

Here's what Sharon had to say about a host's life

https://www.qvc.com/content/insideq/a-day-in-the-life-host-sharon.html

Here's what David had to say

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/17/david-venable-food-informants_n_1959484.html

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This was very informative and proves what I've been saying just because you don't see a host on air doesn't mean they are not working. Thanks @Spurt for sharing this.

[Norriesgirls]

It is really not your job to criticize  anyone that might have a valid question.  Take your own advice and butt out girl!

[Norriesgirls]

thank you

[Norriesgirls]

Thank you for sharing

[Reever]

I agree that these hosts have it relatively easy. Meetings are a lot less demanding than spending all day on your feet. My sister in law was an assistant manager at a local discount retailer. She would routinley work 40  to 50 hr weeks spending 90 percent of her time standing, moving merchandise and making displays. District managers would mandate displays and merchandise be moved on a regular basis.

She would be scheduled twice a week to work noon-10pm and often had to open the store at 8:30 am the next day, It was grueling anf finally became too taxing on her body. She was 55 when she "retired" and went part time at a local credit union. The hosts are "on air " standing for about 15 hours a week. That is nothinhg compared to managing a local Macys or Marshalls.

[roeroe1005]

The first Q tour I took, my cousin and I were walking out the Q building and in walked Jayne Brown and the former host who now is Dennis Basso's rep.  Sorry, can't remember her name, starts with an "L"!

We left the studio about 5:30ish.  I remember seeing "L" come on air at 11p that evening.  That's 5-1/2 hours later - she was just coming on air.  

[threecees]

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@roeroe1005 wrote:

The first Q tour I took, my cousin and I were walking out the Q building and in walked Jayne Brown and the former host who now is Dennis Basso's rep.  Sorry, can't remember her name, starts with an "L"!

We left the studio about 5:30ish.  I remember seeing "L" come on air at 11p that evening.  That's 5-1/2 hours later - she was just coming on air.  

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@roeroe1005 You are speaking of the lovely Lena Mcllwain.