Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
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CHICAGO — Have you ever wondered what TV news anchors do during commercial breaks? Surely the answer is different for every set of anchors, but it is guaranteed they aren’t nervously staring into space before they go back on air.
The weekend anchors — Robert Jordan and Jackie Bange — at WGN in Chicago have raised commercial break downtime into an art with elaborate handshake routines, for lack of a better phrase.
The routines are part handshake, part pantomime, part sound effects and part clapping game with a healthy dose of inside jokes and shared experiences to boot.
It’s an incredibly charming display of their mutual affection, especially when they give light critique after each handshake such as, “not bad, a few seconds to left over” and “we got some work to do on that one,” as they grin and straighten their clothing in preparation for going live.
The video consists of two separate commercial breaks that are edited together, and both two-ish-minute handshake routines are a joy to watch.
For the impatient, WGN has also uploaded a video of the routines in "warp speed" for quarter-time viewing.
