Should You Shake the TV Host's Hand After the Interview

So you finished the interview. You're perhaps still on camera. Should you reach over and shake the reporter's hand to be gracious? After all, that's polite. Well, it depends. The answer is not as obvious as you would think. In most cases, local TV reports friendlier broadcast things that are not politicians or major financial players. If it's a public affairs program, most of the time, that's a good thing. When you're seen shaking hands with the host, the anchor, that creates a bond between you and the person the audience likes. They watch this person every week or every day sometimes, so it forms more of a bond. There are exceptions. There are some cable TV networks, CNBC in the United States and its branches around the world, Bloomberg Television, where they actually have a rule with their staff that they don't want to be seen as too chummy with their guest. They don't want to make it seem like it's all just a bunch of buddy, buddy stuff, everyone colluding together, shaking hands, a little cabal. So they actually prohibit their anchors from being seen shaking hands with the staff. Once I was at Bloomberg Television doing a profile interview, having one done of me, and at the end of the interview, I reached over, shook the anchor's hand who interviewed me. He's like, sorry, T.J. now we have to do the final segment over again. I'm not allowed to use footage of me shaking hands. So it was a lesson I learned the hard way. I want you to learn the easy way from my mistakes. When in doubt, if you haven't seen the show a lot, you don't know what's the custom, but just ask the reporter, Ask the producer or the booker in advance. Hey, is it okay if I shake hands at the end of the interview? They'll be very happy to tell you one way or the other.