UNC’s Clef Hangers performed on national TV Sunday — on QVC’s “In the Kitchen with David.” The show is hosted by UNC and Clef Hangers alumnus David Venable, who graduated with a degree in broadcast journalism in 1987. Channing Mitzell, president of the Clef Hangers, spoke with Daily Tar Heel staff writer Trey Flowers about the experience.
The Daily Tar Heel: How did the idea of appearing on “In the Kitchen with David” come about?
Channing Mitzell: This idea came from members of the group because David Venable used to be a Clef Hanger, and he was a Clef Hanger who graduated in 1987, so he was a part of the first ten years of the group. And the current members of the group really wanted to go to David’s show because he’s turning 50 this week. He runs this show twice a week, called “In the Kitchen with David,” and it’s QVC’s most watched show. It brings in about 2.5 million viewers a week, and he’s one of their most notable hosts.
DTH: What is the show about?
CM: Essentially the show is three hours straight, there are no commercials, and he has an agenda. There are anywhere from six to 10 products that he knows that he is going to work with, and he has special guests who come in and he works through those products and he works to sell those products.
DTH: What did you guys do on the show?
CM: Our role was to sing bumps, which are the transitional periods where he is walking from studio to studio, and they’re able to give us anywhere from sixty to ninety seconds where we’re singing holiday-themed music. This allowed for him to be able to transition because they do not have commercials and, because he was a UNC Clef Hanger and the Clef Hangers are important to him, it was fun for him too.
DTH: Was this your first time performing as a group on live TV? And if so, was it a different experience performing than what you normally do?
CM: The group in the early 2000s was on “Good Morning America,” so the group has had national exposure before. In terms of this current state of members, we’ve done stuff in like Charlotte — TV — Charlotte Today but this is, as a group, the first time that we’ve been on national television, reaching over 2.5 million to 3.5 million homes. So it’s obviously a very different experience from singing into a camera with bright lights to being in Memorial Hall, where there are thirteen hundred people and you can hear them.
