A good tease keeps viewers through the commercial break. A bad one trains them to change the channel. The Tease Writer generates professional, story-specific teases — no generic "coming up next."
Open Tease WriterA tease is the shortest form of writing in broadcast news, and the most misunderstood. It's the few seconds before a commercial break where you convince a viewer that what's coming is worth staying for. That's the whole job: hold the audience through the break. But here's what makes it hard — a tease has to create curiosity without creating a false promise. Overpromise, and the viewer feels cheated when the story airs. Underpromise, and they're gone before it does. Every tease lives in that narrow window: real stakes, real details, one thing held back.
The craft is specific. A tease isn't a headline — it doesn't give the story away. It's not a promo — it doesn't manufacture drama that isn't there. It raises a question the story answers, uses a real detail from the story, and leaves the viewer one honest reason to stay. Ten seconds to do all of that. That's the assignment.
I'll tell you a secret from thirty years of watching shows get built: the tease is the most neglected copy in the rundown. It gets written last, fastest, and most tired — usually at the exact moment the producer has the least left in the tank. And it shows. Flat teases that give the story away. Hype teases that write checks the story can't cash. "Coming up, a story you won't want to miss" — the tease that says nothing and means it.
The Tease Writer exists because that ten seconds deserves better than the last ten minutes of a producer's energy.
Feed it your story — the script itself, wire copy, or your notes — and it hands back tease options built on the craft's actual rules. Curiosity without deception. The question raised, not answered. The detail that hooks, held apart from the payoff that's reserved for the story. Every tease it writes leaves something for the viewer to come back for — because a tease that answers itself isn't a tease, it's a spoiler with production music.
You get multiple options per story, not one — so you can pick the version that fits the moment in your show. A cold open hits different than a pre-break; a heavy story reads different than a feature kicker. Tighten the one that fits your voice and your slot, and you're done.
Here's the part I care most about, and the reason this tool has rules baked into it: the tease is where broadcast news most often spends its credibility. Every viewer has stayed through a break for "the household product that could be making you sick" only to learn it's a story about reading labels. That transaction has a cost — and stations pay it in trust, one small overdraft at a time. So the Tease Writer is built to be compelling and honest at the same time, which is not a contradiction. It's the craft.
Who uses it? Producers, at the stack — the tease block that used to be an afterthought becomes a two-minute polish instead of a blank stare. Anchors punching up copy before air, because we're the ones who have to sell the tease with our faces and we know when the words aren't there. And EPs who are tired of sending back hype — the tool gives their producers a model of what "compelling but clean" looks like until it becomes instinct.
One thing it won't do: it won't make a boring story sound like breaking news. If the tease options come back modest, sometimes that's the tool telling you the truth about the story. The fix for a weak tease is occasionally a better story — and no software gets you out of that one.
County press release: MILLBROOK COUNTY — The Millbrook County Department of Public Works is responding to a significant water main rupture that occurred at approximately 4:40 a.m. Tuesday beneath Route 9, resulting in the closure of a three-mile stretch of the roadway between Ashford Road and the county line. Approximately 4,200 residential and commercial customers are experiencing service interruptions, and a boil-water advisory has been issued for affected areas as a precautionary measure. Repairs are expected to be completed by Thursday.
Logged interview — Marcus Webb, Public Works Director (break site, 11:20 a.m.): :14 — "This is a sixty-year-old cast iron main. When they fail, they don't fail small." :52 — "We've got to excavate, replace the section, pressure-test it, and then the water itself has to be tested before we can tell anybody it's safe. That's why this runs to Thursday." 1:37 — "My crews will be out here around the clock. Nobody's going home until this is fixed."
Logged interview — Denise Calloway, homeowner (her kitchen, 12:45 p.m.): :22 — "First I knew about it was no pressure in the shower. Then the alert on my phone." 1:05 — "I've got a pot going pretty much all day now. Boil it, let it cool, fill the jugs. Do it again. It's like camping, except I'm in my own kitchen." 1:48 — "My mother's ninety-one and she lives with us. So no — I'm not taking any chances."
Nat sound: excavator at break site • water in trench • kettle whistling • county alert on phone • traffic at detour. Reporter notes: detour adds ~15 min • two restaurants closed • Denise's mom detail feels like the heart of this.
PRE-BREAK TEASE: STILL AHEAD — THOUSANDS OF FAMILIES IN ONE METRO COUNTY ARE BEING TOLD: DON'T DRINK THE WATER... NOT YET. WHAT HAPPENED — AND HOW LONG THE WARNING LASTS. COLD OPEN: TONIGHT — A MAJOR ROAD SHUT DOWN... FORTY-TWO-HUNDRED HOMES WITHOUT SAFE WATER... AND A FIX THAT'S STILL DAYS AWAY. WHAT EVERY FAMILY IN MILLBROOK COUNTY NEEDS TO KNOW — RIGHT NOW. TOPICAL / NEXT: WHEN WE COME BACK — IS YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD ON THE LIST? THE BOIL-WATER MAP... IN NINETY SECONDS.
Notice what none of these do: none of them claim the water is poisoned, none of them manufacture a villain, and none of them answer their own question. The facts are real, the stakes are real, and the one thing held back — the details and the map — is the honest reason to stay.
Isn't a "compelling tease" just clickbait for television?
Only if you write it that way — and the difference isn't subtle. Clickbait makes a promise the content can't keep; a good tease makes a promise the story keeps in full. "Don't drink the water — not yet" is compelling because it's true, and the story pays it off completely. The line I teach: tease the real stakes, hold back the details, and never raise a question your story doesn't answer. The Tease Writer follows those rules by design. If you've ever felt gross writing a tease, this is the version that lets you sleep.
Can it write teases for social too, or just for air?
Air teases live here — the versions built to hold viewers through a commercial break. The social versions, built for each platform's character limits and audience behavior, come from the Social and Push Alerts tool. They're designed to work from the same story, so running both on a big story takes about two minutes total.
The tease options came back tamer than my EP wants. Can I make them hotter?
You can adjust and punch up the copy — but let me say the quiet part out loud, because I've sat in those meetings: if "hotter" means promising more than the story delivers, the tool will fight you on it, and so would I. There's usually real headroom between flat and false — sharper verbs, tighter stakes, a better-held secret — and that's the room the Tease Writer works in. If the honest ceiling still isn't hot enough for the slot, that's a story-selection conversation, not a copy problem.