You make excellent points. “Live” video is something a lot of people in the “real world” of video production like to avoid because of the possibility of embarrassing, impossible-to-correct mistakes. Oh, for want of the delete button!

Research always shows however that the audience generally gets more excited when the video is “live” because they think if it’s live, it must be exciting! This, of course, is not always true. But TV likes to exploit the audience’s perception of LIVE so you have local news stations going everywhere LIVE. We in the business called it “gratuitous live shots.” Live shots done as live shots ONLY for the promotability factor. Next time you see a reporter say, “I’m standing here where JUST MOMENTS AGO, something happened.” then you know it is a gratuitous live shot done just so they can scream, “IT’S LIVE TV FOLKS!”

That’s when you just cross your fingers and hope that someone doesn’t yank down their pants or flip you the bird while you are LIVE!