ShowScripter

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1. What ShowScripter Is

ShowScripter is your story and idea database and the command center for your show. It's a real-time production dashboard built for live and recorded broadcasts, where you write your stories, create your Episode, go live and archive your episode all in one place. Talent and producers stay on the same page, research is one click away, and your rundown moves with you when it's time for the show.

No need to keep track of your Google Docs for the rundown, with a separate research folder, a separate story page, a separate guest list and a group chat. ShowScripter is the tool that brings all the elements into one place. Forever.

2. The Big Picture

Here are the elements:

• Show: Your podcast, your sports talk show, your morning drive show. Set up once or make changes as your show evolves.
• Segments: The building blocks of your show. The stories, the ideas, anything that comes to mind goes into a Segment.
• Episode: An Episode is an ordered list of Segments, what broadcast producers call a Rundown.
• Pre-Live Check: This is a last look at your episode before you go live.
• Live: Go-time. The Episode becomes the script, the guide, the on-air view. Talent and producers all see the same screen.
• Archive: Click End Show and the Episode fully archives.

The flow: build segments, fill an episode with them, do a Pre-Live check, go live and archive.

3. Getting Started

1. Sign up. Head to ShowScripter.com and create your account. You'll accept the Terms & Conditions on first login.
2. Pick a plan. ShowScripter is an annual subscription with a 14-day money-back guarantee. Choose Pro, Studio, or Network from the plan picker and complete payment in Stripe — the app unlocks the moment payment goes through.
3. Pick your show's genre. The genre tells the research aggregator which RSS feeds and topic queries to pull from. You can change it anytime in Settings → Research Topics.
4. Create your first Show. Click New Show in the sidebar. Give it a name.
5. Invite your team. Your plan determines how many seats you have. Each teammate gets their own login and, with permission, sees and can edit the same show in real time.

That's all you need to start.

4. Building Your Segment Library

Segments are the heart of your show. The Segments page is your bucket of stories, ideas, sponsor reads, caller notes, guest prep, whatever you want to talk about. Build the library over time and pull segments from it whenever you build an episode.

Create a Segment

• Click + Create New Segment at the top of the Segments page.
• Give it a title, pick a topic badge (Story, Up Next, Comments, Intro, etc.), set a duration.
• Write your notes in the segment editor. Talking points, an actual script, sponsor copy, guest prep, whatever your segment needs.
• Click Save.

Pull in Stories with Research

• Inside the segment editor, click the blue Research button to open the Research dashboard.
• Browse stories grouped by topic, sourced from Google News and a curated set of RSS feeds matched to your show's genre.
• Use the Story Search field for anything specific across topics.
• Check the Summarize box on a story to generate a producer-friendly summary. Saves you from clicking through stories you don't end up using. Or you can click on the title and read the story from the original source.
• Click Send to segment to drop the headline, summary, and link into your current segment. Add your thoughts to make it your own.

Segment Lists

The buttons at the top of the Segments page organize your library into four views:

• Available: Segments ready to go and not currently in any active episode.
• Used: Segments currently in at least one episode. Handy for finding where a segment is already booked.
• Stale: Segments you've marked as outdated.
• Archived Segments: These are from past episodes and selected segments you no longer need in your Active library. You can restore them anytime.

Templates

Some segments you will want to reuse, like your show intro, outros, recurring sponsor reads, etc. Just check the Keep as template box in the segment editor and it will stay in the Available view. You can also edit them at any time.

Sending Segments Between Episodes

• On any Available segment, click → Send to push a segment into a specific episode's rundown.
• On any Used row, click ↩ Remove to pull a segment out of a specific episode. The segment itself stays in your library; only its appearance in that episode is removed.
• To archive a segment, use the Archive button in the segment editor. The segment moves to the Archived list. Restore it any time by selecting Restore and it moves to the Available list.

5. Build an Episode

Episodes are how you keep your shows organized over weeks, months, and years. An Episode is just an ordered list of segments, what broadcast producers call a Rundown.

• In the sidebar, click Episodes → + New Episode. Give it a label like “Ep. 1” and a date.
• Click into the new episode, you're now on the Rundown view. This IS your episode.
• Click + Move Segment to Rundown at the top. Use search or the list buttons (Available / Used / Stale / Archived) to find what you want, then click + Add to drop it in.
• You can also send segments straight from the Segments page: click → Send on any segment to pick the target episode.
• Drag any segment to reorder in real time. Top of the list is the top of the show.
• Click any segment to edit: title, topic, timing, and content. Tweaks here are local to this episode. Your source segment in the library stays clean.
• Use the arrows on the right to view a segment's full content. There's an Expand all / Collapse all toggle at the top to see everything at a glance.
• Click × on a row to remove that segment from this rundown. The segment itself stays in your library.

6. Pre-Live Check

The Pre-Live Check is your last pass before going live to eliminate surprises. This page shows your rundown in read-only, so you can scan for issues without accidentally editing, as well as the segment runtimes and the episode run time.

Your checklist

• Confirm presence. Check who's logged in. Producer, talent, board op, screener. If someone's missing, you want to know now.
• Confirm segment order and timing. Last-minute order and timing changes happen here. Jump back to the Rundown to fix.
• Walk talent through the rundown. Cold open, segment order, planned breaks, guest cues.
• Verify caller and guest setup. Guest on the line? Everyone briefed?
• Tech check. Mics, audio, stream. This lives outside ShowScripter, but this is the moment for it.

What you'll see on this page

• Total run time displays at the top.
• Segment count sits right next to the clock.
• If you make changes in the Rundown, Pre-Live updates in real time.
• Once a show is running (after Start Show is clicked on the Live page), an ON AIR badge appears in the Pre-Live header so anyone landing here knows the show is currently broadcasting.
• When everything looks right, click Go Live to start the show. The Go Live button takes you to the Live page in standby, ready for Start Show.

7. Going Live

Live mode is built to keep the host and the team organized and aware of where the episode is during the show. Decide who on the team will move the Rundown from segment to segment so everyone is on the same page.

Starting the show

• Click Start Show. The segment timer (large numbers in the middle of the screen) starts counting down for the current segment, and the ON AIR badge turns red across the app.
• Timer color cues: white when you have time, yellow at one minute remaining, red at thirty seconds, blinking red when you're running over.
• The top clock shows the whole show's remaining time by default. Click the small arrow next to the “Show” label to switch it to elapsed time.
• The chat sidebar is your back-channel for “stretch this,” “wrap in two,” “we lost the guest,” without going on-mic.

Advancing through the show

• Use Prev Segment / Next Segment to advance through the rundown.
• Need a few more seconds? Use the ±2 Min / ±30 Sec adjustment buttons to extend or trim the current segment's allotted time on the fly.
• Don't want the big segment timer on screen? Click Hide timer next to it. Click Show timer to bring it back.

Ending the show: three buttons, three behaviors

• Pause: The clock stops; the show stays ON AIR indicated by an amber PAUSED badge. Use this for ad breaks, technical holds, or anything mid-show that pauses the clock but doesn't end the show.
• Stop: Takes the show back to Pre-Live. The clock resets and the rundown is preserved. No archive is written. Use this when you want to stop and rework the show before going live again.
• End Show: Ends the show and archives the episode. The episode changes to Completed status and the live state clears. Use this when the show is genuinely done.

Leaving the Live Page while the show is running.

Anyone can navigate out of the Live Page while it’s live to make changes or even work on another episode, and the show keeps running for the team.

• Only Pause / Stop / End Show change the show state for everyone. Leaving the live view is personal navigation and will not alter the state of the live show.
• Use the ← Pre-Live button on the Live page to leave the live view. The show is unaffected for everyone else.
• The ON AIR badge stays visible across every screen, so you know there's a live show working.
• Click the ON AIR badge from anywhere to jump back to the Live page.

8. After the Show

When the show ends, the episode lives on in your archive.

• Click End Show. The Episode fully archives.
• Past episodes are searchable.
• The Rundown is preserved exactly as it ran, segment content and timing included.
• Rundowns, Segments, and Research are all saved to the episode forever.
• You can use archived Rundowns as the starting point for the future Episodes: clone it, swap the topical bits, whatever you want to reuse is available.

Reactivating an episode

Need to prep a re-run, or recover from an accidental End Show? Open the completed episode and you'll see an amber banner across the top with a Reactivate episode button. Click it and the episode switches back to draft, fully editable.

The archive isn't just a graveyard. It's your shortcut to building the next Episode.

9. Working with a Team

ShowScripter is built for real-time collaboration. Protections are in place to keep teams from stepping on each other.

• The Online indicator in the sidebar shows who else is in the workspace right now. Hover for names.
• Segments and rundown rows use a soft-lock model. When one producer is editing, others see a 🔒 [Name] editing window on the segment. The lock auto-releases when the editor saves, closes, or disconnects.
• Changes broadcast in real time to everyone on the team. If you and a teammate are working on the same rundown the edits, adds, and reorders appear on both screens in near real time.
• If your wifi drops briefly, your view re-syncs automatically when you reconnect.
• Live chat is built into the rundown and the live page (the Chat button is in the header). Use it for stage directions, notes to talent, and quick coordination during a show.

10. Quick Tips

• Be generous with research topics. The aggregator's only as good as the keywords you give it.
• Save often. There's a Save button on segment and rundown edits. Real-time collaboration is smart but not magic.
• Locks while editing. If a teammate is trying to access the same segment, the soft-lock keeps you from stepping on each other.
• Keep segment names consistent. “Headlines” and “Headlines (Mon)” and “Headlines V2” turn into chaos. Pick one and stick to it.
• Clone last week's episode. Fastest way to start a new one is to copy the previous rundown and edit.

Need help? Email support@showscripter.com or open the Producer Guide inside the app.