“I’m more of a morning than a night person,” Shannan Ferry said.
That’s lucky for her, since she has been getting up at 1:47 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday for the past two years.
“The early hours work against your body clock, but I’ve trained mine to it,” Ms. Ferry, 31, added. “When people are waking up, I’ve lived most of my whole day.”
Ms. Ferry, who co-anchors “Weekends on 1” with Rocco Vertuccio for NY1, said her arrival at the studio, in Chelsea Market, is so early on Sundays that the city is still buzzing with Saturday night party people.
“They stumble out of bars and restaurants,” she said.
Ms. Ferry, who grew up in the Little Neck neighborhood of Queens, started at the news station in 2012 with an internship, which turned into a part-time on-air reporting gig in 2014. She became full-time a year later. In November 2021, the station, part of Spectrum News, launched the weekend show.
“I knew doing news was a crazy, unobtainable concept,” Ms. Ferry said, “but that motivated me more. I had something to prove. I’m now used to the routine.”
She has lived in a studio apartment in the East 20s in Manhattan since December 2020 — and has yet to purchase blackout shades.
BEYOND EARLY RISE My alarm goes off at 1:47 a.m. It’s a random number that I did once, and now it just shows up in my alarm system. I need a few snoozes, so I don’t get up until 2:00; past that I’m in danger. I check my phone: First it’s NY1 Webex, our chat app, to see the overnight news and the internal stream of news updates. Then it’s Instagram and X.
I don’t lay out my clothing the night before — which I should, because it would save time and be good for my anxiety — but I don’t know what I’m going to feel like until that day. I order five dresses every week from Rent the Runway. My news dress look is usually A-line, long sleeves, past the knees and solid colors, as prints don’t look good on TV. I like black, but it’s not the most cheerful, so I switch that up with colors. The joke in the office is anytime I wear red, breaking news happens. One time it was the train derailment that happened in Coney Island.
ARRIVALS I’m in an Uber around 2:30 a.m. I drop my stuff at my desk and meet Rocco at the shared desk area. He’s been here for last 15-to-30 minutes making coffee and seeing if the newspapers arrived. We have an old school percolator for the weekend show. We love Lavazza coffee, which I take with cream and one sugar. Our producer is here, too, and we spend the next 60-to-90 minutes going through the papers — The Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Daily News and The Post — for our segment, In the Papers.
We write and edit copy as we look to see what stands out: major news stories and quirky, fun stories that catch our eye, which are usually something that’s only in New York, like people getting married in their apartments. Pieces like that are good for commentary or conversation. It’s something light to end on.
VISUAL PREPPING I’m in the makeup chair by 4:30 a.m. I usually do my own makeup on the weekends. Right now I’m using Nars and IT Cosmetics for foundations, Tarte concealer and Roxanne Rizzo’s bronzing mist, which is a game changer. It gives you a glow and smells like a vacation, like the beach.
I grab my earpiece from my desk, plug into our mic and start taping around 5:20 a.m.
ROLLING “Weekends on 1” is a mix of live and pretaped segments. We prepare eight weather updates with the meteorologist Michael Autovino. We do news stories of the day and pre-canned reporter pieces we taped.
By 7:45 a.m. we tape guest segments — newsmakers, celebrities, politicians and authors. We also go to a correspondent who is in the field. Once we tape something, most segments air minutes later or that same day.
QUICK BREAK When we break at 8:30 a.m., Rocco and I usually go downstairs. I get a spinach egg frittata sandwich from Amy’s Bread or yogurt with fruit from the Manhattan Fruit Market. Sometimes I go just full throttle, and I get a bagel.
By 9 a.m. we’re back to prepping news segments and updating old ones from earlier. We might have a fresh reporter and new weather update.
SPOTTING Rocco and I leave the office by 11 a.m. and debrief on the day. When we walk together, that’s usually when people spot us. They say hi, or “We were just watching you this morning.” It’s nice that people value what we do and rely on us to get their day started. Rocco takes the F train at Sixth Avenue to Long Island City, and I take a workout class. I go to different places — CycleBar, Rumble, Sweat440 — because it’s a timing issue rather than a class.
TRADER JOE’S On the way home I grab groceries at the Trader Joe’s on Sixth Ave. and 21st Street. I buy hydrangeas and smoothie basics, precooked chicken and anything I can make for salads or sandwiches. I’ll stop at Citizens Of Gramercy for another coffee because they make the best oat milk iced latte. Their secret is their ice ratio, plus their ice is chunkier than most places. I recently got a Nespresso machine, as I’m trying to be financially responsible, and I might try to copy what they make at home instead.
NO NAPPING I’ll call my parents, who I’m attached to. I’ve been texting my mom — almost to a fault — a stream of consciousness all day. I make a smoothie with spinach, mango, pineapple, banana and almond milk, and throw a load of laundry in if I’m feeling ambitious because I’ve learned not to nap, even though there’s always the temptation. If you want to live a somewhat normal life, you have to push yourself not to, or the day is shot.
A DATE OR FRIENDS Sometimes I do a date in the afternoon; I’m single. Someone has either fixed me up or I’ll meet someone on a dating app like Raya, Hinge or Bumble. I always have my finger hovering over the delete button because dating in New York can be hard. Usually, we meet in Gramercy or the East Village. Or I meet media friends for a late lunch or early dinner at L’Express, Ruby’s or KazuNori. We all have these weird crazy hours. Some of us met in the field as reporters because we were covering the same stories and have remained close.
HOME By 6 p.m. my battery is low. I shower and watch TV in bed. I’m all about “Suits” — everyone is rewatching it, so I’m watching for the first time. I’m also a fan of “Schitt’s Creek,” “30 Rock” and “The Mindy Project.” I don’t have to think with these shows; they help me slow down. Sometimes Alexa plays some sleep sounds, like rainstorm, if the TV fails. I set the alarm for 1:47 a.m., and I’m asleep by 8:30 p.m.
Sunday Routine readers can follow Shannan Ferry @shannanferry on X and Instagram.
