History Main / RedshirtReporter

* The city of Detroit in ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'' seems to have averted this by having their RedShirtReporter be a ''robot''. Given all the weirdness that goes down in that city and how much that particular robot gets damaged, it seems to make the most sense.

* In the MadeForTV movie Film/SpecialBulletin, a reporter is standing near where the boat with the nuclear weapon, after the scientists attempting to disable it start running, saying that it's okay for him to stay since the deadline for the bomb to go off is still 15 minutes away, and [[spoiler:is cut off in mid sentence by the nuclear explosion]].

* ''Series/{{Primeval}}'': An episode features reporters who aren't smart enough to run away when a Giganotosaurus (think ''[[TyrannosaurusRex T. rex]]'', only bigger) rampages through an airport.

* The people involved in creating Literature/SixteenThirtyTwo have an in-joke of creating minor characters of a certain name (based on a real life friend and colleague) who gets incredibly gruesome and often ridiculous deaths shortly after being introduced. In one of the 1632 books, he's an IntrepidReporter in an era that ''really' doesn't like people snooping into the secrets of high society and powerful conspiracies. Guess what happens...?

* ''Manga/DragonBall'': The reporters investigating the mysterious disappearance of Ginger Town's inhabitants ; they get to suffer the same fate, i.e. being sucked out and absorbed by [[BigBad Cell]].

* A major event in a flashback in ''Anime/JuuniSenshiBakuretsuEtoRanger'', when news reporter Lydia the Giraffe [[spoiler: , [[WeCanRebuildHim also known as the AI of the Eto Rangers' ship, Kirinda]],]] is BigBad Nyanma's first victim, five years before the start of the series.

* Leading up to the release of ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', the game's in-character twitter feed featured a series of live-tweets from Emily Wong, who was effectively the reporter-on-the-scene for [[spoiler: The Reaper Invasion of Earth. Her last tweet indicated that she was mortally wounded and about to [[TakingYouWithMe ram a Reaper with her skyvan.]]]]

* An episode of ''Series/{{Primeval}}'' features reporters who aren't smart enough to run away when a Giganotosaurus (think ''[[TyrannosaurusRex T. rex]]'', only bigger) rampages through an airport.
* [[AddedAlliterativeAppeal Damien Day]] from ''Series/DropTheDeadDonkey'' likes to ''pretend'' he's in serious danger. {{Parody}} meets ExploitedTrope, as he's using the trope to attempt to gain better viewing figures. However there's also a RunningGag in which his unseen cameraman always gets injured.

[-[[caption-width-right:350: [[Film/{{Cloverfield}} Oil tanker exploding from mysterious causes you say?]] [[GenreBlind And I get to cover it?]] [[UriahGambit So soon after the unfortunate incident with your wife?]] [[GenreBlind Where do I sign up?!]]]]-]

The trope name borrows from the original (1960s) ''StarTrek'', where a newly introduced character (who usually got killed in the opening of that episode), was usually wearing a RedShirt.

* This trope sees your Anderson Cooper and raises you a Richard Engel, Chief Foreign Correspondent for NBC News -- aka "NBC News' widely recognized, highly respected, globe-trotting, bullet-dodging dreamboat." What he lacks in Cooper's geographic coverage, having spent the bulk (though by no means all) of his career in the Middle East, Central Europe and Asia, and Northern Africa, he more than makes up for in [[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/25/AR2006102501982.html the sheer number of dangerous situations he's gotten himself into,]] to the point where he has a worrying habit of making his family and friends (including, most prominently, [[Series/TheRachelMaddowShow Rachel Maddow]]) ''very'' nervous. He snuck into Iraq in 2002 under the Saddam regime and was there for six years, living in people's spare rooms and couches under incredibly dangerous conditions, and seeing his friends and co-workers being killed and/or maimed around him (and he nearly got blown up). After that he reported from every nation involved in the Arab Spring, including Cairo the night Mubarak fell and rebel-held Libyan territory during the uprising against Ghaddafi (where he nearly got blown up ''on camera''). Then he topped himself ''again'' by sneaking into Syria post-descent into civil war, and was ''kidnapped and held for five days'' -- a situation he was sure he wouldn't get out of alive. After the latter incident, Maddow hugged him tightly and said, "Now you have to stay here and become a dentist." (He didn't, of course. He turned around and went right back to Syria.)

* [[AddedAlliterativeAppeal Damien Day]] from ''Series/DropTheDeadDonkey'' likes to ''pretend'' he's in serious danger. {{Parody}} meets ExploitedTrope, as he's using the trope to attempt to gain better viewing figures.

The Redshirt Reporter is the man (or woman -- a Redshirt Reporter is about as likely to be a woman as a man) who is doing the stand-up, on-the-scene live report from someplace that's so insanely dangerous or unpleasant that anyone with a lick of sense wouldn't be there. However, an attractive reporter is unlikely to be this on account of BigDamnHeroes.

The Redshirt Reporter is the man (or woman -- a Redshirt Reporter is about as likely to be a woman as a man) who is doing the stand-up, on-the-scene live report from someplace that's so insanely dangerous or unpleasant that anyone with a lick of sense wouldn't be there. However, the HotScoop is unlikely to be this on account of BigDamnHeroes.

* Jim Cantore. Watch Creator/TheWeatherChannel ''any'' time there's a hurricane making landfall and you'll see this guy screaming into his microphone. He is ''so reliable'' about being where the weather is worst that there's a joke that if you see Jim Cantore in your home town, it's '''past''' time to have evacuated.

** The Season 4 episode "Mr. Plow," where Pye is sent ... during a blizzard, in the station's news helicopter and with his job on the lie ... to report on the conditions at Widow's Peak. Even when Arnie and the pilot complain they cannot see or be reasonably expected to complete the assignment, an annoyed Brockman reminds Pye that they are live on the air and viewers want to know -- now -- what the ski conditions are. The helicopter immediately goes into a tailspin, and Pye, remarking that a deadly crash is imminent, cries out "[[KilledMidSentence Tell my wife I love ... ]]" before the live feed is lost. Brockman replies, "Good one, Arnie." Somehow, Pye survived the crash; [[HilarityEnsues whether he sued the station and Brockman has never been made clear]].

** The Season 4 episode "Mr. Plow," where Pye is sent ... during a blizzard, in the station's news helicopter and with his job on the lie ... to report on the conditions at Widow's Peak. Even when Arnie and the pilot complain they cannot see or be reasonably expected to complete the assignment, an annoyed Brockman reminds Pye that they are live on the air and viewers want to know -- now -- what the ski conditions are. The helicopter immediately goes into a tailspin, and Pye, remarking that a deadly crash is imminent, cries out "Tell my wife I love ... " before the live feed is lost. Brockman replies, "Good one, Arnie." Somehow, Pye survived the crash.

A reporter in a helicopter is Killed Mid-Sentence while trying to deliver a If I Dont Return speech to his mum.

* In ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberiumWars'', a Nod reporter is reporting from Sarajevo...just around the time the whole region, alongside most of the Balkans, is ''blown up'' by a Liquid Tiberium detonation. For bonus points, being a member of Nod, he was [[ColorCodedForYourConvenience wearing red]].

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* [[AddedAlliterativeAppeal Damien Day]] from ''DropTheDeadDonkey'' likes to ''pretend'' he's in serious danger. {{Parody}} meets ExploitedTrope, as he's using the trope to attempt to gain better viewing figures.

* ''{{Crackdown}} 2'' shows a woman reporting on the freaks that are overrunning the city at night. Predictably, one of them pounces on her from the side of the screen.

* In Final Fantasy 7 when the pilar collapses, a reporter can be seen reacting just before the screen goes to static.

* The city of Detroit in ''TransformersAnimated'' seems to have averted this by having their RedShirtReporter be a ''robot''. Given all the weirdness that goes down in that city and how much that particular robot gets damaged, it seems to make the most sense.

* In the 1998 American ''Film/{{Godzilla|1998}}'' movie, there are around three or four unnamed or unimportant reporters who buzz around Godzilla during his rampage. On the other hand, this is averted with the minor role of the camera guy - Victor "Animal" Palotti - who works with the main female character... He runs through the giant lizard's legs in front of it to get a good shooting angle, and Godzilla seems to flatten him... Then we find out that Animal stood right in the empty spot between Godzilla's toes. He [[BringMyBrownPants couldn't believe his luck]] himself, either.

* In DaveBarry's novel ''Literature/TrickyBusiness'', the local Miami news station sends a reporter out to cover a tropical storm. She stands in water near downed power lines. Then they send a reporter out into the storm to cover the death of the reporter killed by the storm (And then another to report the death of that one, etc, etc). It gets worse when the station starts sending vehicles out, finally culminating in a helicopter crash. [[spoiler:Ultimately, nine of the station's reporters are dead, representing 100% of the people killed by the storm.]] Both a {{Parody}} and an ExaggeratedTrope.

* In the second ''VideoGame/{{Uncharted}}'' game, Jeff gets killed after pursuing Lazarevic into a war zone without bringing any cops or guards along with him