Television viewers in Bismarck, N.D., were treated to some real class this weekend when none other than the great Ron Burgundy read them the news.
Actor and comedian Will Ferrell reprised his Anchorman role for KXMB’s Saturday night news broadcast. The former Saturday Night Live star is promoting Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues, a sequel to the 2004 film about a fictional news team’s sexist reaction to the arrival of an ambitious female reporter.
Dressed in his signature rust-colored three-piece suit and a striped tie, Ferrell read stories off the teleprompter, punctuated them with exaggerated eye blinks and engaged in witty banter with weekend anchor Amber Schatz and the rest of the Bismarck news team.
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Schatz said she has watched the original Anchorman about 30 times, and the hardest part of co-anchoring the newscast with Ferrell was holding back laughter every time he spoke in character.
“The second he said, ‘Good evening, I’m Ron Burgundy,’ I lost it,” Schatz said Sunday. “It was really hard not to laugh.”
He also clowned around, popping into Schatz’s screen while she read a story and telling her after a commercial break, “Amber, you look lovely tonight” before asking her if she was married.
When Schatz told him she wasn’t married, Ferrell replied, “Well I am, so don’t get any ideas.”
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The online video of the 30-minute newscast, which is making the rounds on social media, is part of a widespread marketing campaign for the movie sequel. On Sunday, Ferrell headed to Winnipeg, where he helped cover Canada’s Olympic curling trials.
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