Every great show starts with a rundown. Every miserable show starts with a bad one.
The difference usually isn’t talent or budget — it’s structure. The producers running tight shows are working from battle-tested formats: the right columns, the right cues, the right level of detail for the right department. The producers running messy shows are starting from a blank Google Sheet at 11 PM.
We can fix the second problem. We just dropped a free library of rundown templates — built by event pros, ready to download, no sign-up required. Before you grab one, here’s everything you should know about how rundowns work, why templates save your team hours, and how to put them to use.
What’s the Difference Between a Rundown, a Run of Show, and a Cue Sheet?
They’re effectively the same thing.
A rundown, run of show, cue sheet, show flow, and minute-by-minute are all names for an item-by-item document that outlines the timing, content, and flow of a live event, broadcast, or production. The terminology shifts by industry:
- Sports productions tend to say “rundown”
- Broadcast teams tend to say “cue sheet”
- Corporate events tend to say “run of show”
- Theater and concerts sometimes say “show flow”
The structure is consistent across all of them — what changes is the column headers, the cue density, and the timing precision. A baseball game day rundown might span three hours with hundreds of cues across nine innings. A live broadcast cue sheet might run 60 minutes with tight block-by-block transitions. A corporate run of show might cover full-day sessions with keynote timing and AV cues for each speaker.
Same document, different dialect.
What’s in a Good Rundown?
Whether you’re producing a baseball game, a corporate keynote, or an esports tournament, a strong rundown captures the same core elements:
- Item number & timing — sequence, start time, duration, and preset time for each cue
- Item description — what’s happening on stage, on the field, or on screen
- Department cues — videoboard, ribbon boards, audio, lighting, camera, graphics, and PA script columns so each crew member sees their cues
- Production notes — context, talent details, sponsor reads, and ASM notes
- Scripts — PA scripts, talent scripts, and prompter copy linked to the moment they’re delivered
The format is simple. The discipline is in keeping it accurate, current, and shared with everyone who needs it — which is exactly where most spreadsheet-based rundowns fall apart.
Why Use a Rundown Template?
A template gives you a pre-built starting point. Instead of opening a blank spreadsheet and trying to remember every column you need, you start with industry-standard structure and proven cue sequences — then customize for your specific show.
The wins:
- Save hours of setup time. Skip building columns, cue structure, and timing frameworks from scratch.
- Reduce errors. Pre-built templates capture the cues you’d otherwise forget — military salutes, sponsor reads, between-inning entertainment, halftime exits.
- Standardize across your team. Every producer, show caller, and operator works from the same format, so onboarding a new crew member or replacing a producer doesn’t mean reinventing the wheel.
- Industry-tested. Good templates reflect how pro sports teams, broadcasters, and conference producers actually run their shows — not theoretical workflows from a productivity blog.
For producers running multiple shows a season, the time savings compound fast. A team running 81 home games can save dozens of hours per season just by starting from a battle-tested template instead of duplicating last week’s file and trying to remember what to change.
What Format Should a Rundown Template Be In?
CSV is the universal format.
A CSV file opens in any spreadsheet application — Google Sheets, Microsoft Excel, Apple Numbers — and imports cleanly into purpose-built rundown software like LASSO Rundown. It’s easy to share with your crew, version, and customize without locking yourself into a single tool.
Some teams build their templates in Google Sheets and call it a day. Others use Excel with conditional formatting and macros. Both work — until your show grows past a single producer with a printout, at which point the spreadsheet model starts breaking down.
When Should You Move Beyond a Spreadsheet?
A spreadsheet template is a great starting line. It’s familiar, flexible, and free.
But spreadsheets weren’t built for live production. Once your show has more than a couple of producers, multiple departments running parallel cues, or talent who need a real-time prompter, you start running into the same problems on repeat:
- Version control breaks down. Three people make changes, none of them know whose version is current, and the show caller is running off a printout from yesterday morning.
- Timing doesn’t auto-calculate. Push a cue back by 30 seconds and you’re manually re-doing every downstream item.
- The prompter is a separate document. Your script lives in one file, your rundown in another, and they go out of sync the moment someone edits one.
- Mobile is a mess. Reading a 200-row spreadsheet on an iPad in the truck is a special kind of pain.
That’s where purpose-built rundown software earns its place.
See what a real rundown system looks like without the sales call. Take a self-guided tour of LASSO Rundown — or if you’d rather walk through it with our team, book a demo.
How Do You Import a CSV Template Into LASSO Rundown?
Quick steps:
- Download the template from our free template library — CSV file, instant download, no sign-up.
- Open LASSO Rundown and create a new event. If you don’t have an account yet, you can start a free trial!
- Use the import option to upload your CSV. Your columns, cues, and timing carry over automatically.
- Customize for your show — drag items to reorder, edit content inline, add department-specific columns.
- Collaborate live with your crew across devices. One edit updates everywhere.
From there, you can toggle between agenda, timer, prompter, and display views — same data, different ways to see it depending on whether you’re show calling, running the timer, or feeding talent.
Where Do These Templates Come From?
The templates in our library are built by the LASSO team in collaboration with professional producers, show callers, and production managers who use them on actual shows — pro sports teams, broadcast networks, conference producers, and esports tournaments.
They reflect real production workflows, not theoretical ones. The baseball template includes ceremonial first pitch cues because real producers need them. The broadcast cue sheet has block A through E structure because that’s how live broadcast actually flows. The corporate run of show template has ASM notes columns because anyone who’s run a multi-session conference knows you can’t survive without them.
Use them as-is, customize them for your team’s specific workflow, or use them as inspiration to build your own — that’s the point.
Ready to Stop Building from Scratch?
Every template in our library is free, ungated, and ready to download. Sports, broadcast, esports, corporate, internal — pick the one that fits your show and get to work.
Already past the spreadsheet stage? See how LASSO Rundown gives your crew real-time sync, automatic timing, and a built-in prompter — all in one operational system.
