Cockroach Lands on Reporter During Live Shot

How viewers reacted online

Menitoff's colleagues praised her for staying composed and finishing the segment. On social media, viewers took a less formal approach, as viewers often do when a serious professional moment is interrupted by a roach with poor timing.

Several users joked that Menitoff appeared too calm for this to be her first encounter with the insect. Others said they would not have made it through the report at all.

Representative reactions included:

• One Instagram user wrote, “like a regular day for her😂😂😂😂.”
• Another added, “little too comfortable.”
• A commenter joked, “that’s her homie 😂😂.”
• One person said, “A would a holler!!!!!!”
• Another admitted, “Would’ve lost my Job. Instantly 😂😂.”

Put simply, Menitoff stayed remarkably composed, while many viewers said they would have yelled, left the frame, or both.

What Rachel Menitoff said afterward

After the clip spread online, Menitoff explained that she knew something was on her but decided not to acknowledge it while she was still reporting.

“Oh gosh. Oh, I feel something,” she recalled thinking, adding that she ignored the sensation. “I knew it was on me. But I knew if I took notice of it, I wouldn’t be able to continue on with the report. So I said to myself, just get through this moment and then kind of shake it off.”

Menitoff also said the setting helped explain the uninvited guest. The segment was about extreme heat in the Valley, and the conditions were apparently appealing to roaches.

“Ironically, the story was about the extreme heat in the Valley. And these cockroaches are attracted to the heat and the warm temperatures and our camera lights. So, it was sort of the perfect environment for the roaches,” she said.

In other words, the story was about heat, the lights were on, and nature filed its own live report.