Oh man, the dead air is a killer on the radio or television, but especially on television. Wow...
At first I thought the dead air was transmission time - the lag you often get on digital communications. But his later replies and hers were instantaneous indicating that there was zero lag. So it looked like the dead-air time was a “deer in the headlights” problem - brain going “bzzzttt — pffft — kerwhump!”
To be fair, the dead air may be due to satellite connection. It takes a while for the hamsters to get from point to point.