# Worst technical screwup you've seen on TV **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 16, 2012, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-technical-screwup-youve-seen-on-tv/609674 "2012-01-16T07:00:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Accidental\_Martyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce7236/32.png) [@Accidental\_Martyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Accidental_Martyr)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2012, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-technical-screwup-youve-seen-on-tv/609674/41 "2012-01-17T07:19:16Z")
Several years ago at the beginning of an NHL game on ESPN before the game started there was a wide shot of the ice (IIRC) and someone said, “Don’t fuck with me. Don’t you fuck with me.” this wasn’t audio caught from sideline microphones like it in a football game. It was someone speaking directly into a microphone but it wasn’t the voice of any of the game announcers. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2012, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-technical-screwup-youve-seen-on-tv/609674/42 "2012-01-17T17:42:05Z")
A friend who worked at ABC likes to recall the time the anchor blew the opening narration, stopped and said “Fuck. Let’s start again,” then redid it perfectly. Not that uncommon, except this time it was live, not on tape, and the anchor was David Brinkley. ---
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2012, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-technical-screwup-youve-seen-on-tv/609674/43 "2012-01-17T18:08:00Z")
That reminds me of Lee Corso’s recent [f-bomb](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOaRUtqjifg) on _College Football Live_. If you’re not familiar with the show, one of the big schticks is that Lee will put on the mascot head of the team he picks to win in the “live game”. This time he planned on pretending to favor SMU (the away team) before putting on a giant Cougar head (mascot of the home team, Houston). So, well, you can see what happened. My favorite part of the video is Chris Fowler saying a panicked “We’re live!” before collapsing in laughter. ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2012, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-technical-screwup-youve-seen-on-tv/609674/44 "2012-01-17T19:51:42Z")
> [@Max\_the\_Immortal](#): > > This very night (I assume just on my local affiliate) the first seven minutes of 2 Broke Girls had no sound except for the laugh track and the musical stingers between scenes. It was the funniest thing I’ve ever seen (while watching 2 Broke Girls). I’ve had the same thing happen while I was watching Heroes a couple of times. I had no idea how much incidental music that show had. The worst I’d ever seen, while not technically a technical screw up: On a local news broadcast, the substitute anchor tripped over his own tongue, and was in the process of correcting him self, when he stopped, looked straight into the camera, and said, “I would be happy to get it right, if only a producer would stop yelling in my ear.” ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2012, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-technical-screwup-youve-seen-on-tv/609674/45 "2012-01-17T21:05:36Z")
In the 80s on WTTG in washington (now Fox 5), they cut in for a news break and the anchorwoman was still putting on her makeup, someone off camera said"you’re live" and she said’ “if we’re live, I’ll kill you.” Then the screen went blank and when the picture came back it was a shot of an empty desk, I think the anchor stormed off. Someone else on this board mentioned this incident once. I wish I had seen the Max Headroom incidents in Chicago. I’m fascinated by them. [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/cycVTXtm0U0/hqdefault.jpg "WTTW Chicago - The Max Headroom Pirating Incident (1987) - Original Upload") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cycVTXtm0U0) ---
**Author:** ![Cartoonacy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/848f3c/32.png) [@Cartoonacy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartoonacy)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2012, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-technical-screwup-youve-seen-on-tv/609674/46 "2012-01-17T21:24:19Z")
A few weeks ago, I tried to watch a rerun of _NewsRadio_. The station ran the first five minutes of the episode five times in a row. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2012, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-technical-screwup-youve-seen-on-tv/609674/47 "2012-01-17T21:30:17Z")
I don’t know if this counts as a technical glitch, but. . . For the next two days after September 11, 2001, TV Land broadcast the same eps of some–if not all–of their programs in the same time slots. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2012, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-technical-screwup-youve-seen-on-tv/609674/48 "2012-01-17T21:40:32Z")
> [@Ashes\_Ashes](#): > > The Late Late Show (Craig Ferguson) on CBS? had their lights go out in the middle of the show. Complete black. They came on then went out again and the end of the show was the host holding a flashlight in order to sign off. [Hey, he also broke the camera once.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kj2ut7NApwQ#t=17s) ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-technical-screwup-youve-seen-on-tv/609674/49 "2012-01-18T01:01:21Z")
> [@SCSimmons](#): > > Why would the president of the USA apologize for something an _Australian_ television network did? > I suppose he could have meant the President of Australia, were there such an animal. 😉 Maybe the Queen of Australia had to make the apology. Would have made for a one-sided conversation. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-technical-screwup-youve-seen-on-tv/609674/50 "2012-01-18T02:19:25Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > Maybe the Queen of Australia had to make the apology. Would have made for a one-sided conversation. Why? I’m sure the Queen and her mother could have had a normal, two-way conversation. They’d probably both have though it vastly amusing. Or are you thinking that the Queen and the Queen Mother were the same person? ---
**Author:** ![Fair\_Rarity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fair_rarity/32/153_2.png) [@Fair\_Rarity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fair_Rarity)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-technical-screwup-youve-seen-on-tv/609674/51 "2012-01-18T02:31:12Z")
I wish I had more details, but all I remember was that on a small channel in early prime time (like 7, 730) back in the 90s showed the same commercial on repeat for like 10 minutes. It was really funny after a while. Then it stopped being funny. And then it started being funny again. ---
**Author:** ![Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiendish_astronaut/32/3295_2.png) [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-technical-screwup-youve-seen-on-tv/609674/52 "2012-01-18T02:51:46Z")
British TV channel ITV, which is one of the country’s biggest network’s, ran a big football (soccer) game. It wasn’t exactly the most exciting example of the sport and the game had only one goal. Of course, the two 45 minute halves are normally shown without commercial interruptions but in this game an ITV transmission operator accidentally cut to the commercial break mid-game. The break lasted only 20 or 30 seconds before the operator took the live feed back. Guess which one incident this interruption managed to affect? There was genuine fury from fans up and down the country. The game was a big local derby and the goal was dramatically 2 mins from the end. ---
**Author:** ![Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiendish_astronaut/32/3295_2.png) [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-technical-screwup-youve-seen-on-tv/609674/53 "2012-01-18T02:58:20Z")
Missed the edit window in finding the clip: [ITV Interuption of the Fa Cup Everton 1 Liverpool 0 - YouTube](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXp9wPgZVOM&feature=youtube_gdata_player) The goal was actually 2 mins from the end of extra time in a cup game so there had been 178 goalless minutes before that. Very dramatic finish, ruined by the broadcaster after a very long watch! ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-technical-screwup-youve-seen-on-tv/609674/54 "2012-01-18T03:01:53Z")
> [@Fair\_Rarity](#): > > I wish I had more details, but all I remember was that on a small channel in early prime time (like 7, 730) back in the 90s showed the same commercial on repeat for like 10 minutes. It was really funny after a while. Then it stopped being funny. And then it started being funny again. Stations sometimes deliberately play commercials twice. Most of their ads are either 30 seconds or 60 seconds. But to reach smaller ad budgets, they also sell 15 second ads. That is, the sales department sells them, but the traffic department that schedules them refuses to actually play a single 15. Instead, they’ll play the same 15 twice in a row, so their nice clean grid of 30s and 60s isn’t made all untidy. And the small business gets half the coverage they paid for, gets worse results than expected, and never advertises on TV again. If I were a small business looking to but a run of 15s, I’d partner with another, non-competing business and tie our two 15s together into one 30, threatening to sue the station if the station separates them. Geico was originally all 15s, and got around the problem by making a large number of ads an pairing the ads themselves. ---
**Author:** ![sco3tt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@sco3tt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sco3tt)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-technical-screwup-youve-seen-on-tv/609674/55 "2012-01-18T03:17:14Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > In the 80s on WTTG in washington (now Fox 5), they cut in for a news break and the anchorwoman was still putting on her makeup, someone off camera said"you’re live" and she said’ “if we’re live, I’ll kill you.” A similar incident, also in the 80s, on a different channel 5 (KCTV in Kansas City) during one of those five-second “Coming up at ten” newsbreaks they run in primetime: The shot opened on the newsdesk where the male anchor (Wendall Anschutz possibly?) just sat silently smiling, alone at the newsdesk. A second or two later the female anchor (Anne Peterson or Lili Bliss, for you KC folks keeping score) arose in her chair, coming up from under the desk as though she had just bent down to retrieve a lost pen. She looked at the camera like a deer in the headlights and exclaimed “Excuse me!” as the male anchor burst into laughter. It looked for all the world like she had just finished, uh, servicing her co-worker, and the moment was not lost on him. I don’t think they managed to tease a single story before the newsbreak ended. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-technical-screwup-youve-seen-on-tv/609674/56 "2012-01-18T03:34:01Z")
Speaking of showing the ad twice, back in the 90s there was a radio ad for a memory-improvement aid (ironically, I forget the brand name), whose ad started “most people forget 80% of what they read. That’s a problem!” One time when the ad got played, the ad skipped and so for like a minute all you heard was “most people forget people forget people forget people forget people forget people forget people forget people forget people forget people forget people” until they stopped it. Yeah, most people do forget people. ---
**Author:** ![Patch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Patch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patch)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-technical-screwup-youve-seen-on-tv/609674/57 "2012-01-18T03:44:30Z")
I was watching late night TV years ago, and they showed the same car commercial over a dozen times in a row. The first time it’s a commercial. The second time it’s peculiar. The third time it’s an amusing glitch. The fourth time you’re wondering if it’s going to do it a fifth time. The fifth time you can’t believe they did it a fifth time. The sixth time you spend trying to find the TV station listing in the Yellow Pages, even though it’s midnight and no one’s likely to answer the phone at this hour. The seventh time you watch the commercial as you’re waiting for the TV station recorded message to end, eagerly hoping someone will pick up. The eighth time you’re trying to count how many times you’ve actually seen the commercial. The ninth time you don’t want to duck to the bathroom, as the movie obviously has to start when it’s over. The tenth time you’re latched onto the TV, screaming, “_WHERE’S MY MOVIE!!!_” After that it’s all just a blur. ---
**Author:** ![FordTaurusSHO94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f07891/32.png) [@FordTaurusSHO94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordTaurusSHO94)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-technical-screwup-youve-seen-on-tv/609674/58 "2012-01-18T03:51:54Z")
In 1996, the WWF had a PPV during a wild storm that knocked out power to the arena. The tv feed also died and the rest of the matches took place in the dark. They redid the missed matches a couple of days later. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-technical-screwup-youve-seen-on-tv/609674/59 "2012-01-18T04:35:18Z")
> [@Cunctator](#): > > Why? I’m sure the Queen and her mother could have had a normal, two-way conversation. They’d probably both have though it vastly amusing. > > Or are you thinking that the Queen and the Queen Mother were the same person? I meant the Queen of Australia apologizing to the Queen of Great Britain. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-technical-screwup-youve-seen-on-tv/609674/60 "2012-01-18T04:43:13Z")
It may have been a glitch at my cable provider’s headend, but one night a couple years ago I remember [MSNBC got stuck](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=547777). Brian Williams said the same 3 words over and over again for 9 hours. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-technical-screwup-youve-seen-on-tv/609674.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-technical-screwup-youve-seen-on-tv/609674.md?page=4)