WATCH: Technical Meltdown for the Ages Completely DERAILS Local Newscast
CBS Philly had a rough Saturday night, filled with technical difficulties that completely derailed their 11 p.m. broadcast.
Anchor Joe Holden first introduced a segment on late TikTok star Swavy, who was killed last week in what his family labeled as “a senseless act of gun violence.”
“Matima Miller, known as Swavy, had millions of followers on TikTok,” Holden said. “He now joins a growing list of people shot and killed in Wilmington. This evening the victim’s family is speaking only to Eyewitness News reporter Jasmine Payoute.”
A long pause followed Holden’s introduction, prompting him to tell viewers, “We will work on getting that story for you in just a moment. part of the coverage of this, though, is talking about anti-violence in the city of Wilmington, and how gun violence can be prevented.”
“And we will come back with that — more news, weather, and sports. A couple of technical difficulties here, we’ll see you on the other side of the break,” Holden added, yet another long pause forced the anchor to awkwardly stand on-air as he waited for the network to cut to commercial.
The broadcast returned after a 7-minute commercial break and finally aired the piece on Swavy … but … the segment ran without sound for a full minute.
Viewers could hear the crew panicking in the background, trying to figure out their next steps before cutting to a very befuddled meteorologist, Lauren Casey.
“Well, hello,” Casey said after wiping the stunned look off her face. “We’re going to weather now. As Joe mentioned, we’re navigating some technical difficulties and now we’ll talk about weather! The weather — it wasn’t difficult today, 76 degrees in Philadelphia is our current temperature right now.”
Casey gave a rundown on the weather, noting some potential showers after a very sunny weekend in the state.
The network eventually cut back to Holden, who pointed to the technical difficulties before cutting the segment 10 minutes short.
“All right, Lauren Casey, thank you so much. Lauren on the fly there in a very bumpy situation. We do want to point out right now, live TV, folks, lots of technical challenges that do pop up from time to time,” he said. “At least for this moment, they are getting the better of us, so we are going to pause and leave the air for now. Of course, all of our news, weather, and sports around the clock, always available at cbsphilly.com.”
“We do thank you for your patience, and for your understanding,” he continued. “Eyewitness News back at 6:00 a.m. with Natasha Brown in the morning. If we are able to make some sense of some things maybe you will see us again before the night is out but we thank you again for your understanding and we wish you well.”
According to FTV Live, CBS later pinned the on-air meltdown on an “automatic windows update.”
The segment derailed when “automation underwent an automatic windows update, crashing and paralyzing all control three minutes into the 11 PM newscast, forcing staff to try and regain manual control,” wrote the station in a statement. “The staff responded as a team, admirably. Management – typically tone-deaf and MIA in the day after this broadcast disaster.”
Watch above, via CBS Philly.
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