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Silence as host waited for Top Model name

Sarah Murdoch says she was given no name in her earpiece to announce the winner of Australia's Next Top Model.

Sarah Murdoch says she was given no name in her earpiece to announce the winner of Australia’s Next Top Model.

When it came to the Live TV moment for her to be told the winner from a Producer, no name was supplied. She consequently ran with the last advice she had been given.

“The last thing that was communicated to me in my earpiece was Kelsey 1, Amanda 2,” she told A Current Affair.

“We had this great idea that we wouldn’t use a card, that it would all be communicated to me through an earpiece, so that I too in that moment would find out who the winner was.

“I went into the read, ‘The Winner of Australia’s Next Top Model is…. ‘ nothing….,” she said, indicating her earpiece.

“All I knew was the last thing: Kelsey 1, Amanda 2.

“The point is it was going to be communicated through my ear, and it didn’t come at that moment. So I went with what I had been told.”

But she began to hear the name ‘Amanda’ through the crowd cheers and fireworks and realised that a mistake had been made.

“We had to clear this up in that moment. We had to make it right,” she said.

Kelsey Martinovich was asked what it felt like to have the title taken from her.

“It felt really good to be the winner… but it obviously didn’t happen,” she said.

Amanda Ware said, “I didn’t know what to think. At all.”

Murdoch denied it had been a publicity stunt or that voting had been unfairly extended.

“You would never put your worst enemy in a situation like that, let alone these gorgeous girls.

“The voting was exactly when it should have been. It closed when it was supposed to have closed and the numbers were counted.”

Foxtel late this afternoon issued a further statement reiterating a miscommunication had been at fault.

“In live television, mistakes can happen and we accept that fact,” said Executive Director of Television Brian Walsh. “Sarah was simply not given the correct information at that stage of the proceedings.

“Foxtel is not blaming any individual, and certainly not Sarah Murdoch, as some reports have suggested. That is not true. Sarah dealt with a very difficult situation with grace, dignity and professionalism.

“We do understand the interest this has generated as a news story but hope the focus will shift to the new careers of Amanda Ware, Kelsey Martinovich and all the girls who have made this series of Australia’s Next Top Model our most successful ever.”

Murdoch, a former co-host of the Today show, told Karl Stefanovic on ACA she was having second thoughts about live television.

“I don’t know if I love Live TV so much anymore. I think I will go for pre-recorded.”

21 Responses

  1. It’s not the JKF assassination people. So many theories floating around we might need to get Oliver Stone in on this. Everyone looked like an idiot at the time but lets move on people its over already, it was only interesting for a day.

  2. I actually admire her for being relatively open about her culpabillity in the situation and going on free-to-air to tell the truth instead of hiding behind vague press releases.

  3. Just goes to show how dangerous audio feeds can be, though admittedly, the odds were astronomical that it would go “dead” at such a crucial moment in a live-to-air program. Really, what were the odds? . Old fashioned cue-cards or the even older “envelope, please” would have avoided this desperately mortifying and embarrassing situation.

  4. Her comments about “live TV” say a lot – shows she only cares for her own reputation, and not the feelings of the contestants who were affected.

    Something similar happened on our Eurovision show a couple of years back when the two hosts both announced a different name as the winner.

  5. That doesn’t even make any sense, how is she surprised if they are feeding her updates on who is leading through her earpiece. A name in an envelope offers far more surprise for the host. And yes in the absence of confirmation she should have stalled, that would have been far less embarassing than announcing the wrong name as we have seen, throw to an ad break or something if it takes a really long time.

  6. When Kelsey was announced as the winner her picture went up in the background but just before she started speaking the picture disappeared and was replaced with the next top model logo. Before Sarah then announces that Amanda has actually won, her cover shot is put up! All very embarrassing. Agree, if there was nothing coming through on the ear piece just stall!!

  7. @Andrew_81 and @birddoggy yeah, I think it was Amanda’s… I read somewhere (maybe here, ninemsn or ACA) that Sarah heard the crowd screaming “Amanda” after she announced Kelsey as the winner. So obviously the crowd saw Amanda’s mag on the background, so they knew there was a mistake?!?!?!

  8. If the earpiece wasn’t working, Sarah should have called the result inconclusive and told them to have a model fight to decide the winner. It’s the only fair way.

  9. Seriously? Well this makes Sarah look even stupider than i thought. She wasn’t given a name to announce as winner so she just announced the last name she thought was winner. What a joke.

  10. If she was given no name in her earpiece, why didn’t her facial expression mirror that? In those silent instances where transmission is not as expected, the host would usually say or facially indicate hello? sorry, not hearing anything, and wait a moment. Her response was to look shocked (kelsey?!) and then announce it,. She’s lying.

  11. I think there were two problems here. Firstly the director or whoever speaks to Sarah’s earpiece wasn’t ready for her to announce the winner., so probably should have told her to wait or pad a bit longer. Secondly, when Sarah started to announce the winner is… when she didn’t get confirmation in her earpiece she shouldn’t have guessed. What was she thinking? If it was Gretel Killeen, she’d have just said “OK Big Brother, can you just tell me who the winner is please?”

  12. It was Kelsey’s cover when Sarah announced it and then when she said sorry its actually Amanda the cover up the back changed to Amanda.

    And why was Karl Stefanovic there anyway? Supporting Sarah or he knew there would be a story? Did 9 get the exclusive?

  13. “We had this great idea that we wouldn’t use a card….so that I too in that moment would find out who the winner was.”

    but isn’t handing over a tried-and-tested envelope with the Winner’s name also create the surprise moment for the host too?

  14. @Anthony it was Kelsey’s pic, so either the production team didn’t know which photo to put up until Sarah read the name out which is highly unlikely or it was all a stunt.

    Any other time this has happened the winners photo was put up first then name read out.

  15. Two Words: Cue Card !!! Remember the days when things once were written on Cue Cards ??? Maybe they could have stuck it in an envelope… Where was the floor manager ?? or did they even have one ?? O well next time Foxtel might use some quality coms…

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