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Foxtel takes the blame but hides the detail

Just when you thought it was safe to put Modelgate behind you, Foxtel removes Sarah Murdoch of all blame, without actually detailing anything about what went wrong.

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In any media story of the scale of the Next Top Model bungle there comes a point where you realise “OK that’s the end of that story” and you move on.

I was pretty satisfied that Sarah Murdoch’s interview on A Current Affair was where a day of headlines should let the matter end. She told us she was let down by the production with no answer on her earpiece. It did beg the question “Couldn’t you have done a Gretel and told them you weren’t hearing anything?”, but nonetheless that appeared to be that….

Today Foxtel has released a curious statement in which it “accepts responsibility.” In other words, don’t blame our lovely Host / Co-Executive Producer. Fair enough. But in telling us it was all their doing, do they tell us how it all went pear-shaped? Not a chance. In opening that door again, there is now so much they have left unaddressed.

Press Release:

Foxtel and production company Granada have concluded a thorough internal investigation following the broadcast of the final episode this week of Australia’s Next Top Model. Both have accepted full responsibility for the fault which resulted in the wrong name of the winner being announced live to air. It has been confirmed that it was human error, and not a technical glitch, which caused the incident.

Brian Walsh, Executive Director of Television, said “It was important that Foxtel, as broadcaster, and Granada, as the series producer, conducted our own review of Tuesday night’s events. In doing so, we have confirmed that the fault was a human communications error to the host Sarah Murdoch and that an assumption had been made by the producer which has now shown to be incorrect.

“Live television can be unpredictable and people can be forgiven for making a mistake. What isn’t acceptable, though, is any suggestion that the host, Sarah Murdoch, was at fault or that this was a publicity stunt. Nothing could be further from the truth and we apologise to Sarah for any embarrassment it, and the subsequent publicity, has caused her,” he said. “We have also expressed our apologies to the two contestants, Amanda Ware and Kelsey Martinovich.”

Leonie Lowe, Managing Director of Granada Productions, said “We have identified where and how the error occurred and spoken at length with those responsible. They have conceded the mistake and have personally expressed their apology to Sarah.

“Both Granada and Foxtel would like to express their thanks to Sarah for a marvellous job this season. She has gone beyond the call of duty, having gone back to work on the show just three weeks after having given birth to her daughter, Aerin. The show’s finale was a flawless piece of television up until that last moment when one producer simply got it wrong. We pride ourselves on the quality of our work and it’s disappointing that this communications error should overshadow what has been a wonderful series,” she said.

So just how did that error come about again? I’m none the wiser. Was it somebody busily yakking away on the phone? Was it someone who closed off the phone voting at the wrong time? Was it a producer late from getting back from the loo?

This Release needs more detail, some scintilla of information, about what went wrong. In desperately seeking to remove Sarah Murdoch of any blame it completely overlooks it. It’s the elephant in the room.

It also fails to address a number of other issues:

– whether having live voting during the event contributed to the error.

– why the production didn’t use an envelope to supply Murdoch with the name.

– whether specific claims by one of its sponsors that voting was kept open until Amanda Ware had won are valid.

– whether claims by the same sponsor that three votes at the last minute were in any way part of the equation.

– why Alex Perry was allowed to campaign for Amanda Ware in a show with live voting an hour ahead of other judges and degrees of fairness.

– specific voting results.

Instead the focus is on damage control for Murdoch, a host who most observers agree has been a fantastic addition to the show. At a time when ANTM was busy with catfighting, bullying and hosts walking out, Murdoch joined the brand and brought some much-needed empathy to the show. She even did a great job at a very good finale up until she was let down by the production team when it mattered most.

With News Limited a part owner of the Pay TV giant, the Murdoch name is central to the Foxtel brand.

But what about the the girls who were at the centre of it all? Or the audience who had bought (literally) into the brand?

If we’re really going to open the door on what went wrong again then surely they deserve a little more detail than simply telling us it was “an assumption by a producer”?

17 Responses

  2. Cover up is the words that spring to mind.
    If there was problem why wasn’t director cutting to break or silencing Sarah’s microphone
    what is golden rule ?
    Make an honest mistake and admit it…
    Do not fudge the details and then blame Joe The Cameraman
    P.S. David, do you hide the envelopes or use whiteout to change the winners name

  3. Gretel needs to open her own classes or publish a book.

    “Gretel’s guide to hosting a live television program – where anything can go wrong”

    Sarah would probably be pre-ordering it.

  4. Which begs the question Why did Sarah change her story about what happened for her blinky-eyed interview on ACA??

    It was either (1) ‘fed/read to me wrong’ as she stated on camera on the night during the finale or (2) she heard nothing but ‘silence’. It can’t be both.

    If it was any other person on any other tv show… But it is a Murdoch, on a channel which Rupert M owns a fair slice of etc. Which makes it newsworthy to me.

    Foxtel were also the mob who issued a press release saying Jodhi would be back as host, of course, after her non-appearance at the 08 live finale. Ah, no.

  6. Where is the difference in their stories? Foxtel are saying that it was human error rather than a technical glitch and Sarah Murdoch is saying that after they told her that Kelsey was #1, she heard nothing more. She was specifically told that Kelsey was #1 and Amanda was #2 and when she heard nothing more after that, she announced what she had been told. She said that she was waiting for confirmation, but nothing came through her earpiece (that doesn’t mean that there was a technical glitch – it just means that no one was saying anything. It’s not as though she could say aloud, “Is it definitely Kelsey or has it changed in the past 30 seconds?”). As for those calling for a “real” presenter, David himself said in his article that the general consensus is that she has done a great job, so I don’t understand what the problem is. I agree, though, that rather than leaving the issue up in the air, they should have given a definite reason for its occurrence.

  7. This was orchestrated very poorly and they should learn from it. Some part of me thinks that there was racism involved just a bit at least against Kelsey, because of their deliberate attempt to undermine one of the contestants efforts just because of her surname.

    very racist harpers Bizzar Australia

  8. With Australia’s Next Top Model coming back for Series 7 next year the only way I think they can avoid getting into this mess again is for next season’s Finale to be pre recorded a couple of hours in advance or just let the judges decide who wins and not the public.

  9. i leaning towards a set-up publicity stunt. i like a good conspiracy theory 🙂

    human error = someone purposely not saying who the winner is/or saying the wrong name on purpose

    last year the winner was announce via an envelope. why not this year? a lot easier to get things wrong via ear piece, cover up any wrong doing/evidence and convince the viewers it was a communication error then a piece of paper would i guess

    why not tell us how it actually went down? they probably need more time to fine-tooth comb their story to fill any plugs that might lead towards this being a stunt. Then anyone involved with this show needs to remember this exactly story

  11. One thing is for sure – they should have all sat down and got their stories right before they did this stunt. First you have Sarah going on ACA saying the earpiece went silent, and now the production company and Foxtel are saying otherwise. The only thing that’s for certain is that they need to use a real host next time – not some model with no experience in television – especially live television.

  12. I thought it was a big case of ‘who the hell cares’ anyway. I mean, it was an interesting example of the pitfalls of live TV, but it hasn’t really warrented the kind of attention its getting IMO. Even if the same thing happened on Masterchef, which I do watch, I would be thinking the same thing.

  14. Ah yes, Gretel…she really was queen of the IFB. One thing Kileen did so well was banter until specifics were finally fed through to her or grumble quite funnily about BB and the voices she was hearing. Maybe Murdoch just went into panic mode.

  15. My question is – are they hanging out the production team when part of the blame lies at the feet of Sarah Murdoch? Why announce on Live TV the winner, when, you were not 100% sure who that winner was. If there was nothing but silence in her ear piece, why not ask for clarification? Sarah is partly to blame for the incident and this press release just smells of trying to protect Sarah’s image at the expense of the production crew who are the ones who actually Do most of the work.

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