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Oops. Auto-cue fumble leaves sports presenter scrambling.

Video: Autocue fails are awkward stuff for everybody: presenter, network and audience.

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Have to feel for TEN sports presenter Nick Butler caught unawares when the autocue failed during a report in Adelaide on Monday night.

Even though he scrambled for a hard copy script it was an awkward moment.

“Ok let’s just have a look where we go here…. I haven’t got that script…apologies for this,” he said.

With recent News cuts by networks more and more presenters are finding themselves without floor-managers. Helen Kapalos was famously left in a Live air mess in a similar situation, but with a studio director also screaming in her ear at the same time.

“We fought on as best we could,” Nick Butler told Rebecca Morse.

“You went about as well as our footy team did on the weekend,” she replied.

9 Responses

  1. I believe this is produced through Melbourne studios. Most likely the news studio automation system failed or had a bug. No Floor manager and reduced studio crew, with an inexperienced reader in how to have your own backup prepared will always be a risk to a faultless bulletin

  2. Solid performance by the poor guy put in this position. You want automation? This is what you get. A population of just over 5 million people (Norway) has designed a system that would suit regional “community billboard” style television just nicely. Hats off to Nine for staying away from this rubbish. There is nothing to be saved by engaging with a system like this.Others take note…
    Losing ratings now by just a bit? Try a few nights like this one and see how your credibilty fares. Great stuff – high tech snake oil with absolutley no benefits just like hair restorer. A joke.

  4. You gotta feel for him! The items could have been mixed up; added at the last minute, the news runner may not have got to the floor in time with hard copy; the reader may have jumbled up his scripts. Whatever; he coped. Tommy Little had a similar moment last night on The Project – his comedic skills kicked in; but also embarrassing.

  5. No scripts? So what was on the sheets he had and was groping for on the side? To sit in front of a machine, with no scripts as a backup, is an absurd situation.

  7. John Taylor hosted ABC News Qld a few months ago when the autocue failed. He didn’t miss a beat. That’s when an experienced news host differs from a glorified auto cue reader.

  9. Gosh, where do I begin. Whilst I feel for the Sports presenter I have to say this is the way of the future. Cutting down on crew and cutting corners on the basics of television production will see this occur time and time again. No Floor Manager, no scripts to the floor is just the tip of the iceberg. When you haven’t grown up in the industry at at time when you couldn’t rely on autocue working all the time and equipment failure causing you to think on your feet you end up with young kids who don’t know how to battle on when the technology around them is failing. It’s really back to basics … have a hard copy of every script, know your stuff without having to read it in front of you, if the clock on the counter fails have your own stopwatch running, have someone on the floor to give guidance when an ear piece fails. There is value in having real humans running the show not…

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