★★★★★ 0/5

Oops! Best of 2023

From watching the wrong FIFA Women's World Cup match, to mistaking Dolly Parton for Cate Blanchett, here are some of the year's finest stuff-ups.

5
Leave a comment

2023 was another year of stuff-ups and Live TV mishaps.

The Commercial Hotel in Walcha, Central NSW, will go down in history as the pub that played the wrong Matildas match to its patrons during the FIFA Women’s World Cup.

While the rest of the nation was on the edge of its seat for an Australia v France quarter final, patrons  were watching a friendly win against France, which screened on 10 some weeks earlier. Former Australian deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce, who was in attendance, posted a video to Facebook from the pub declaring that “in every country pub, city club, suburban home they are doing this tonight. Watching the Matildas.”

News:

ABC News at 7pm, the ABC News Channel and The World incorrectly broadcast a story about Israeli military operations at al Shifa hospital in Gaza. But ABC later advised, “Due to a production error, incorrect footage was inadvertently included of a hospital incident in Egypt ten years prior.”

A week later ABC News 7pm broadcast a story about a High Court ruling set to end indefinite detention for some asylum seekers. “Due to a production error, incorrect footage was inadvertently included of a high school rather than a detention centre. ABC News apologises for the error,” said ABC.

Nine’s Director of Morning Television Steven Burling took to social media after the Sunrise social team claimed an ‘exclusive’ 6:30am interview with Australian miner Arnold Dix, who helped rescue 41 miners in India. Nine’s Today show had already broadcast a Dix interview at 5:39am. “Hey Sunrise social media team. Please note that this interview was not an exclusive, nor was it even first on air this morning,” he posted.

Peter Mitchell persisted when an alarm went off during the Live 6pm bulletin. “We do have a fire alarm going at the moment,” he told viewers, “but we’re being told all is ok. It’s just a drill but I’ll continue anyway, hopefully you can hear me!”

A crow decided to pay a visit to Nines Melbourne skycam used to capture its city backdrop. “We’ll hopefully lose our friend in a moment,” said Alicia Loxley.

Nine News was troubled by technical problems in its afternoon bulletin. Mark Burrows first faced audio problems before lighting issues followed. “We’ve lost a bit of light but we’ll try and keep going,” he stated.

Chris Kohler was spotted making a slip-up when presenting his finance report on Nine News in vision that was clearly not meant to go to air.

Live TV:

Phones going off during Live broadcasts is never ideal. Studio 10’s very own Angela Bishop admitted “That is so unprofessional!” when hers rang. But it was also the ringtone that drew a reaction from Narelda Jacobs.

A phone belonging to UK politician Lord Baker continued to ring throughout a Live interview on on BBC Newsnight.

Mistaken Identity

Foxtel’s Electronic Programme Guide was in need of an update when Ruth Cracknell and Garry McDonald appeared instead of rebooted Mother & Son stars Matt Okine & Denise Scott. An image for The Voice also had Keith Urban still in the coach team, instead of Jason Derulo.

The Project also saw similarities between Dolly Parton and Cate Blanchett…

Nine News Brisbane trumped the network’s new  Olympic deal with a comment from gold medal swimmer Leisel Jones. But it titled her incorrectly as fellow Olympian Susie O’Neill.

Unfortunate timing of a news strap on 10 News First in which PM Anthony Albanese looked a lot like an early incarnation of Dame Edna Everage.

In this clip from BBC, a reporter mistook a fan for Finland’s Eurovision entrant Käärijä.

Plus

Language.

When Melanie Bracewell asked the PM to sign her ‘citizenship papers’ on air, she accidentally dropped the F-bomb in front of Anthony Albanese.

Around the same time as “mushroom poisioning” headlines swirled around the country, The Chase‘s Mara Lejins aka ‘The Smiling Assassin’ dropped an unfortunately timed joke about her cooking. Speaking to a contestant who loves to cook she said, “I’m also an amazing chef and when my boyfriend gets out of hospital he’ll definitely back me up. I didn’t do it!” The episode was filmed several weeks earlier.

Nine viewers took to social media to complain about problems accessing State of Origin. A Nine spokesperson advised, “There was a login issue which happened after the game started and it affected a small number of new users and was resolved. For those impacted the start over button enabled them to watch from the commencement of the game.”

And lastly…

The Daily Mail even republished a fake story on TV Tonight about Dr. Chris Brown hosting Man O Man, two days after its April 1st publication.

Sorry ’bout that!

5 Responses

  1. Great collection as always! A current minor one happening on AppleTV here in WA is the use of James McHale’s image for the next episode of ABC News on iView. He left our news desk back in 2020.

  2. Peter Michell grabbing a drink of water on air, and then at the end of the news everyone showed their bottled water in solidarity! Hilarious!
    youtube.com/watch?v=hSV1y6pn7V0

  3. I found myself watching Today Extra highlights on Saturday recently. They were interviewing John Foreman, so naturally the conversation turned to working with Bert Newton. While that was going they were showing a slideshow of photos of John and Bert doing GMA, but most of the photos were of “Belvedere”. John was very gracious, acknowledging Belvedere being in the photos but did not suggest had the producers perhaps think he and Belvedere were the same person? Not really an oops moment, but perhaps a little awkward.

  4. Ha ha, you don’t have to apologise to the Daily Mail for exposing them as being so stupid and desperate for content that they would republish an April Fools Day joke story two days later, could they be any more pathetic?

Leave a Reply