KFSN revealed ‘Dancing’ winner early
Even if I knew who was going to win, it wouldn’t be fair to reveal the secret for all of you who love the anticipation that builds for two hours leading up to the announcement in the last minute of these reality competition programs. But, someone at KFSN (Channel 30.1) threw a wet blanket on that excitement during last night’s season finale of ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars.”
Viewers anxiously waiting for the winner got an early peek at the outcome.
Here’s the problem. It aired before the winner had been named. With that kind of approach, KFSN should
Anchors Liz Harrison and Warren Armstrong apologized twice during the newscast for letting the cat out of the bag early. It was a response to all of the complaints filed via telephone and social media.
Dan Adams, KFSN general manager, says the use of the clip was “a very unfortunate situation” and the station “deeply regrets showing the video shortly before the end of the show.” He adds that mistakes happen but this one happened when a lot of people were watching. ABC reports 14.6 million people watched Driver win the competition.
What happened was promotional advertisements that air throughout the evening are put together by an editor. In this case that wrong footage was selected to go along with the script for the promo that mentioned the “Dancing” finale.
As for all of the angry complaints, Adams says that while it’s a negative, he’s grateful viewers will take the time to let the station know what they feel about what is being aired.
Anyone who wanted to know the winner early could have found the information online. The dance competition aired earlier on the East Coast and numerous Websites posted the results by 8 p.m. But, that information was only available to those who went looking for it.
It’s often hard living on the West Coast. Many awards shows are done by the time they air here and that means results can be leaked. Olympic telecasts are the worst because coverage often can be for events that happened hours and hours before you see it on TV. Usually, in a newscast, a sportscaster will say you should turn down the sound and close your eyes if they are about to report on the Games before a telecast. That’s at least a warning.
Responses to "KFSN revealed ‘Dancing’ winner early"
Such a tragedy. My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families.
I was one of those who tweeted about the spoiler right after it happened. Because I know and accept that spoilers happen (especially for those of us on the West Coast) I purposefully put a black-out on my social media and internet time from 5 p.m. onwards on an evening of a show I want to watch. So to have the footage put right in my face during the five minutes prior to the announcement on the show was just an astounding #fail.
Rick, as long as networks do east coast/west coast telecast, you will have this problem. On Twitter, if you follow Breaking News, AP or CNN you can find out who all the winners are before show airs here in the west. I knew who all the Grammy winners before it showed here. For big shows, awards or otherwise, networks really need to do 1 show only.
Ah, the stale whiff of lazy sarcasm. You could basically offer that comment on any entertainment story — or breaking news item not involving life and death.
Most entertainment stories don’t come with earnest apologies from news anchors expressing shame for their mistake. Did you see the apologies on air? By their tone you would’ve thought they’d incorrectly reported someone’s child had been killed.
But your point is well-taken. From now on I’ll try to make my sarcasm work harder.
I was going to call the station on behalf of a family member who was upset but realized 100 people would beat me to it.