Here's about as bad a nightmare gets for a sports broadcaster: You have rights to the World Series, the World Series is in the middle of its first game and you lose power.
Yet that's exactly what happened to Fox on Tuesday night during Game 1 of the World Series with the Kansas City Royals and New York Mets tied 1-1.
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In the bottom of the fourth inning, viewers were greeted with a black screen, then a title card announcing "technical difficulties." That was followed by an extremely awkward cut to the studio as play was halted until baseball's TV overlords sorted out their mess. The feed died for about 15 minutes, and Twitter reacted about as reasonably as you'd expect.
We apologize for technical difficulties with our #WorldSeries broadcast. We are working on fixing the issue ASAP— FOX Sports (@FOXSports) October 28, 2015
@FOXSports you suck— Anthony Lombardi (@AntLombardi) October 28, 2015
@FOXSports That happened to ABC once. They had a good excuse. An earthquake. Your excuse is that you're Fox.— Uncle Mike (@MichaelPacholek) October 28, 2015
@FOXSports totally unprofessional.. pic.twitter.com/RcDOLWGU5P— uosʞɔ!ɹә oәႨ (@laleo95) October 28, 2015
@FOXSports @MLBONFOX YOU BLEW IT!— David Castilleja (@davysee9too) October 28, 2015
Many folks were actually kind of excited about the silver lining of not having to listen to Joe Buck, the Fox announcer fans love to hate.
@FOXSports @Ken_Rosenthal It's all good! Any minute without Joe Buck is a good minute!— Nate Gartrell (@NateGartrell) October 28, 2015
.@FOXSports honestly....there is no need to apologize. Please just keep Joe Buck off the air. #WorldSeries— Nick Guerriero (@nickjg2) October 28, 2015
@FOXSports to make up for it, you can also fire Joe Buck. #royals #worldseries— Molly Anderson Caton (@themollyjane) October 28, 2015
Eventually, Fox switched American viewers over to Major League Baseball's international feed. Then, in the fifth inning, the blackout briefly happened again. Cue further meltdown.
This is laughable. FOX should not be allowed to ever broadcast a World Series again...— A.J. Martin (@Zoukeepr) October 28, 2015
Again... thanks Fox Sports— Russell Hartness (@RussellHartness) October 28, 2015
And for those American viewers hoping the blackouts would save them from Buck? He got moved over to the international broadcast.
Not what Major League Baseball needed with the first game of its championship series going head-to-head with the NBA's wildly popular opening night. But hey -- at least it wasn't the Super Bowl.