That hilariously awkward NYE countdown? It's all a setup.
Most television broadcasts of New Year's Eve are filled with people hooting and hollering with excitement.
But there was no such enthusiasm on Australian music show The Loop, which had the most terribly awkward NYE celebration, possibly ever.
It featured an extremely deflated group of so-called "competition winners" who stepped on set to do the most anticlimactic new year's countdown live on air.
It's equal parts depressing, cringeworthy and hilarious.
Surely a group of competition winners can't be that unhappy to be there? Surely.
People scratched their heads on The Loop's Facebook page as to why these guests "looked like hostages", as well as on a reddit thread debating the authenticity of it all.
A few people were convinced the whole thing was a set-up.
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Well, surprise surprise, the countdown was indeed a fake.
The Loop's co-host, Scott Tweedie, revealed on Wednesday morning that they wanted to have a little "fun" with their viewers.
"We pre-recorded a week before ... so instead of doing the greatest countdown ever, how can we make this as awkward as possible," he told Studio 10.
"I called in some of my friends to join us and the briefing was to do the countdown as deadpan and sad as you could be."
Tweedie said they left clues to try and give off the impression it was fake, such as the exaggeration that the group were "Australia's greatest competition winners" and how unhappy they looked to be there.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we got you," Tweedie said. They did indeed.
