Channel 4 - TNT Michael Jackson sketch removal.

[gdrewpowers]

Did anyone else notice that the CA said apologies for the TNT show "ending" so abruptly?

[jeffrey44]

@gdrewpowers

Yes, what of it?

[gdrewpowers]

@jeffrey44

I've watched this video five times and I just now noticed it, and I didn't notice anyone else bringing it up in the comments. No real reason to bring it up. I just wanted to.

[williamg209]

this happened to bwbc on livestream while showing sanits row2

well manly the no sound bit

[jeffrey44]

@williamg209

That isn't the same at all.

[williamg209]

@jeffrey44 what do you mean

[jeffrey44]

@williamg209

You know, that bwbc/Saint's Row 2 thing.

[williamg209]

@jeffrey44 well the progam said this program will contine in sound only

[williamg209]

@jeffrey44 iy is they both showed no video

[jeffrey44]

@williamg209

But only one incident was due to Michael Jackson dying.

[wondermulls]

What an unfortunate coincidence, they did the right thing though.

[girlwhoshould]

Remember seeing it and thinking it was a fault. They had to cut it in all honesty. Obviously a rush decision but shows the team at channel 4 were paying attention at nearly midnight can imagine many automated channels would have continued uninterrupted.

[JanetOccupyMJsUtube2]

JANET USES CRUEL METHODS TO OCCUPY MJ`S YOUTUBE.

JANET FUCKS MJ DAILY.



[Goldie267]

Could of atlest put on some music :L

[pancakeman22]

Funny!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!­!!!!!!!!!!!

[pancakeman22]

It's funny to see a programme get cut off by itself. Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha­!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[jaychristie909]

...upon what occasion would they use the "This Programme will continue in sound only" slide?

[jeffrey44]

Good question. I imagine it would be used if someone got their bum out on Channel 4 News or something along those lines.

[hulk239239]

big brother????

[hulk239239]

i like also how it says sound only and its only one slide playing with now sound also jeff this vid is on the gardian website under this artical

[guy2008rules]

@jeffrey44, Unlike BBC, they could of used music.

[eddief32]

@jeffrey44 It would also be used during programmes like Big Brother, as occurred once when a housemate wrote something down and tried to show it to the camera - the message contained something which would have been offensive, if memory serves me correctly, and channel 4 killed the broadcast to audio only.

[jeffrey44]

@eddief32

Why would Channel 4 do that? Big Brother is an Endemol show, it would be up to them to censor or remove anything and they would have their own captions for these things. I only remember Big Brother being taken off air once due to content in the way you describe and that was when there was violence in the house. I am unsure if the programme really did come off air and Channel 4 showed something else or if the programme remained and just showed an external shot of the house.

[LuthansaTerminal]

@jaychristie909 On an occasion where they lost the picture only

TV stations tend to have an equivalent caption for when they lose sound but not picture

[jaychristie909alt]

Understandable, but wouldn't they simply stop the programme, cut to a breakdown slide and apologise for the loss of picture?

[LuthansaTerminal]

@jaychristie909alt

Not necessarily, if it's something live and makes sense without the pictures (a music concert for example) they'd might as well keep it going in sound only

[lfcforever93]

Anyone know what the song is for the theme tune for the TNT Show? I heard it yesterday on another program (as backing music) and wondered what it was...

[09grs113]

LadyHawke Proffesional Suicide

[afuzzyduck]

I must admit I did enjoy the little four flying about there though

[takematt]

its better to just say thers a technical eerror as they are commen so it looked normal

[bananya122cliff]

Oh seriously who cares? I don't understand why people are getting mad about the fact that they cut the end off. Obviously they had to, it would have been incredibly disrespectful to make fun of him minutes/hours after his death.

[Chaoticom2]

true. even a week later though they are making jokes about MJ. even yesterday they did again. i was just thinking its not even funny.

[afuzzyduck]

Why not explain why the end was cut off? And why say that the programme's cutting off early when it's not?

Makes it harder to believe the station when they *are* telling the truth, which I think is the point a lot of people were getting at...

[dandaman58uk]

they could of set the nxt program str8 up but suppose it takes time to reset stuff so thats why it goes of for a couple of minuets . they would of only got the news aswell during the time the program was on air

[pmccaff2007]

No but that would of missed up the scheduals, it all runs on a schedual so if a programme starts at 11:30 they wouldnt just air it 10 minutes earlier because of this...

So everyone was left staring at the number 4..

[dandaman58uk]

tbh they had no option

[anorak103]

A national broadcaster has adequate options if contigency strategies are properly thought out. That is the problem here - they simply did not know what to do. Wrong caption, no filler music or programming and a man paid to tell us absolutely nothing. Very poor.

[LuthansaTerminal]

What would you have done then? It's not something you'd have a standard contingency for, all the director at C4 can do is busk it and blank the offending sketch in a very crude manner.

They could not have said why it was happening without breaking the news about jacko - which would have been a mistake to do

[dandaman58uk]

lol why badly handeld lol if they shown it they would of got in major shit lol i meen they couldnt of known MJ was dieing or died at the time

[anorak103]

Bleh - very badly handled. Especially to have exactly the same on 4+1 an hour later!

The caption made no sense.

The announcer *could* have quoted their news provider ITN in saying "there are reports singer Michael Jackson has suffered a heart attack - as such we felt it inappropriate to continue with this part of the programme". Instead they are paid to sit and occasionally state the bloody obvious - while themselves looking at a meaningless caption.

[jeffrey44]

If you're criticising 4+1 for showing the same as 4 did an hour early then you have completely missed the point of 4+1.

If they mentioned the reports about Michael Jackson then they would have lost half their audience to the various news channels. From Channel 4's point of view, it was better to keep viewers ignorant.

I do think a 5 minute filler programme would have been better than showing the captions though. Especially as the first caption was incorrect.

[anorak103]

The point of 4+1 is to show the same programming with an hour's delay - but they have *chosen* to run that in such a totally automated way that they couldn't prevent the same messy sudden interruption being shown again, am I right? They had at least 30 minutes before the programme began on 4+1 in order to find a cleaner point at which to opt-out!

As for not mentioning MJ - if viewers didn't know about it at that point then surely there's no danger of offending anyone through "sensitive timing"

[jeffrey44]

Are you suggesting they have an editor and/or a producer available 24/7 for the rare occasion that they might want to change something on +1? Of course they've chosen to automate it. Its the cheapest option and IMHO the best option.

As a viewer, I watch +1 to see what happened an hour ago. I don't want them changing history.

The problem wasn't offending people. The people watching either wouldn't have known or cared about the news. The problem was that the Daily Mail would be offended.

[jaychristie909]

A news story like this should be reported from a newsroom. If the CA was to report the news, he could only say so much without any live feeds or studio, so the gallery would be left feeling rather awkward trying to entertain their remaining viewers who have just been told the King of Pop has died.

[anorak103]

In that case the live CA job really is now pointless. If he/she can't tell us what's going on they might as well play a generic breakdown apology.

[dandaman58uk]

ofcorse it would offend it would of bin in papers nxt day and its during the time. even tho they didnt knw it wouldnt of bin taken lightly. i meen imagin (touch wood) some one made a joke about some one ur close to, and they died even if they dint know id still be offended. mabey it wouldnt of bin a massive fuss but its a touchy issue and channel 4 get in anuff trouble to be fair lol

[racrimbpsvc]

ITV would have shown a filler program if this happened there.

[racrimbpsvc]

Very interesting. I like the way the announcer said "We hope you enjoyed that 4 flying there."

[ClactonRadio]

I was watching this on 4HD last night and the picture stayed on but the sound got cut off.

[jeffrey44]

So you got to see 'Michael Jackson' on the show? When you say the sound got cut off, did you hear the Channel 4 continuity announcer or complete silence?

[warrenashcroft]

Yup, the picture wasn't cut on C4HD so the entire MJ sketch was there - the sound was cut with just the same announcements as C4.

[anorak103]

Again - dreadful mishandling.

[hulk239239]

@jeffrey44 this video clip is on the gardian website if you search up tnt micael jackson and go to the gardian one you should find it!