Social media made sure folks on the West Coast were well aware that the naming of a new Miss Universe had gone very, very bad on Fox Sunday night. Sacramento, Calif., Fox affiliate KTXL posted the story of Steve Harvey‘s epic screw up–naming the wrong woman the winner, which forced that woman to endure having the crown removed from her head and handed to someone else–to its Facebook page.
So viewers could be forgiven for being somewhat confused when the station, which aired the pageant in its entirety, dumped out of the messy end of the pageant to get to Fox 40 News at 10, where viewers who may have tuned in to see the cringeworthy crowning of Miss Universe were treated to team coverage on the evening’s rainy weather instead.
“FOX 40, why the hell would you cut it off knowing what just transpired? You should have run the last minute while crown changed to the correct winner!! You increased this very monumental error on Steve Harvey, so we could hear about the rain out side over and over and over!! Bad director on the job tonight!! I was reminded why I never watch FOX 40,” one viewer posted to the station’s Facebook page.
“So you cut over to news even before the real winner was crowned? stupid coverage,” said another.
The reaction was no better on Twitter:
Sacramento @FOX40 abruptly cuts end of Miss Universe pageant after it’s revealed wrong winner is crowned. Apology & re-crowning both nixed..
— John Myers (@johnmyers) December 21, 2015
Total @FOX40 fail not letting us see the most epic fail in Miss Universe history. #MissUniverse2015 #fail
— Carol Dahmen (@sactotrixie) December 21, 2015
Even more puzzling, after watching a show that had been thoroughly and profoundly made newsworthy by the host’s mistake, the newscast that followed pretended like nothing had even happened and made no mention of the story, with the first element in the headline tease being the Las Vegas strip crash.
In fairness, they did have solid coverage on that rain nobody will remember.