Chicago CW affiliate WGN spent a few minutes during Friday’s morning newscast in breaking news mode, reporting on a small plane that had crashed on King Drive in Chicago. The only problem: the plane crash was actually being staged for the filming of a television show and was not breaking news at all.
After spending a few minutes ad-libbing the aerial shot of the crash — “can you imagine, you’re driving down King Drive and a plane just comes down in the middle of the road?” Robin Baumgarten said — the two anchors paused briefly as they were informed via IFB that the station had been fooled (video above).
“We are just getting word that this is being shot as part of a TV show,” Larry Potash said.
“Are you kidding me? They might want to tell the news folks,” Baumgarten said. “Are you kidding me?”
Potash and Baumgarten spent a sheepish few minutes explaining the blunder, and Potash tried to save the situation with a little humor: “It’s for a show that nobody watches on NBC!”
TVSpy hears rival stations are reporting on WGN’s mistake during their newscasts. We’ll post that video when we have it.