Viewers in Omaha were stunned on Sunday night when local CBS-affiliate KMTV cut from a high-octane performance by Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Dave Grohl, and others, to a weather forecast by John Walsh.
As usually happens with primetime awards shows, Sunday night’s Grammy ceremony ran a few minutes over schedule. But KMTV decided to run its late local newscast right at 10:30 anyway, abruptly cutting from guitar shredding to the weather outlook for Monday’s commute.
What made the programming shift especially odd was the fact that much of KMTV’s newscast was dedicated to coverage of the Grammys.
Viewers quickly expressed their outrage on KMTV’s Facebook page.
“Did you seriously cut off Paul McCartney & Co? Are you KIDDING me?” one viewer wrote.
“Wow…you guys in a hurry to get home before the snow comes? Cutting off the Grammys like that reminded me of why I do not watch Channel 3 news. EVER,” commented another.
As the criticism streamed in on KMTV’s wall, a couple of viewers accused the station of pre-recording the newscast and running it on a timer–an assertion that’s especially damning since the station intros its evening newscasts by highlighting that they are “LIVE.”
KMTV has yet to acknowledge the angry feedback on Facebook.
While KMTV’s general manager has not responded to requests for comment, a station official assured TVSpy that the newscast was not taped.