Social media was alight with complaints, frustration and unusual conspiracy theories after the ABC aired the previous week’s episode of Shaun Micallef’s comedy series ‘Mad As Hell’.
TV Blackbox has exclusively revealed that a “simple production error by a lone staffer at the ABC’s Melbourne based Transfer Exchange caused the wrongly labelled episode to be sent to the national MediaHub playout centre in NSW.”
MediaHub’s senior executive confirmed the news with the publication, explaining that the fault came down to a wrongly labelled episode.
Unfortunately, they did not realise the episode had been wrongly labelled until the broadcast commenced and complaints came rolling in.
They're playing the wrong one. #idiots #madashelltv
— Shaun Micallef (@shaunmicallef) July 17, 2019
What's with the repeat? I have no life and been looking forward to this for a week!!!! #madashell @ABCTV
— Chris Watson (@theaveragemuso) July 17, 2019
Technical difficulties? Funding cuts?? Auto programming instead of a real person? We're as #madashell pic.twitter.com/iJlvFKUgMx
— 💧Robbie of Melbourne 💔 (@RobbiePHannan) July 17, 2019
It’s officially a stuff-up. #MadAsHell #auspol pic.twitter.com/zsfAjpAyVV
— Sandra K Eckersley🔹 (@SandraEckersley) July 17, 2019
Everybody texting me (mostly mum) – I don’t know why it’s a repeat episode and I promise we made a new one for you. Maybe it was too hot for tv. #madashell
— Michelle Brasier (@michellebrasier) July 17, 2019
The same episode was also repeated in the South Australian/Northern Territory markets, and then later in Western Australia, due to a “lack of staff at the ABC’s Melbourne based Transfer department,” TV Blackbox claim.
However, a ‘lower-third’ graphic was added to the program apologising for the mistake.
The ABC iview team were the only ones who were supplied with the correct episode, which they published online at 9:30pm AEST.
An additional broadcast time will be added this week to air the episode.
(Source: TV Blackbox)
