The Paramount-Skydance-backed network enraged viewers on Wednesday night when its NYE show, New Year’s Eve Live: Nashville’s Big Bash, abruptly switched off.
In place of a Lainey Wilson performance, viewers were greeted with a barrage of commercials. Then, an episode of the Matlock reboot began to air before cutting back to even more ads.
It’s unclear exactly what went wrong, though host Bert Kreischer blamed a power outage. Regardless, the technical difficulties pissed off CBS watchers, who wanted to watch a country-music-themed NYE show — not Kathy Bates tackling legal cases. Here are some of the live reactions:
While CBS execs might have hoped the tech issue would go unnoticed, media outlets quickly picked up on the blunder, such as Billboard, Deadline, Variety and our sister site, American Songwriter.