Let auld acquaintance be forgot
Below you’ll find video footage of what is probably the worst New Year’s Eve coverage ever attempted on a television station.
KDOC is an independent broadcaster here in Los Angeles. One of its investors was Pat Boone (yes, that Pat Boone), and here’s some typical programming from its past: conservative commentator Wally George and televangelist Dr. Gene Scott. (Bear this in mind while you watch the video below — all 6 minutes of it please.)
This year, someone at KDOC decided that it would be a good, interesting idea to do a broadcast of a New Year’s Eve event that the station would create, originally programmed, that would wind up being sponsored by Carl’s Jr. (Another well-known conservative entity. Bear this in mind.) And that, wait for it, it should be done live, because, after all, New Year’s Eve requires a countdown.
Here’s what they wound up with:
- a sloppily dressed and ill-prepared emcee who never knows when he’s on-camera or off-, and who casually throws around fine-inducing obscenities
- a visibly very drunk or high washed-up singer, completely unrecognizable from her brief moment of success, singing flatly and, for some reason, without a band playing behind her
- a hip-hop group slamming that f-bomb around on stage
- unexpected blackouts and cutaways
- and a televised event that closes with an on-stage brawl.
It’s not to be missed.
I do want to add one thing: My heart goes out to the people at KDOC who didn’t know what to do with this event in the moment or how to control it. Almost 15 years ago, I was involved in a significant live event that, before it finally got going, went almost this badly. It was no fun, and it can happen to anyone any time doing a live event. That’s why one hires professionals to do it. (As I had; circumstances — a brand-new major facility without any understanding yet of how to run a performance at the brand-new major facility — were against us.) I’m sorry that this happened to the people doing the event at KDOC. It makes for cringe-inducing television. I do have to wish I could see the reactions of Pat Boone, Wally George, Dr. Gene Scott, and Carl Karcher to it.