An estimated 100 million people are watching tonight’s Super Bowl, magnifying even the smallest technical errors that would get overlooked during just about any other broadcast.
So when the live feed of NBC’s Super Bowl broadcast went dark for about 20 seconds, millions of viewers were left scratching their heads, especially considering NBC collects a cool $5 million for each 30-second ad that airs during the Super Bowl,
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Momentary blackout there. For about 20 seconds it felt like the world was about to end. #7News pic.twitter.com/YZnJ8e2Sy1
— Justin Bourke (@JBourkeOn7) February 5, 2018
Fortunately, the blackout didn’t cost the network a dime.
“We had a brief equipment failure that we quickly resolved,” said an NBC spokesman “No game action or commercial time were missed.”
Of course, that didn’t stop viewers on Twitter from offering their own funny theories about the blackout. Several media writers made a connection between the dead air and the abrupt ending during the final episode of HBO’s The Sopranos.
Wow, brilliant commercial for "The Sopranos" on HBO Go.
— Alex Koppelman (@AlexKoppelman) February 5, 2018
Super Bowl Executive Producer David Chase
— Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) February 5, 2018
Did anyone else just get an ad for the Sopranos finale
— Drew Magary (@drewmagary) February 5, 2018
The New York Daily News’ Josh Greenman speculated it might have been an anti-commercial commercial.
Was there really a commercial for anticommercialism?
— Josh Greenman (@joshgreenman) February 5, 2018
The blackout reminded New York Times writer Sopan Deb of a scene from 1998’s “Star Trek: Insurrection.”
when things briefly blacked out on Star Trek Insurrection, all the bad guys were beamed to a holodeck and they didn’t realize it. Just saying.
— Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) February 5, 2018
Here are some more amusing responses to the blackout:
Clean clothes are still clean in the dark. If it's clean, it's a #TideAd #SB52 #SBLII #blackout
— Tide (@tide) February 5, 2018
That @nbc blackout would have been a PERFECT #NetNeutrality ad #SuperBowl
— Geoffrey Brailsford (@JeffBrailsford) February 5, 2018
#SuperBowl ran out of ads? #sb52
— nystrom, andrew (@adnys) February 5, 2018
IT’S HAPPENING #blackscreen
— Colby Hall (@colbyhall) February 5, 2018
Best commercial of all time #SuperBowlLII pic.twitter.com/GlWq3qQ4B5
— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) February 5, 2018
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