There’s nothing quite like working in live television. Especially when it comes to rolling news. I’ve been there… It’s exciting, fun, fast-paced, adrenaline-inducing, and of course, unpredictable. You’re taught to expect the unexpected. And to think on your feet. Because a lot can go wrong, and often does.

Whether it’s a technical blip, a guest unexpectedly dropping F-bombs during an interview, the autocue going down, or something much worse, those behind the scenes, and in front of the camera, control what the audience sees, notices, or doesn’t. Some of the fails can be funny. But others can have a far-reaching and traumatic impact on viewers. That’s why certain television stations have a few seconds’ delay on live broadcasts. It allows the crew to take control and even cut away should things get out of hand.

Someone recently asked, “What is the most shocking thing that you have seen happen on live TV?” and there was no shortage of answers. Bored Panda has scoured through almost 3,000 to pick the most intense ones. From the sad, the disturbing, to the downright traumatic, the comments prove that anything is possible when the cameras are rolling. If you want to know a bit more about live broadcasts, you’ll find that info between the images.

#1

Gary Plauché k**ling Jeffrey Doucet in the Baton Rouge airport. Doucet was a child m**ester who had kidnapped and r***d Plauché’s son.

Image credits: Shadeauxmarie

Controlling a live television broadcast comes with massive responsibility. It can be a hair-raising experience for the crew, to say the least. There’s a lot going on behind the scenes at a television station. Each person is meticulously carrying out their assigned roles and duties to ensure a smooth show.

But sometimes things go south, as anyone who has ever worked in TV will tell you. Often, how you handle the disasters and recover will determine whether the impact is big or small.

#2

British comedian Tommy Cooper collapsing and dying on stage during a live broadcast.

The audience (and probably most of us at home) thought it was part of the act until they cut to a commercial.

Image credits: robinta

What many people don’t realize is that “live TV” isn’t always live. Often, there’s a slight lag. “Seconds are often lost as broadcast signals are transferred and processed between stations, satellites, and other relays, creating unintentional lost time between the material and live viewing of it,” explains Atlas Obscura’s Director of Programming, Eric Grundhauser.

But that’s not the only thing stopping you from viewing something in real time…

#3

The Challenger Explosion.

Fishmike52:

7th grade for me. We all gathered in the library to watch. They just sent us back to class. Nobody talked to us about it.
Just remember kids you can be anything you want when you grow up! You can even go to space!
Just another reason genx are the way we are.

Image credits: molten_dragon

There’s a ‘trick’ that’s become known as the “seven-second delay.” And this is more intentional than a lag. It buys the TV crew some crucial time to catch anything they think is inappropriate, indecent, or traumatic, before viewers see it. They can cut to a presenter, another scene, or even an ad break.

“Though intentional delay has come to be known as the ‘seven-second delay,’ the amount of time that the footage is held back is really up to the people at the controls,” reveals Grundhauser.

Often, there will be someone in the control room, like an Executive Producer, who knows the station’s editorial policy. They will give the command for the Director to drop the live. Other times, the Director will just do it.

But even with intentional and unintentional delays, some questionable and shocking scenes make it onto air…

#4

Tony Hawk landing the 900.

Dukes_Up:

I think this is the greatest example of perseverance ever caught on camera.

norm_190:

I was a kid and just finished a little league game and we all went out to eat as a team after the game. The restaurant had this on TV and we all saw it and went crazy. One of my core memories.

Image credits: DRHORRIBLEHIMSELF

#5

I saw Oswald k**led on live TV. I was eight. I saw and heard the President of the United States say F**K on live TV this morning. I will be 70 in two weeks. So, in between, not so much.

Unhappy_Gate9739:

I saw it too at age 9. I was eating breakfast and I remember my father crying out, “Oh my God, he shot him!”

Image credits: Retired_Jarhead55

#6

OJ’s low speed chase.

Clusterf**kySh**show:

It was almost surreal – I remember thinking “Well, now we know he did it, else he wouldn’t be running.” We didn’t watch the trial in school, but they called all the juniors and seniors into the auditorium to watch the verdict when it came down a year and a half later. That was pretty surreal, too.

Image credits: areafiveone

We mentioned editorial policies earlier. It’s basically a set of guidelines that a broadcaster or media organization follows to minimize risks. The BBC’s Live Output Guidelines explain that these risks can include “causing harm and offence; giving undue prominence to products, organisations or services; or creating legal problems.”

The site notes that hard and fast rules to deal with individual incidents are not practical. And that’s why there are guidelines in place to “deal with problems such as strong language, national & international emergencies, impartiality and product placement.”

#7

When Danish footballer Christian Eriksen collapsed during a match, I was sitting eating my dinner and I looked up to see him on his back being given CPR by one of the physios. I genuinely thought I’d just seen someone die, but thankfully he made a full recovery and even continued his playing career. I didn’t finish my dinner though.

Image credits: romanlooksstrong

The BBC guidelines state that all live output should be monitored closely, especially those where things could go south.

“Editors should assess the risk of a problem arising in our live output,” reads the site. “It is equally important to make this assessment for a local radio phone-in, a high profile event like a big music festival or sporting fixture, or breaking news story of a sensitive nature, for example, a siege.”

As an example, the BBC says, “When reporting live from demonstrations, disturbances and riots, programme teams should cut away and record material for use in an edited report, if the level of violence or disorder becomes too graphic, or may install a delay.” Like the “seven-second delay,” which we mentioned earlier.

#8

In South Florida, there was a missing persons case of 2 young adults (19/20) who went out on a date, and disappeared. Had the whole community on edge, wondering what happened to them. The car was nowhere to be found, no trace of them.

They eventually found the car in a canal, and had live TV coverage of cops pulling the car out and investigating it. When they opened the back door, the chopper had a zoomed in view, and you could clearly see the girl’s body in the back seat.

I’ve seen some stuff in my time, but that one shocked me for some reason.

Image credits: NN7500

The guidelines add that sometimes events and sporting fixtures are the focus of protest, which occasionally turns violent and escalates into a riot situation. “Our main coverage should be the event itself, although where the protest has materially affected the running of the event, then it will normally be editorially justified to reflect this in our coverage,” explains the site.

However, the BBC makes it clear that producers should try to avoid “inflaming the situation” and/or showing graphic scenes of violence, particularly in close-up.

#9

Watching 9/11 unfold live was unreal. Burned into my memory forever.

CBus-Eagle:

9/11 – watching thousands of people die on TV was so difficult to process emotionally. I felt like I was walking around in a semi-catatonic state for about a month trying to get my brain to fully process what those people went through. Whether on a plane or in one of the buildings. And those firefighters and police that rushed into the buildings….still gives me goosebumps thinking about it.

Image credits: Think_Dream_729

#10

An attack on the US Capitol building, by American citizens.

fartharder:

Jan 6. I had CSPAN on because I was expecting nonsense on the floor. I sure got more than I bargained for.

Image credits: mysticrhythms

When it comes to who calls the shots on what to take live and what to cut, the BBC advises that the person in charge should be someone who can react quickly, effectively, and with authority in the event of a problem. “They should have easy access to the senior production team and the presenter,” it adds.

And what must that person do if or when something goes wrong? “In the event of a problem, they should be able to authorise a broadcast apology or use of the studio to pull away from a performance or contributor, should inappropriate strong language/ gestures, etc. occur unexpectedly.”

#11

I’ll add a shocking thing that was good. Watching the Berlin Wall come down. Extraordinary that it came down and we were watching it live. It seemed profound that with cameras and electronics you could watch history being made as it happened.

Image credits: Curious-One27

#12

The North Hollywood bank shootout. I was home sick from school and it was late morning so nothing on tv but soaps and price is right. Then all of the sudden local news break and I’m watching the real life version of the movie Heat. The whole thing didn’t seem real.

Image credits: dc21111

You might have seen before that normal television programming is sometimes cut in the event of big breaking news, a national or international disaster, or a state announcement. One minute, you’re casually watching your favorite comedy, the next thing, the news appears.

What’s happened here is that the station has deemed the event or announcement important enough to broadcast it live. Each organization has its own way of dealing with situations like this. But in the case of the BBC, it says, “When a live non-news programme finds itself covering a major incident or disaster, it will usually be appropriate to hand over to BBC News, although staff may be asked to continue operating cameras and directing.”

In this case, those on duty are expected to follow a set of principles that are there to protect viewers who unexpectedly find themselves watching an unplanned broadcast…

#13

A man walked up to his wife at a grave site (of their daughter) and shot her in the back of the head while she was slumped over the headstone, grieving. It was live and they didn’t cut away in time. I will never forget it. Used to have nightmares about it.

Additional info: the gravity site was the daughter who had committed s*****e, the dad blamed the mom. Tragic.

Image credits: nurdle

#14

Bud Dwyer blowing his head off in live tv.

Image credits: Acceptable-Guess4403

And here are the BBC’s guidelines for such live broadcasts:

Always report the facts and avoid speculation, source all information, take great care with language and how you frame things, ensure, as far as is reasonably practicable, that names of people who have died, been injured or are missing are not broadcast unless producers are satisfied that next of kin have been informed. Of course, this doesn’t apply to prominent figures.

Reporters are also asked to “avoid putting people who are injured or grieving following an accident or disaster under pressure to provide interviews.”

#15

Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars.

Image credits: AbradolphLinkoler

The BBC also tells staff to “balance the public interest in full and accurate reporting against the need to be compassionate and to avoid any unjustified infringement of privacy.”

The site adds that it is rarely justified to broadcast scenes in which people are dying. “It is always important to respect the privacy and dignity of the dead.”

#16

I remember watching the news when the remains of victims were being removed from Jeffrey Dahmer’s apartment.
I was quite young and didn’t really fully understand that I wasn’t actually in danger. I still have nightmares about it if I’m being honest.

Image credits: baberunner

#17

I saw a news anchor get completely trashed on television while covering a parade live. She was slur singing along with the marching bands “baggy sweatpants…boots with the furrrrr” and hitting on her co-anchor “Bill…everyday I come into work with a sign that says Bill…you’re still a hottie” She was absolutely wasted and having the time of her life.

It was the single greatest bit of programming that I’ve ever seen and *how dare they* claim it was because of cough syrup. That woman was living her best life and I’ve never forgotten it.

Image credits: Equivalent-Pride-460

#18

2011 Fukushima earthquake.

Me, my ex, and my mom were watching the 3am news on TV and they went live to the earthquake.

We watched as the tsunami rolled ashore, and it was so traumatizing watching the aerial of the wave coming in and people driving down the highway or walking not knowing how much danger was approaching.

We saw so many people die and get swept away. People trying to warn others, etc.

I never saw that footage/view after the original Livestream.

Image credits: NUMBerONEisFIRST

#19

That Kevin Ware leg injury. That was wild. Seeing his leg completely hanging on to skin and bone.

Image credits: knightynight1523

#20

Pursuit down here in Southern California and the dude domed himself live on TV with the helicopter zoomed in on him.

Sixtyninealldaychef:

Yep, was a kid when this happened. If I recall correctly, it was this incident that spawned a policy that camera crews working in helicopters have to stay zoomed out if it looks like something remotely violent might happen.

Image credits: ProtectandserveTBL

#21

For my parents it was the e*******n of the Ceaușescus… not shocking for them because they hated the dictatorship but if you think about it today it’s kinda shocking to broadcast a public e*******n during christmas time xD.

Image credits: luziwurm

#22

The Hillsborough disaster.

Image credits: Angryleghairs

#23

Nodar Kumaritashvili losing control of his sled and slamming into an unpadded concrete column at 100mph during the 2010 Olympics sticks out to me just based on how many replays of it were aired because “he didn’t die on impact”, and was pronounced dead at the hospital later so networks thought it would be fine to show. I’ve long held that “he didn’t die on impact” because of Olympic optics, and really they transported a corpse to the hospital. There is just no way that guy didn’t die almost instantly.

Image credits: zoodlenose

#24

When I was around 8 or 10 years old (late 80s or early 90s), there was a civil war happening in my country of birth. A real nasty one with s*****e b*mbers popping off in public places. One tv in the house and 8pm was nightly news. Never missed it and the whole family would gather to watch it.

This is etched in my mind.

A policeman walks the cameraman to a newspaper on the ground and lifts it to show the severed head of the b*mber. It was shown on the news.

No one freaked out because we had seen worse IRL by that time.

Image credits: MrKomiya

#25

Recently, a grown man standing on the stage at a major political event doing a salute made famous by the Na**is and not getting any real blowback for it.

Image credits: Expensive_Finger_973

#26

A news reporter was gunned down on live TV. I was watching it with my dad when it happened while waiting for the school bus, but wasn’t paying full attention so I disregarded it. I forgot about it until I years ago when I saw a video about live TV incidents.

Image credits: AddressThese9568

#27

Remember they showed the Saddam Hussein hanging really vividly as a kid.

Image credits: relax_take_it_cheeky

#28

They never shown it, but Owen Hart falling to his death. I just remember the confusion as they wouldnt show the ring and JR is commentating on what’s going on and what happened. And then to pronounce his death live was heartbreaking.

Image credits: BuckTribe

#29

The Janet Jackson nip slip during the Superbowl halftime show.

Image credits: DestinyInDanger

#30

Zhou Guanyu’s Formula 1 crash at Silverstone in 2022.

The live camera was at turn 2 pointing at turn 1 and you see the UPSIDE DOWN F1 car just careening from left to right across the screen.
I was like what the absolute hell was that!
They didn’t cut to other cameras or the accident for 45min until they knew he was OK. As he flipped over the first barrier and slammed into the second.
Look it up, it’s insane.

I also saw the Romain Grosjean crash in 2020 live when it burst into flames after hitting guard rail…

Image credits: Imdoody

#31

Can’t say I saw it live on TV, only after the fact… I heard the Space Shuttle Columbia break apart over my house when I was little and our family lived in East Texas.

I was playing with a very specific toy at the time that my nieces and nephews still played with as I grew up, and the sound of it still gives me flashbacks to that day. We turned the TV and radio on so quickly because my dad thought it was a gas station explosion.

#32

APS School attack Peshawar Pakistan, 16th Dec – 2014. S*****e bombers asked kids to gathered around him and then did blast. Continued for hours.

#33

The guy who shot himself after the car chase on Shepard Smith’s news program. He was furious it made it to air and I’ve never seen him so apologetic.

#34

The first thing I remember was the OKC b**bing. Seeing the aftermath and staying up to watch the search and rescue crews look for bodies.

#35

Reporter and cameraman getting m******d live on air. Story.

LividMushroom1473:

I watched that live over breakfast with my mom. I was getting my braces put on that day and they kept replaying it in the waiting room. I truly think of Adam and Alison every day.

#36

The deaths of Ayreton Senna and Roland Ratzenburger and in the middle of his act, Tommy Cooper.

#37

Lee Rigby m**der – watching the journalist interviewing the killer on live tv with blood all over his hands was something.

#38

Joe Thiesman’s leg being broken, Clint Malarchuk’s throat being sliced open by a skate, Dave Dravecky’s arm breaking after throwing a pitch, the Challenger disaster and 9/11. I’ve seen quite a few shocking things on live tv.

#39

I want to throw in Damar Hamlin from the Buffalo Bills basically dying on live TV. I saw the play and thought nothing of it at all until he collapsed. Then saw all the players’ faces and knew it was serious.

#40

Not much. I would say the fires here in Southern California. You don’t see entire neighborhoods, miles and miles go up in flames and have no idea whether you’re next, where to go, and what to do if all of a sudden your house, your job, your neighbors, and your kids schools go up in flames. Thankfully I wasn’t affected but it was scary to sit there and watch…for days and all night. Just having the car packed and ready to bug out to god knows where not knowing if you’ll ever return and be homeless and jobless overnight.

#41

A two year live streamed genocide in the Gaza Strip.

#42

The tsunami that hit December 26, 2004, the unbridled power and destruction brought tears to my eyes, watching the people walking on the sea floor amazed, ignorant of the destruction boiling over the horizon was so terrifying.

#43

I was watching the news and they were filming the start of the Rodney King riot in LA. All of a sudden they panned to an area where we see Reginald Denny being pulled from his truck and severely beaten–shocking in and of itself, yet the general idea that someone is filming someone getting beaten and NO ONE is helping was mind boggling at that time. Now stuff like that is all over the internet, but not so in 1992. It really freaked me out at the time.

#44

The Bay Area earthquake footage of folks driving as bridges buckled and collapsed stayed with me a long long time. They replayed those folks driving into their death over and over. That was the worst.

#45

The Grenfell tower fire.

#46

The Bradford City football stadium fire in 1985. Pretty sure it was live as the images are seared in to my memory (if you’ll pardon the expression).

#47

Trump bragging on live TV that he had the tallest building in New York right after the twin towers fell (like within an hour or two). I was blown away someone could be that twisted.

#48

The president of the United States just said “f*ck” on national TV a few minutes ago. Does that count?

#49

The pizza driver with the bomb around his neck. Brian Wells.

#50

My first memory of F1 is watching Senna die.

#51

When I was home from school in the 90s and watched Geraldo Rivera bring on a panel of K*K members and Black Panthers and they all got into a huge brawl (obviously) and Geraldo got his nose broken. Nothing will ever compare to 90s daytime talk shows.

#52

Brazil losing 7-1 in the world cup semi finals 2014. It was so painful to watch towards the end! My Argentine husband was loving every moment.

#53

Was during the war in ex-yougoslavia, end of the 90’s. In France you could see on all the news channels a guy getting his head shot by a sniper. Almost no filters, I was really young and still remember it.

#54

Dan Wheldon being k**led in Las Vegas in 2011.

#55

Well there was Columbine, 911, when Tyson hit of Holifields ear, ni**legate, Jessica in the well… that’s all I can think of.

#56

The meteorologists t**s. Her top had a strap snap right before switching over to her, she was on screen for like 2 seconds and it was burned into my 5 year old brain.

#57

The most shocking thing for me was here in the UK. It was July 2010 and the fugitive Raoul Moat was on the run for going postal. On release from prison. He acquired a shotgun and killed his girlfriend and new partner with it. Then gone up to a police man in his car and shot him point blank in the face. So there had been a country wide man hunt for a week because he was an outdoors man and had gone ground in the countryside. It was already surreal because on that day the police had used the famous SAS trainer and TV survivalist, Ray Mears to help track him down. Ray had found a tent he’d been sleeping in. It was 10 pm at night and the police had Raoul Moat cornered with a shotgun in a river culvert in the northern town of Rothbury. I was watching it live on Sky TV. A banner came up on screen saying Breaking News. SKY then cut live to a completely blind drunk UK football national hero, Paul Gascoigne. Who has turned up to the incident in the town doing a live statement about how he”d brought a fishing rod and a bag of fish and chips. Gazza was slurring that Raoul Moat should give himself up and go fishing with him. My brain at the time just crashed. I could not take in what was happening at all. So that was the most shocking. Raoul Moat shot himself half an hour later. He became something of a folk hero in the UK which was weird because he killed two people and blinded the police man who killed himself a few years later. Turned out too that Gazza did know Moat a bit because Moat was a doorman in Newcastle in the days Gazza was in his prime playing days.

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