All of last week, it seemed every other promotional spot on CBS was touting the upcoming "Billy Joel 100" concert... the 100th performance by Billy Joel, in residence, at Madison Square Garden, taped last March.
It was supposed to start at 9 PM last Sunday. Got pushed back a half hour due to live coverage of The Masters golf tournament, then another few minutes by a CBS Special Report. It happens.
So fast forward to 11:30 PM. Billy is in his last song, his first and most famous (and semi-biographical) hit. Singing the very last verse. And as he's coming up on the very end of the song, with the crowd singing along with him, camera pans showing an extremely happy audience, coming to the climax of the chorus...
...and the screen suddenly cuts off the concert and switches to the intro for the local newscast. Not just here, but throughout the East and Central time zones.
It is being billed as a "technical error." Appears that someone adjusted the programming master control to allow for the late start due to the golf game, but overlooked a further adjustment for the Special Report.
How bad was the backlash? By the Monday early evening news, CBS had responded to all the complaints by (a) issuing a public apology to the viewers and to Billy Joel himself, and (b) rescheduled the concert for this coming Friday evening at 9 PM. With a promise to show the entire concert, start to finish, this time around.
Move over, NBC, you have company in infamy. CBS has finally had their Heidi moment. [ If you haven't heard of that one, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heidi_Game ]
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