‘24’ gets cut off in last 10 minutes
TV fans hit the roof when local newscast begins before show ends
By ADAM BEAM
Staff Writer
Midlands fans of the FOX show “24” are used to cliffhangers — but nothing like what happened during the fifth-season premiere Sunday night.
WACH-TV, Columbia’s FOX affiliate, cut away from the last 10 minutes of the blockbuster show to start its 10 p.m. newscast — leaving fans in the Midlands hanging.
“Somebody has lost their mind,” said Steve Arnold, a fan who was watching the show at his Irmo home.
FOX has been promoting the show’s two-part, two-hour season premiere for weeks. It was scheduled to start at 8 p.m., after the conclusion of the NFL playoff game between the Carolina Panthers and the Chicago Bears.
The game went long, pushing the start of “24” back about 10 minutes — and ideally pushing back the start of the newscast.
WACH has a contract with WIS-TV, which produces WACH news programs, to broadcast its news at 10 p.m. If, for some reason, WACH has to delay broadcast, the station can record the newscast and air it later.
Sunday night, that didn’t happen.
I read that this morning. I would have had to do bodily harm to someone at that station!