I was in the midst of watching the premiere of 24 on Fox, when the signal started getting all garbled, and after a minute or two, cut out completely. It’s been dead air for a good five minutes now. Is anyone else having this same problem? Is it just a South Bend thing? I.e., is it just the local affiliate? Or is it the national network? It’s not the cable company — all other channels are working fine.
UPDATE: Seeing as how the website of the local affiliate, WSJV Channel 28, won’t load, I’m guessing they’re where the problem lies. Besides, if the national network had crapped out, Drudge would have something by now.
Anyway, there are a lot of irate 24 fans in the South Bend / Elkhart region right now.
UPDATE, 9:25 PM: The channel just popped back on, after 10+ minutes off the air. They’re in commercials again, suggesting we missed an entire segment of the show. (They were in commercials when the problem started.)
P.S. I blame F**k da Eagles girl. :)
UPDATE 2: One of my classmates wrote an e-mail to the local Fox affiliate about the incident. It’s reprinted after the jump.
To Whom It Will Concern:
I was disappointed this evening when you apparently lost your feed of the much-anticipated (and highly hyped) season premiere of “24.� But I was even more disappointed that there was absolutely no acknowledgement of the technical difficulty, either by means of an on-screen crawl during the episode, or during the news feature story on the “24� premiere on the 10:00 pm newscast.
I would have thought that you would have immediately made arrangements to re-broadcast the two-hour program in its entirety sometime overnight, and given all of us disappointed viewers plenty of notice as to when the re-broadcast would occur, so that we could set our Tivos and VCRs accordingly.
Even an acknowledgement and apology would have been much appreciated. But the news personalities are just talking about how great it is that “Jack is back,� with no hint that they are even aware that the entire viewing area missed a full segment of the program.
I hope you will make arrangements to re-broadcast the episode, ideally sometime before tomorrow evening’s two-hour conclusion to the premiere. Even if you cannot manage it before tomorrow tonight, it would still be much appreciated if the entire show can be aired.
This is a rather inauspicious way to launch Fox’s biggest week of the year.
Thank you for your consideration,
Brian E. Foster
|
Categories: 24, South Bend, Michiana & Indiana
|
January 14th, 2007 at 9:25:14 pm
I am, and I’m in south bend (on campus). I talked with someone in Chicago and there is no such problem.
January 14th, 2007 at 10:22:30 pm
No problem here in Chicago. Did you see where he bit out the dudes jugular!?!!? Suh-weet
January 14th, 2007 at 10:31:04 pm
I love you jack bauer
January 14th, 2007 at 10:37:11 pm
Who is this Jack Bauer?
January 14th, 2007 at 11:04:46 pm
Jack Bauer is a GOD.
January 14th, 2007 at 11:09:49 pm
At the risk of being banned….
I have never seen a single episode of 24.
There, my secret exposed for all to see.
January 14th, 2007 at 11:11:36 pm
http://drudgereport.com/24.htm
Interesting read there.
F the Golden Globes.
January 15th, 2007 at 1:06:46 am
Actually, gahrie, I had never seen a full episode of 24 until tonight… and, I suppose technically I still haven’t, since I missed about 12 minutes of it (grumble grumble Channel 28 grumble grumble). It’s always been one of those shows that I see the commercials for, and I think it looks awesome, and everyone says it’s awesome, and it’s totally up my alley, but then… I just never make it a point to watch it, and suddenly the season’s half over and it’s too late to get involved because I’d have no idea what’s going on.
But this time, I decided to make a point of watching it. So far, so good.
January 15th, 2007 at 1:35:51 am
Pretty good opening episode.
For Brendan, and any other “24 virgins”, realize that the show gets EVEN BETTER when the scope of the threat goes up.
Not to say that the ol’ bomb on the bus is no big deal, but just wait ’til Bauer is biting out a dude’s jugular…in order to get to a nuclear bomb he has to defuse!
January 15th, 2007 at 1:49:48 am
I don’t doubt it.
One question, though. Am I the only one who thinks that the chick who had her friend look up Jack on the private satellite is, like, really annoying? It seems, and admittedly this is only based on one episode, like her acting skills are basically limited to making various pouty faces. And, in terms of her character, I just can’t imagine someone who is so easily flustered and overly emotional would do very well in that sort of high-stakes national-security environment.
January 15th, 2007 at 1:59:04 am
P.S. The character I’m walking about is Chloe. (Thank you Wikipedia.) I guess the traits I notice are supposed to be part of her character: “She displays extraordinary mastery of computer hardware and software but has horrible social skills. Spending most of her time behind a computer terminal, she rarely is sent on field assignments… Chloe is the most recognised programmer/hacker in CTU.”
Stephen King apparently loves her… he’s quoted as saying: “One note to 24 writers and producers: Mary Lynn Rajskub (sulky as ever, but looking remarkably pretty this year) is still one of the best things about the show. So let me close by doing my best John Wayne imitation: ‘If ya hurt the little lady, you’re gonna answer to me.’ And I mean it.”
Maybe she’s an acquired taste.
January 15th, 2007 at 2:36:57 am
She is an acquired taste.
Chloe is one of the most popular characters on the show, and her on-screen time has steadily increased since she first appeared on the series. I have never EVER missed an episode of 24, and every season has steadily built upon the intensity of the previous year. I weep for those of you who missed part of tonights premiere, but reading a thorough recap will fill in the blanks for you (I get all of mine at www.televisionwithoutpity.com , for other shows obviously).
Some nicknames for Chloe: “Potato Face” “Itty Bitty Titty” “Debbie Downer” and “Sad Panda”
She’ll grow on you. Especially when starts repeatedly saving Jack’s ass over and over again via a slew of high-tech wizardry. And she fired a machine gun last year, which was pretty cool.
This year’s premiere was good, but not as good as last season, when President David Palmer was shot dead in the first five minutes, and two other major characters were blown up in the first fifteen.
January 15th, 2007 at 4:47:32 am
Well Gahrie, it seems we have atleast one thing in common as i’ve never watched 24 either
January 15th, 2007 at 9:34:42 am
One thing to add re: Chloe’s appeal:
Many of her pouting scenes occur while she is (disdainfully) using her high-tech wizardry to circumvent some stupid government regulation in order to “do the right thing” (e.g. save Jack’s ass).
If you’ve ever been in the DMV, you’ll begin to root for Chloe after 3 or 4 such scenes.
January 15th, 2007 at 9:36:01 am
I missed the opening run of the first season. I picked up the DVDs afterward, and made sure that I didn’t miss the other ones as they run “live.”
24 may be the best show on TV. I would definitely recommend (whilst you’re still a student and definitely have time) that you rent the DVDs starting at season 1 and going thru season 5. You’ll get context on the character that is Jack Bauer (as well as the others).
That, and it’s better than pretty much everything else on TV right now.
January 15th, 2007 at 12:10:13 pm
Apparently everyone around here that has Direct TV lost the FOX signal for pretty much all evening, starting during the NFC Divisional playoff game with the Bears and Seahawks. Doesn’t seem that Direct TV is too interested in trying to help with the reairing of the episode of 24, either. One of my colleagues got 3 free months of Starz, but no Jack Bauer. I guess it’ll be on iTunes or somewhere eventually, though, right?
January 15th, 2007 at 12:31:55 pm
Out of curiosity, was it raining in south bend last night?
January 15th, 2007 at 1:11:30 pm
Out of curiosity, was it raining in south bend last night?
Ahh, the old “rain fade” issue is brought up. I’ve had DirecTv for three years and have lost a signal twice, for about 5 minutes, when a HUGE thundercloud passed through the area. Rain fade really is not all that big of a problem anymore.
January 15th, 2007 at 3:11:25 pm
clouds are not the issue it is the rain passing between the dish and the LNB that is the biggest problem. It does remain a significant problem in heavy rains — depending on where you live this can be more or less problematic. Regardless it is possible to tell how hard it is raining outside by watching the signal quality on any satellite dish but smaller dishes have a bigger problem than larger ones. Be that as it may, if it wasn’t raining the issue was related to something else.
January 15th, 2007 at 8:05:45 pm
I got this message from WSJV after asking if they’d reair the incomplete episode:
—–
The problem has not been diagnosed yet but Fox is working on it. They control the receivers in our building that bring in the Fox programming via phone lines. There is really no control we have other than taking their signal and putting it on air. Last night for that 10 minutes or so there was simply no signal available to us. They have a backup receiver but it was out as well. We anticipate no problems tonight and I am told the producers of 24 have control over the program (as far as a re-airing). WSJV and Fox have no say as to such a re-airing. Thanks for your interest.
David Gooding
Chief Engineer
WSJV-TV 28
———————————-
And then I got this message
————————————
Stephen Morris
5:07 pm
7 minutes of content was missed. It will likely not be re-broadcast. Fox offices are closed today for MLK Day so we don’t know for sure. We will make an announcement if we are to re-air it.
————————————
It’s unfortunately that as 40 minutes per hour is material that missing nearly 20% of a program is not considered material. :(