Game 1 of the World Series was temporarily brought to a halt Tuesday night after the Fox telecast experienced a "technical issue," leaving U.S. viewers unable to watch the New York Mets and Kansas City Royals, and forcing a delay of game.
After broadcasting a "technical difficulties" image, the broadcast cut to a network anchor who said the issue occurred after a transmission truck at the Kansas City stadium unexpectedly lost power during the fourth inning.
We apologize for technical difficulties with our #WorldSeries broadcast. We are working on fixing the issue ASAP
The game delay lasted about 7 minutes, with the broadcast outage first occurring at 9:19 p.m. ET and later resuming at 9:26 p.m.
In a statement to BuzzFeed News, Fox said the blackout occurred after "a rare electronics failure caused both the primary and backup generators inside the FOX Sports production compound to lose power."
"The issue was immediately addressed, although it resulted in the audience missing one at-bat during the time needed to switch to carriage of Major League Baseball's international feed, powered by a different generator on site," the statement continued. "The on-field delay was due to replay capability being lost in both team's clubhouses."
After the broadcast failure, managers of both teams eventually agreed to continue without the use of replay.
In 2014, video review practices were expanded and teams now have rooms at ballparks where employees can monitor several feeds, and relay information to players in the dugout that allow them to know when to challenge umpires call.
4th ends w/a nice David Wright catch. @Mets & @Royals still tied at 1. Apologies again for our technical difficulties, working to fix ASAP!
The game resumed at the start of the bottom of the fifth inning, with the Mets ahead 2-1.
Most fans were not pleased with the outage:
Has this EVER happened before, where game is delayed because of network transmission screw-up? #WorldSeries
Still, many took a moment to make a few jokes:
Fox Sports truck right now. #WorldSeries
Exclusive photo from the Fox truck.
Update: Fox truck still having issues #WorldSeries #blackout