During Saturday morning’s Soccer AM programme on Sky Sports, the programme mocked ITV’s midweek blunder of showing adverts instead of Everton’s winner against Liverpool in the FA Cup.
Just as studio guest John Barnes was about to show everyone how good he was at baton twirling, the picture cut to Soccer Am’s intro titles and then a sign came up on the screen saying, “we apologise for the temporary loss of pictures.”
The picture returned to normal just as John Barnes had finished his baton twirling, and he was standing up with his arms aloft as all the audience jumped up and down around him, going mad and hugging each other in celebration of his supposed amazing baton twirling.
The Soccer Am presenter Helen Chamberlain then said, “That must be one of the greatest Soccer Am moments ever!” Everyone in the studio, from the audience to the presenters, was wearing a beaming smile and looking stunned, as if they had never seen anything so amazing in their lives.
The programme then went for a real advert break before returning to the ‘controller of Sky’, or so Soccer AM told us, who apologised sincerely for the missed baton twirling.
Of course, there had never been any baton twirling from John Barnes, the intro-titles were set up, the wild celebrations had been pre-planned and the apology from the controller of Sky had been pre-recorded hours before the show went live, but the mock was fantastic from Soccer AM.
From the mis-timed advert break to the picture returning to normal just as everyone was celebrating a great bit of skill, Soccer AM’s mock of ITV was great entertainment.
