Prince Harry's ESPY speech cut short, but why is Joe Biden to blame?
Joe Biden's delayed press conference led to the abrupt cutoff of the ESPY Awards ceremony on ABC.
The Best Team at the annual Los Angeles ESPY Awards ceremony was disappointed when American channel ABC re-ran a segment featuring Prince Harry and abruptly cut off. But now, why is everyone putting the blame on Joe Biden's shoulder?
Viewers saw the broadcast jump back to moments before the Duke accepted the Pat Tillman Award for Service.
Prince Harry’s acceptance of this award, named in honour of a fallen soldier and NFL player, had already sparked controversy. Critics argued that awarding Harry was “exceptionally bad publicity.” Many even asked him to “politely decline” the award.
Following the re-run of Harry's segment, the broadcast cut to a closing montage with credits, leaving the audience in the dark about the Best Team award. It was later revealed that the South Carolina Gamecocks were the winners.
The blame for the timing issue was directed at President Biden, whose delayed press conference at the NATO summit caused a ripple effect. Scheduled to start at 5:30 PM, Biden's conference was postponed to 6:30 PM but didn't actually commence until an hour later. This delay caused ABC's coverage of the ESPYs to begin 30 minutes late, leading to the non-live broadcast and eventual cutoff.
Frustrated viewers took to X to express their confusion and disappointment
One user tweeted, “I'm so confused how the ESPYs ended - someone getting fired.”
“After being delayed by a breaking news, the #ESPYS has gone seriously wrong tonight,” another added.
One exclaimed, “Soooooo #ESPYS24 shows their ass agian. We don't even get the whole n show becasue you cut it off before we see who won best team. But you also give us a rerun of awards we already had to sit through. #messy @ABC I'm looking at you tooo.”
“ABC did not show South Carolina winning the best team award! I am so livid!,” another piped in.
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One commenter explained, “The #espys just glitched, hit the dreaded 11:30p local news cut off and missed the ENTIRE Prince Harry segment — WOW!!”
Another noted, “The ESPYs ran over their allotted time. ABC provided the normal 35-minute slot for affiliates to air local news. Then the ESPYs continued.”