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Billy Joel’s highly anticipated 100th show turned out to be a huge flop for fans, and all the blame goes to CBS. Millions of fans were in front of their televisions on Sunday night. They were ready to catch the legendary singer performing the 100th concert of his residency at Madison Square Garden. Unfortunately, the network disrupted their excitement by cutting the broadcast short. Now, their anger isn’t being tamed.
Billy Joel’s 100th Show Faces Embarrassing Disruption
Sunday night started off on the wrong foot. The CBS broadcast of the performance started late because of the network’s extended coverage of golf’s Masters Tournament. As though that wasn’t enough mess, the concert hit another snag towards the end. Sadly, Joel’s riveting performance of his hit song Piano Man was cut short.
Fans worldwide soon noticed that their screens went blank, after which the local news came on. Luckily, news anchor Rex Smith of Wane 15 took to Twitter to shed some light on what went wrong. “I apologize to the people who were enjoying Billy Joel singing on TV and then suddenly had to see my face. I’d have picked Billy Joel over me, too. I’m not even the Rex Smith, who is the famous singer/actor,” he wrote.
In a follow-up tweet, Smith explained that the local news stations didn’t know what went wrong. It turns out the issue was from CBS’ end.
Fans Rain Chaos On CBS About Billy Joel’s Interrupted Show
It didn’t take long for fans to lose their cool about the awful mistake and take to social media to lament. Many shared their grievances at CBS on X, formerly known as Twitter. One fan angrily stated:
“Just an absolute disaster by CBS tonight producing the Billy Joel concert. Ineptitude at its finest. Start it late and cut it off early. Just horrible. #BillyJoel100.”
Another disappointed fan wrote:
“CBS has been promoting the Billy Joel concert special every two minutes for WEEKS. So what better way to air it than to preempt it for a half hour and the cut him off MID-PIANO MAN? C’mon guys.”
A third fan shared, “After I waited for weeks through countless promos for the Billy Joel concert, CBS drops the broadcast during Piano Man to do a news promo and commercial? Ridiculous!” Luckily, a statement from CBS promising a rebroadcast quickly pacified fans’ wrath.
The message shared on Billy Joel’s Instagram page began, “A network programming timing error ended last night’s Billy Joel special approximately two minutes early in the Eastern and Central Time Zones. We apologize to Mr. Joel, his fans, our affiliated stations, and our audience whose viewing experience was interrupted during the last song.”
It continued, “Due to the overwhelming demand from his legion of fans, BILLY JOEL: THE 100TH – LIVE AT MADISON SQUARE GARDEN will be rebroadcast in its entirety on CBS on April 19th at 9:00PM ET/PT.”
Hopefully, CBS’ rebroadcast of the performance will be enough to soothe the angry Billy Joel fans.