World Series Game 1 delayed because of TV technical difficulties

October 27, 2015

There was a delay during Game 1 of the World Series Tuesday after FOX lost power to its TV truck, causing technical difficulties in its telecast.

The issue happened during the bottom of the fourth inning. Without the TV feed, there would be no replay, so the game was temporarily delayed.

With network down, game delayed because of inability to review replays in New York.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) October 28, 2015

The game resumed shortly thereafter and TV viewers were presented with the international feed called by Matt Vasgersian and John Smoltz rather than the US feed from Joe Buck, Harold Reynolds and Tom Verducci.

FOX apologized for the outage.

We apologize for technical difficulties with our #WorldSeries broadcast. We are working on fixing the issue ASAP

— FOX Sports (@FOXSports) October 28, 2015

FOX wasn’t the only company having an outage in the area; Google Fiber also apologized.

We're so sorry about the outage in KC. We know it couldn't have happened at a worse time, and we're working as quickly as we can to fix it.

— Google Fiber (@googlefiber) October 28, 2015

FOX’s announcers took over the international feed for Vasgersian and Smoltz and began being heard again in the bottom of the fifth. The managers agreed to go without instant replay as the technical problems prevented the replay center in New York from receiving what it needed.

FOX later issued a statement explaining the matter.

“Before the start of the bottom of the fourth inning of tonight’s World Series Game 1, 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 on-field delay was due to replay capability being lost in both team’s clubhouses. We apologize for the interruption in tonight’s coverage and are working to ensure that the remainder of the World Series is broadcast without incident.”