CBS production truck outage knocks NFL game off air

Sunday’s NFL matchup between Jacksonville Jaguars and the Kansas City Chiefs was knocked off the air after a CBS production truck was hit with an electrical issue.

• The game with in the fourth quarter when viewers suddenly saw a black screen.
• According to tweets, the network lost power in at least one production truck, which plays an essential role in broadcasting the coverage.
• The game continued in the stadium.
• CBS came back from a commercial break and aired the normal sponsor “billboards” that often appear when coming back from a break, but the area above the graphics that normally show scenic or stadium shots was black.
• Meanwhile, CBS hosts said that the network was switching to a “more competitive” game, which is common practice.
• However, both the Kansas City and Jacksonville markets which, as the team’s hometowns, should have stayed with the game no matter what, also saw the alternate game.
• The power outage also caused issues with timekeeping — with refs keeping time manually on their watches for the rest of the game.