Foxtel spokesman: Australia’s Next Top Muddle was Sarah Murdoch’s error
Foxtel this morning said that Sarah Murdoch made the mistake that led to the wrong winner being announced on the live final of Australia’s Next Top Model on Fox 8 last night.
The comments by Foxtel’s director of publicity Jamie Campbell contradict Murdoch’s statement on the show last night that she had been fed the wrong name.
Speaking on Sky News this morning, Campbell said: “To be honest it was the perils of live TV and miscommunication between the directors in the truck in the controlroom out the back at Luna Park and between Sarah on stage. Sarah wasn’t given the right information or didn’t hear the right information and as a result Kelsey’s name was announced.”
He was then pushed by the presenter: “Was she given the wrong information or did she mishear the information?”
Campbell then said:
“Look, as it turned out she was given information that was written on a card in front of her off the stage and at the time she’d previously been given the name Kelsey because earlier on in the night Kelsey was the first person to be put through after Sophie was eliminated.
“So in the heat of the moment in live TV with 2000 people in the audience Kelsey’s name was read out and it was just the wrong name.”
In the live show, which took place at Luna Park in Sydney, Kelsey Martinovich was announced as the winner and had time to give an acceptance speech before Murdoch – who was also an executive producer of the show – revealed that Amanda Ware was the real winner.
Update: Foxtel has insisted that it does not think Murodch was to blame. It issued another statement saying:
“FOXTEL has today re-stated it has accepted the explanation given by the producers of Australia’s Next Top Model that there was a communication breakdown last night when the series’ winner was announced.
“In live television, mistakes can happen and we accept that fact,” said FOXTEL Executive Director of Television Brian Walsh. “Sarah was simply not given the correct information at that stage of the proceedings.
“FOXTEL is not blaming any individual, and certainly not Sarah Murdoch, as some reports have suggested. That is not true. Sarah dealt with a very difficult situation with grace, dignity and professionalism.
“We do understand the interest this has generated as a news story but hope the focus will shift to the new careers of Amanda Ware, Kelsey Martinovich and all the girls who have made this series of Australia’s Next Top Model our most successful ever.”
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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d’oh
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what a crock.
watch the footage – she is holding her ear, looking as if she was discussing with someone – this is a total publicity stunt and a joke. how stupid do they think people are?
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Rob, couldn’t agree more
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There’s no way this is a publicity stunt. Sarah is not a good enough actor to have pulled this off. It looks genuine to me.
The publicity stunt people should stick to their crop circles and UFO sightings.
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Maybe they should stick to old tradition of handing over an envelope with the name in it – unless you cant read then your less likely to Stuff it up – Either way – made the show look like a joke, and whether it was real or fake i dont know but looks dodgy and had lost credit in my eyes .
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100% publicity stunt. Poor ratings all year are the biggest indicator. It turns an otherwise bland series into front page and most importantly gets people talking
a commendable effort
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Slow news day Tim?
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Not a publicity stunt, bigfoot isnt real and the Loch Ness Monster doesn’t exist so stop the conspiracy theories.
What it is though, is great accidental publicity, that money just cant buy. The youtube footage will get sent everywhere, and Harpers Bazaar get to print the cover they wanted.
Win-win, now lets all move on.
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You must exist in quite rareified circles, Sam.
I’ve been in the office for about three hours now.
My non Mumbrella colleagues are still talking about it. it’s the media story of the morning.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
How funny are conspiracy theorists. And lonely…
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You’ve got to love the internet – crazed and cynical conspiracy theorists join with people who wander around posting comments like “this aint news!” or “slow news day, huh?”.
Tim is right – this is the media story of the week!
As for PR stunt… you’ve clearly never worked in television. You nut bags use poor ratings as justification for your BS theories. What good is staging this at the finale? How is that going to boost ratings and keep advertisers happy? This is a DISASTER of epic proportions. No one would engineer this.
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If you’d recorded the episode to watch it back, you would have missed the whole controversy – the show ran over time. It got the announcement of Kelsey winning and Amanda about to make her runners-up speech. Then the recording cut.
Anyway, that’s a side note.
That’s not Sarah’s fault. The screen behind her flashed up Kelsey’s photo on the Harper’s Bazaar cover as soon as she said “It’s you Kelsey”. Sarah was delivered the news in her ear. The info they fed her was wrong, and they know it. Because she’s one of the Executive Producers, they thought they’d blame her. Gotta feel sorry for her.
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Frankly the comment from Jamie Campbell is not helping. So what exactly does Murdoch reading a card off stage have to do with what happened onstage if she is getting live feed in her ear??
I feel sorry for her, because clearly Foxtel is not going to take the heat on this. I’d like to hear a comment from the auditors, because morning news had a 3 vote difference between the contestants….?
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I agree, speed cameras are just another revenue raising device.
Oops, sorry……wrong blog……
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There is no way this was a publicity stunt as not even people in TV Land would deliberately treat people that way. If I were Sarah I would have let the show finish before sorting out the mistake.
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Andrew Demetriou couldn’t have orchestrated better himself!! Why not a draw with PAY-PER-VIEW for the re-match?!!…..PLEEEEEASE!!!!
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I think it was a genuine mistake – really don’t believe that Sarah Murdoch seems the type to agree to a stunt like this!
tsf1910 – I am glad I caught the drama live as when I watched the full show back on IQ it cut out just after Kelsey was announced as the winner!
Have to say though – Kelsey is such a good sport, she handled the situation very gracefully.
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this IS a publicity stunt. Just ask Elvis.
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Gotta see the funny side- could only happen on a bimbo model show!!! All the bitchy judges and silly girlies. I actually thought that Sarah handled herself with grace and intelligence and integrity as she could have covered up her mistake and chose honesty instead. I reckon people will like Sarah even more.
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I just don’t know why Sarah Murdoch’s chucks such a big hissy fit over it, it seems very unprofessional, she doesn’t retrain her composure very well.
But the other girl Kelsey is just so humble and kind about it – shows she is the real winner at heart 🙂 I think she has a really gorgeous personality and seem far more fun loving, having a laugh about it and kinder than Amanda.
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More great moments in Bogan TV!
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why not just call it a draw and re-run it next week?
Seemed to work for football
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Check out the early comments on link http://www.harpersbazaar.com.a.....amanda.htm. One cover of Amanda as the winner was posted at 4.51pm even though the show finished at 9.30pm and voting closed at 9.15pm and now Edwina McCann from Harpers is saying Foxtel manipulated the result…would love to be in the room when the contract for ANTM and ACP is renewed (or not!)
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Well, models will be models no? Should we expect anything more?
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regardless of whether this is a stunt or not, the publicity has been huge!
It was funny watching the commentary from Foxtel staff this morning on social networks, all stating their jobs were safe etc.
What got me thinking was how quickly they jumped in with $25k and a trip to New York for the “runner up” and then Harpers announced they were doing 2 covers, collectable posters etc. We all know these decisions take time to get approved and generally an uber:fast announcement would require some amount of consultancy and agreement before announcement. All happened to fast for me to consider it an accident.
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I can assure you from the conversations today it was definitely NOT a publicity stunt
A. That would be far too risky
B. That would be far too nasty
C. That would be far too clever…
D. We would have leveraged the resulting buzz far better if we knew it was going to happen
Honest mistakes sometimes happen on live TV
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@Someone at FOXTEL – thank-you, they are very good points! your convincing me it actually wasn’t a stunt. But hey! it has done wonders for the shows coverage today.
@stu – HAHAHA to your comment, “More great moments in Bogan TV!”
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I don’t think Foxtel publicity are clever enough to engineer a stunt like this as is evident by Jamie Campbell’s ridiculous comments on Sky News this morning. What an idiot – you agree to a ‘line’ and you stick to it – don’t get pushed into continuing talking. Don’t deviate and certainly don’t blame your talent for it! If Sarah was to blame then why did Kelsely cover of HB come up at the same time?
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@Mike See point C.
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yep this is what it’s come too…..
a swag of reality shows all fighting it out for the best knee jerks…
i’m taking up knitting again….
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can ppl shut the hell up, my god, the world is not full of conspiracy theories and cover ups and secret agendas, it was a mistake that is all, not murdochs fault, she was fed the wrong info. Why would sarah agree to humiliate herself on live tv by agreeing to read out the wrong name first, why would she agree to do that to herself???
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(Edited under Mumbrella content moderation policy)
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check this out … http://youvebeenmurdoched.com/
Delivering the news Murdoch style … hilarious
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I wish they made this same mistake on this season of American Idol. (“The winner is… Lee DeWyze! Oh wait… it’s Crystal! )
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Well, on South African Idols last year we had 2 winners, because the votes were apparently counted incorrectly. We were however not told this on the same night, but the next day there ws rumours and then day 2 they announced that the other person actually won. He then got this very small party to celebrate while the person who won, well, she had her moment on TV… Just wrong. Now they both are apparently winners, although I feel the right person eventually was confirmed to have the most votes.
But I feel they should leave enough time to accurately count the votes before announcing a winner!! I dont like it when voting closes an hour before the announcement…
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Shame on Mumbrella for not updating this story or headline all day. But I guess nothing beats a good headline, eh? It took Sarah 30 seconds to correct the winner but Mumbrella how long? I guess we’ll have to be informed in the traditional media tomorrow. Pretty slack Tim.
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