Sunday night brought two massive television events – highwire specialist Nik Wallenda attempting to walk across the Grand Canyon with no net or tether… and the season finale of Mad Men. Discovery Channel gave us a bloated prewalk show for Wallenda's journey that would rival the Super Bowl complete with cameos from Jim Cantore and Joel Osteen. As the walk began, Wallenda encountered some difficulties and had to take his time. Scores of viewers around the country began to get nervous.
Not for Wallenda's safety or wellbeing or survival for goodness sake. No, anxious over missing the beginning of Mad Men. As always, these are Real Tweets from Real People…
Come on… Hurry up Wenelda! #Madmen starts in two minutes! #skywire
— Doctor Tunes (@BJStevens13) June 24, 2013
Jesus, please make Nik walk faster. The #Madmen finale starts in 3 min. #skywire
— Rocky Rhodes (@rocky985) June 24, 2013
#skywire Please don't fall, but do finish before #MadMen starts
— Jake Wise (@JakeTheCatholic) June 24, 2013
Eff this crap. Time for #MadMen #skywire
— Graylin Porter (@Graylinsample) June 24, 2013
Screw #skywire, #MadMen season finale right now
— cullen (@cullenbarnes) June 24, 2013
Sorry tightrope asshole, you walk too slow and #MadMen waits for no one #skywire
— Zach Molinaro (@ZachMolinaro) June 24, 2013
Wait, so this dude's father fell to his death attempting something like this? Yeah I'm switching to #MadMen. #skywire
— Frank Cobbina (@FrankC1330) June 24, 2013
This #skywire thing is freakin' scary and fascinating at the same time. But I gotta switch to #MadMen
— Sean Noble (@SeanNobleDC) June 24, 2013
Sorry wallenda, #madmen is on now. You took too long #skywire
— Matt Fedorka (@Fedorka) June 24, 2013
I think it says something about us as a culture when we can say, "a guy walking across the Grand Canyon on a highwire is great, but I've just gotta see the first couple minutes of this scripted cable series" while forgetting that it's a GUY WALKING ACROSS THE GRAND CANYON ON A %#*&ING HIGHWIRE. By the way, does nobody own DVRs or picture-in-picture anymore? It also says something that we could become bored that the walk over the Grand Canyon took over 20 minutes. If only he had to dodge flaming knives or something. (We're definitely inching closer to going back in time to our Roman Coliseum days, just on live TV this time.)
Wallenda must have listened because he ran the last few steps across the wire so folks could switch to the Mad Men season finale in time…
#Skywire guy finishes just as the #MadMen Theme song is ending on the season finale.. Now that's good timing
— Mike Skulsky (@skulman7) June 24, 2013
Can't believe he ran at the end so people could switch over to #madmen #skywire
— James Andrew Miller (@ESPNBook) June 24, 2013
Thanks Mr. Wallenda for not dying on live tv and for jogging it in so we could see #madmen! #skywire
— Julia Porter (@JuliaKayPorter) June 24, 2013
A least Wallenda finished before #MadMen started. #skywire
— FootballandBrackets (@footballbrackts) June 24, 2013
Thank you Jesus for finishing in time for mad men #skywire #madmen
— Jenn (@JennyBuen) June 24, 2013
So yea, good job on not dying Nik Wallenda and surviving your death defying walk across the Grand Canyon. Better job on making sure everyone could see Mad Men on time. Who knows, maybe it was divine intervention after all.