History was made late Thursday night, thanks to what may have been the strangest segment ever recorded by a sports reporter.
That might be a slight exaggeration, but this was still a weird one. Cincinnati sports reporter Jeremy Rauch signed on to tease his upcoming report during the 11pm edition of Fox 19 Now, and then he signed off. Or so he thought. Believing the network was in a commercial break, Rauch began to kill time by strutting around the studio.
The problem, however, is Fox 19 never made it to break, leaving Rauch unknowingly on camera with a hot mic for 35 seconds. Rauch proceeded to talk to someone off camera, but without context, it sounded like awkward nonsense to the audience.
Wut? pic.twitter.com/3CvrzweFgT
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) May 26, 2023
“Really…huh…that’s a good point…yeah like…thank you App State,” Rauch rattled off. But even better than the quotes may have been the hand motions from Rauch as he paced in front of the camera.
Showing a good sense of humor about the whole thing, shortly after the segment aired on Fox 19, Rauch actually tweeted video of what has to be the strangest 35 seconds of his TV career. He added some context, explaining he was waiting to record a one-minute editorial for the network’s morning show, and it inadvertently went live.
“I was on camera tonight with a hot mic for 35 seconds during a break because of a system malfunction,” Rauch tweeted. “There are several moments in here that make zero sense without explanation and I love it.”
And so, without further context, they’ll continue to make zero sense. This was the type of hot mic incident that would have any viewer holding their breath while watching live, but deserved a laugh once the network made it to commercial without any sort of harmful incident. To no fault of his own, Rauch was put in a risky spot by a “system malfunction,” but he allowed us all to enjoy it by being a good sport. As far as hot mic incidents go, this is one everybody can chuckle at.
[Fox 19]
