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Hockey fans expressed frustration on Saturday when ABC interrupted the Bruins versus Flyers game to announce the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
During the live broadcast, play-by-play announcer Bob Wischusen informed viewers, “We have to go now to an ABC News special report,” as the game was tied 0-0 with just over 7:30 remaining in the period, and the Bruins had a power play opportunity.
The coverage switched to “World News Tonight” anchor David Muir, who reported that Khamenei had been killed in strikes carried out by the United States and Israel.
Although Muir indicated that ABC would be interrupting the game “for just a moment,” the news segment extended to approximately eight minutes, as noted by Awful Announcing.
This didn’t sit well with some sports fans.
“Can’t be doing this dawg,” one X user wrote.
“Couldn’t have done it during an intermission?” fumed another.
One user said the report was “a waste of time” because “people can find out tomorrow in the newspaper.”
“There’s no reason for these interruptions to exist,” another user wrote.
“Anyone watching cable or ABC probably watches the news too and everyone else is on social media in some kind which probably already told them this.”
Another user offered up an alternative way of handling the newsbreak.
“Why can’t they split screen at the very least? We can watch sports without audio. Happens at bars all the time,” they wrote.
The Bruins-Flyers game was switched to ESPN and was available on the ESPN app during the news break, per Awful Announcing.
As Muir wrapped up his report he signed off in part: “We’ll return you now to the game. Our thanks to the team at ESPN.”
When ABC returned to the game the score was still 0-0 and the Bruins were on another power play with 3:40 left in the second period.
The Flyers won the game 3-1, with all four goals coming in the third period, including a late empty-netter by Sean Couturier.
The hockey game wasn’t the only sporting event interrupted for coverage on Khamenei’s death. NBC cut into its broadcast of the third round of the PGA Tour’s Cognizant Classic.