For about 30 seconds halfway through the second quarter, NBC aired a completely blank screen — just blackness for about half a minute — for almost everyone in major markets.

Mostly, we were all confused

Nobody expects the most overproduced and viewed television program of the entire year to have such a jarring mistake. Clearly, NBC did not plan that. At my viewing party in the Dallas market, we thought that we had accidentally turned the TV off.

It wasn’t just us.

Blackout? — Tim Kawakami (@timkawakami) February 5, 2018

Did everyone experience that blackout or was it just me — Jeremy Woo (@JeremyWoo) February 5, 2018

true story: i thought our new tv was broken and i cussed — mike taddow (@taddmike) February 5, 2018

Super Bowl dead air? — Matt Allaire (@AllaireMatt) February 5, 2018

NBC Sports soon explained it like this

From NBC Sports spokesperson:



"We had a brief equipment failure that we quickly resolved. No game action or commercial time were missed." — NBC Sports PR (@NBCSportsPR) February 5, 2018

I guess that makes sense. It wasn’t a traditional commercial spot — just 30 seconds then immediately cutting back to the action — and maybe NBC intended to stay on the field. That’s public relations take on things, so you never know, but it seems logical.

But NBC can’t save itself from jokes.

This dead air is more expensive that all of our collective college educations. — Texy (@Texas_Gal) February 5, 2018

FBI cameras connected to all of our TVs through that blackout. Stay woke @KyrieIrving — Roff-A (@MJK_NY31) February 5, 2018

Super Bowl Executive Producer David Chase — Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) February 5, 2018

Apparently the color black is just throwing $5 mill around for Super Bowl ads. — Dan Wetzel (@DanWetzel) February 5, 2018

I paid $3,000,000 for that 30 seconds of dead air. I wanted to give everyone a chance to silently reflect. You're welcome. — Jake Fogelnest (@jakefogelnest) February 5, 2018

Black print. Black background. It's the coolest possible color scheme. — Nick Angstadt (@NickVanExit) February 5, 2018

EVEN BRANDS

Y'all freeze that live feed? — Wendy's (@Wendys) February 5, 2018

AND

Never frozen — Wendy's (@Wendys) February 5, 2018

Damnit Wendy’s why are you so good at this.

Did that cost NBC “more than $5 million”?

I guess not. But if NBC had intended to air a commercial ...

An NBC Sports ad exec said today that the network will average more than $5 million for a 30-second spot for the Super Bowl. — Richard Deitsch (@richarddeitsch) January 11, 2018

Either way, WHOOPS.

The worst Super Bowl ever