CBS New Year’s Eve Special ‘Nashville’s Big Bash’ Faces Technical Difficulties, Prompting Quick Switch to ‘Matlock’ Rerun
CBS’s popular legal drama Matlock unexpectedly aired during the network’s New Year’s Eve special.
Approximately 42.5 minutes into the holiday presentation, New Year’s Eve Live: Nashville’s Big Bash, a performance by Lainey Wilson was abruptly cut off. The screen went black for a few moments, followed by a series of promotional clips for Survivor and other CBS shows before switching to a scene from Matlock, starring Kathy Bates. This broadcast continued for some time, often interrupted by advertisements and promotions, accompanied by a message that read, “We are experiencing technical difficulties,” later updated to a longer notice, “We are experiencing technical difficulties and programming will resume shortly.”
Following a disruption that lasted over 12 minutes, Nashville’s Big Bash returned to air, with co-host Bert Kreischer addressing the outage.
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“We lost power here in Nashville, and we got kicked off the air on CBS,” Kreischer explained, joking alongside co-host Hardy that none of them had accidentally disconnected any plugs.
The special aired live on CBS and Paramount+ from 8-10 p.m. ET/PT, continuing until 1:30 a.m. ET/PT. Due to the late finish on the East Coast, there was no opportunity to edit the broadcast in real-time for West Coast viewers, who also experienced the 12-minute interruption.
