Officials at ABC Sunday trumpeted that their New Years Eve ratings beat those of CBS, Fox and NBC combined, as the Internet exploded with clips of singer Mariah Carey bombing in Times Square.
The singer’s in-ear monitors malfunctioned, leaving her unable to hear her musical tracks in front of one million people in Times Square, and 8.2 million TV viewers on ABC.
The singer shrugged in frustration at one point as her amplified voice continued to sing, revealing what one commentator called “the worst lip-sync failure since Milli Vanilli.”
Her P.R. department put out a statement blaming Dick Clark Productions for failing to deliver her musical accompaniment to her ears, and making it impossible for her to sing.
The embarrassing fail was not noticed by an oblivious ABC press machine, which put out a breathless news release crowing about the network’s eyeballs.
“ABC ranked a dominant number one on the final night of 2016 over its broadcast competition, leading all six half-hours of prime,” the network announced.
As for Carey, she tweeted “s—happens” and wished her fans a happy new year.
–City News Service