BBC Breakfast fans were left in hysterics on Wednesday, after a huge location blunder implied that the Paris St-Germaine stadium had relocated to a rather unexpected place – the English county of Cornwall.
Hosts Louise Minchin and Jon Kay were taking up the red sofa, and discussing the news of Lionel Messi’s transfer to the French football club.
Jon kicked off the conversation by announcing: “The Argentine football star Lionel Messi, as we’ve been reporting, he has signed now, on the dotted line, a two-year deal to join the Parisian club Paris St-Germaine, having left Barcelona – the only club he’s ever played for.”
Louise explained: “They were unable to afford a new deal under new financial fair play rules.”
And the studio quickly cut to football journalist Guillem Balagué, who Louise informed viewers was “outside the Le Parc des Princes in Paris.”
(Image: BBC)
But though on first glance everything appeared to be shipshape and Bristol fashion, with a Paris location tag in the corner of the screen above Guillem’s head, things soon erupted into chaos.
As a split-screen appeared of Louise and Guillem’s video link, the tag underneath the clip announced that he was actually in Cornwall.
Fans couldn’t contain themselves, immediately flocking to social media to post: “Excellent… Cornwall has needed a top class stadium for ages!!”
(Image: BBC)
Another viewer mused: “@BBCBreakfast I was just wondering when Paris was moved to Cornwall?”
As someone else posted: “Didn’t realise PSG had relocated to Cornwall. Perhaps it was something Messi stipulated in his contract?”
“Breaking news: PSG has relocated to Cornwall!” another typed.
A fifth fan tweeted: “@BBCBreakfast your reporter in Paris had a great backdrop, which I don’t think was too near Cornwall?”
(Image: BBC)
As time wore on, the tag still didn’t get fixed, with shots returning to the split-screen and Cornwall still displayed proudly underneath Guillem’s box.
It comes shortly after fans were left fuming at a major shakeup in the BBC Breakfast format, as regional news segments were axed due to “staff shortages”.
Swathes of fans took to Twitter to complain about missing their local news, weather and travel bulletins, with one writing: “@BBCBreakfast why aren’t you showing regional news, travel and weather bulletins? These were vital, and were always a feature of the Breakfast programme. Cost-cutting? Or just a lack of interest?”
Another fumed on Tuesday: “#BBCBreakfast what have you done to the format? Why is Carol on at 7.30? Where is my local news? Will be turning into something else if it stays like this! NOT GOOD. Love Carol but not happy with the changes!”
A BBC spokesperson told Daily Star Online that the “short-term” axe was actually down to the pandemic, explaining: “Like employers in every area of the economy, we’re experiencing staffing shortages caused by Covid. Apart from a few exceptions, we have maintained a normal service so far.
“Our priority is to protect the most popular news programme on TV; the regional news at 6:30pm on BBC One. To do this, we have implemented some short-term measures to ease pressure on our teams.”
BBC Breakfast airs from 6am every day on BBC One.
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
