TV News Reporter Suffers Embarrassing Fail on Live Broadcast
A news reporter is going viral following her hilarious on-air fail. WCTI reporter Deja Mayfield had been reporting live on the spot about an upcoming Greenville, North Carolina council meeting when a car accident occurred just behind her, but it was what she said when she thought the cameras weren't rolling that helped her rack up hundreds of thousands of views on TikTok.
Mayfield recounted her flub in a TikTok video, which saw her prefacing the mishap by telling viewers, "I have bad news. A whole car accident happened behind me in the middle of my live shot tonight and I'm so embarrassed. I don't even know what to say." The video then cut to the live shot, which saw the reporter standing in the city at dark and appearing incredulous as she motioned behind herself. As she turned to the camera, she spoke into the microphone, "it's a whole accident that just happened behind me." She went on to ask, "do you all hear me? Do you all hear that," before later adding, "the police is on the way." Just as sirens can be heard in the background and the lights from a police cruiser can be seen, Mayfield suddenly gets much more serious as she reports, "at tomorrow's council meeting the board." However, in the next shot, she still appeared to be thrown off by the crash, Mayfield throwing her hands up in disbelief as she asked, "Do y'all see what's going on?"
@dejamayfieldtv Live TV is…. Live TV 😔🥴😭 but a car accident happening in between my #liveshot was the last thing I expected today. It’s me trying to communicate with the producers back at the station. 😭😭😭😭 Sending all my love to the two cars involved in the accident. Scene was cleared pretty quickly so I’m assuming everyone was okay. If you see this, please reach out to me. 🙏🏾 #NewsReporter #Bloopers #NewBern #News
♬ original sound – Deja Mayfield
The hilarious video then cut back to Mayfield sitting in her vehicle. The reporter told her followers, "And that's literally like not even the bad part. That's not even the bad part. I'm gonna show you." The "bad part" came by way of the actual WCTI news broadcast, which began with one of Mayfield's fellow reporters reporting on the upcoming council meeting. The broadcast eventually cut to Mayfield, still distracted by the accident. Mayfield could be heard saying, "this is so embarrassing," before she smiled and began her reporting.
Mayfield lamented to her TikTok followers, "that was live. Like, the viewers heard me say that." She explained in the video's caption, "Live TV is...Live TV...but a car accident happening in between my [live shot] was the last thing I was expecting today." According to Mayfield, "it's me trying to communicate with the producers back at the station."
While Mayfield may have been embarrassed by the gaffe, TikTok users were quite amused. The video quickly racked up nearly 250,000 views and more than 77,000 likes. Commenting on the clip, one person wrote, "the voice switch is wiiiiiilddd," with somebody else writing, "the way you're so flabbergasted has me crying." A third person quipped, "and the news keeps newsin."