A bizarre ending to a weather forecast on Channel 4 News last night has sent social media into a frenzy.
Weather presenter Liam Dutton caused some alarm when he seemed to interrupt himself during a broadcast, while updating viewers on the chilly conditions expected for Thursday.
Dutton started off smiling, as he said: “A cold night, a widespread frost, temperatures below freezing and a risk of a few -” and then, without missing a beat, he added, “somebody’s just opened the door.”
He glanced off camera, looking frustrated and slightly panicked, and then paused for a few seconds of agonising silence.
He suddenly sighed and seemed very distracted.
Then, the camera suddenly cut to a close up of the Channel 4 logo for another five seconds – and that was it.
One person on X, formerly Twitter, reposted the clip with the caption: “That is the eeriest ending to a weather forecast I’ve ever seen.”
In just 14 hours, the clip had amassed more than 1.5 million views on X. It sparked plenty of speculation about what may have happened behind the camera to cause that reaction (even though Dutton himself had actually already what happened on social media...)
Dutton did try to dampen the frenzy around the clip by posting on X himself, explaining: “Hi everyone, thanks for asking, but no need to worry, I’m fine.
“The wrong take of the pre-recorded weather was aired.
“Who was at the door shall remain a mystery… In the meantime, here’s what you should have seen.”
He then posted another forecast which was scary for a different reason, as it revealed plenty of snow and ice heading to the UK in the coming days....
This post was significantly less popular than the one posted erroneously, but still accumulated more than 411,000 views.