ABC News teleprompter goes rogue during awkward on-air blunder

A teleprompter on ABC News in Australia has taken on a life of its own, travelling across the studio during a live broadcast.

During a recent segment on the news programme, Professor Anne Twomey was speaking about the upcoming Voice to Parliament referendum when the device started moving towards her as she sat at the desk.

As she was speaking, the teleprompter started sliding behind her, with the autocue rolling with news of an arrest ready to be read out.

Doing her best to ignore what was playing out behind her, Twomey continued what she was saying, but soon started to crack a smile.

Luckily for her, just as she looked like she was about to burst out laughing, the teleprompter made its way past her, disappearing from the view of those watching it all play out at home too.

Soon after a clip of the gaffe started doing the rounds on social media, and people couldn’t get enough.

A guest on ABC News Australia had to content with a rogue teleprompter live on air (Picture: ABC)

One person commented: ‘She did really well to keep it together… she was losing it towards the end though.’

‘I love news bloopers like this,’ someone else wrote.

Another joked that the gaffe came after ongoing cuts at the national broadcaster, writing: ‘ABC News Australia cutbacks.’

Last year two presenters on the channel also had to battle on after a camera couldn’t quite focus (Picture: ABC)

The rogue teleprompter comes after a similar incident last year, when ABC News Breakfast hosts Michael Rowland and Lisa Millar were nowhere to be seen as their broadcast started.

Instead, the camera was stuck pointing into an empty corner of the studio as the show kicked off, with only the bottom half of the presenters seen on screen after it attempted to readjust.

Closer to home, the Good Morning Britain team has also had a run-in with a teleprompter, with the machine sparking an awkward blunder due to a spelling mistake.

Back in 2021, Adil Ray had been promoting the show’s 1 Million Minutes campaign when he appeared to slip-up by saying ‘sex’ instead of ‘six’, however he was quick to point out it wasn’t his fault.

‘It opens to people in England only if you sign up by going to our website by pledging 180 minutes a week for sex…for six… sex?’ Adil read aloud.

Co-host Ranvir Singh sat looking perplexed by Adil’s comments, to which he responded: ‘It actually says “for sex” in there! It does say that!’

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The guest did her best to keep a straight face.