Top 10 Most Legendary F**k ups in TV History

#10: Never-Ending Nautical

“The Apprentice” (2005-)

Of all the blunders in “The Apprentice’s” long and deeply cringe history, this is by far the most memorable. In the first episode of series sixteen, contestants were asked to market a luxury cruise experience, and the boys’ team targeted empty nesters with their Never-Ending Nautical brand. Unfortunately, the logo was one, big problem, with none of the men in the room realising that they’d just created an image evocative of tummy troubles to front its sea-faring company. Karren Brady was helpless in the corner, and when they made it to the board room, they were ripped apart by Lord Sugar. It was even worse than the “Boom Pop” airline slogan.

#9: Baked Alaska

“The Great British Bake Off” (2010-)

It’s still not totally clear what happened here, but it seems that Iain just didn’t put his ice cream in the freezer for long enough. Though fellow contestant Diana Beard was the victim of an online hate campaign over “Bingate”, accused of sabotage, the blame lay at Iain’s door. He was encouraged by Mel and Sue to present anyway, since there was still a chance he had the flavours right in his baked Alaska, but it wasn’t to be. He chucked his bake in the bin and was promptly booted from the tent, with this moment going down in infamy as “Bake Off’s” biggest scandal.

#8: The Ending

“Crossroads” (1964-88; 2001-03)

Maybe trying to revive “Crossroads” at all was a monumental screw up. Throughout its original, twenty-year run, it had become synonymous with underprepared actors and dodgy sets, getting itself famously parodied by Victoria Wood in her “Acorn Antiques” sketch. But in 2001, ITV thought that the time for “Crossroads” had come again, so it was revived for another two years. Imagine the nation’s surprise, however, when they tuned in for the very last episode and were treated to Jane Asher waking up as a supermarket checkout girl. Stranger yet, the entire revival had been her dream, because she was a fan of the original series, and the characters were all based on her colleagues and customers.

#7: Nat & Georgia

“Brookside” (1982-2003)

More soaps, “Brookside’s” flagging ratings in the mid-to-late 1990s led to increasingly outlandish plots popping up in its famous cul-de-sac, including this one centring on new residents Nat and Georgia Simpson. After many episodes of simmering, sexual tension, viewers’ worst nightmares were soon realised: Nat and Georgia were siblings, and they were in love, conducting an illicit relationship under their parents’ roof. They were eventually caught at it by their younger brother, but the storyline was abandoned before long. It’s one of the rare cases when Channel 4’s apologised for its outrageous broadcasting track record, after massive public outcry.

#6: Investigative Journalist

“Blind Date” (1985-2003; 2017-19)

An iconic moment in Cilla Black’s career, this was mostly an eff up for Nicola Gill, the “Cosmo” journalist herself who’d tried to trick ITV. In sensational scenes, after Nicola went on her date Paul and they returned to the studio, Cilla outed her on camera as an undercover reporter writing a story about being on the show. Worse, she was in a relationship, so didn’t have a future with any of the men on the programme. Then again, maybe ITV should have done some better vetting, since she didn’t even use a fake name. According to Gill herself, she was caught out after someone tipped off a “Blind Date” producer at a party.

#5: Unwise But Not Illegal

“This Morning” (1988-)

Phillip Schofield’s PR managers have a lot to answer for. Who knew when they came up with this “unwise but not illegal” excuse for Schofield that it would take on a life of its own, with his insistence that he hadn’t committed a crime making centre stage. The entire scandal and his repeated lies about it ended his long television career, after he made wrong move after wrong move. Anybody could have told him that he shouldn’t have cheated on his wife with a man forty years younger than him who he’d first met as a teenager, but apparently, that wasn’t enough. His career went down in flames and even a self-pitying stint on a desert island couldn’t resurrect it.

#4: Nadine Coyle Gets Caught Out

“Popstars” (2001-02)

She successfully got through the auditions for the short-lived Irish version of “Popstars” only to accidentally reveal, on camera, that she was born in 1985. The problem? This was 2001, and she was only sixteen, but she had to be eighteen to get on the show. She didn’t immediately fess up to lying, instead weaving an elaborate tale that she’d somehow forgotten her own date of birth and given one that made her underage. It turned out that she also conveniently didn’t have her passport; she first claimed she’d left it in the car and then that it was all the way back north of the border, in Derry. She was kicked off the show, but ended up getting into Girls Aloud eventually.

#3: Guy Goma

BBC News

Oh, dear. This has gone down as one of the biggest mix-ups in the history of BBC News, when a producer thought that unwitting member of the public Guy Goma was technology expert Guy Kewney, on air to weigh in on the Apple Corps vs Apple Computer legal dispute. Goma did his best, answering all the questions, and apparently Kewney only realised that a mistake had been made when he was watching the interview in the BBC lobby. Goma, who was only there for a job interview, got his fifteen minutes of fame, doing a story with The Sun and even appearing on GMTV, this time as himself.

#2: Witches’ Bottle

“Antiques Roadshow” (1979-)

If you want to protect your home from malicious witches, all you need to do is wee into a bottle and add some other bits and bobs, then bury it under the threshold of your house. Unfortunately, the creation of witches’ bottles is an art that’s fallen by the wayside, so much so that when this man found an antique bottle, he never considered that it might contain centuries-old piss. Even when he gave it a taste, he didn’t realise that it was urine, not until it was tested by the “Roadshow”. It was up to Fiona Bruce to break the news that it wasn’t vintage port at all. But maybe it’ll give him immunity to hexes and curses going forwards.

#1: Wrong Winner

“Eurovision: Making Your Mind Up” (2007)

Were you team Cyndi, or team Scooch? Well, for a few fateful moments in 2007, both teams won, because of this infamous cock up courtesy of Sir Terry Wogan. He and Fearne Cotton were presenting the “Making Your Mind Up” talent show for Blighty to pick that year’s Eurovision entrant, and on the count of three, they announced the winner. He said Cyndi, but SHE said Scooch, and it turns out that she was right. Poor Cyndi must have been going through a roller coaster of emotions up there on live TV. After all that, Scooch were rubbish in the finals, so maybe Cyndi SHOULD have won.

Let us know which gaffes and scandals we forgot in the comments.