TORONTO - Canadian TV viewers who wanted to watch the Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday night initially got a dose of design guru Debbie Travis instead.
Global TV had been scheduled to air the guild awards at 8 p.m. ET, but broadcast "From the Ground Up with Debbie Travis" in its place — much to the consternation of would-be award watchers.
Many soon took to Twitter asking why the two-hour SAG Awards show wasn't on.
"Is this a breaking CRTC decision to suggest Canadians would rather watch Debbie Travis than the SAG Awards? Global? Anyone? Hello? Awards?" tweeted CBC personality Jian Ghomeshi.
"I have a feeling Global TV ratings are going to #SAG after tonight," said Twitter user Vince Morenzi of Toronto.
Global tweeted that it was a "technical issue" that would be fixed as soon as possible.
By 8:40 p.m. ET, the network finally managed to get the SAG Awards on the air.
Late Sunday, Global issued a statement noting that the east coast broadcast was up and running and that the west coast feed of the show would air "in its entirety."
"The SAG Awards are fed live and as with any live event, (are) dependent on the technical side working," read the statement. "We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this caused our viewers."
The network also noted that the awards will be available online Monday at www.GlobalTV.com.
It's turning out to be a wide open awards season and many were looking to the 19th annual guild prizes to help clarify the acting race for the Academy Awards.
The guild's individual acting winners often get the same prizes at the Oscars.
The top acting prizes Sunday night went to Daniel Day-Lewis for "Lincoln" and Jennifer Lawrence for "Silver Linings Playbook," while supporting honours went to Anne Hathaway for "Les Miserables" and Tommy Lee Jones for "Lincoln."
