I'm just surprised this doesn't happen more often. On Wednesday night, WUTV in Buffalo aired the finale of "The Masked Singer." It's not a show I've ever watched, but I'm aware it's immensely popular in the U.S., especially at a time when so many shows are in reruns. The finale is especially Must-See-TV for fans because the identities of all the hidden singers are finally revealed. 

Except for those watching in Buffalo. All they saw for most of those two hours was a graphic describing only "technical difficulties." And unless they had an antenna and could watch it off a Canadian station (how ironic is that in the age of simsub?) they missed the whole thing. 

But it's the reason it happened that's so illustrative. According to the Buffalo News:

"Nick Magnini, the general manager of WUTV, explained via text Thursday that the station’s control center is in Dayton and the fiber connection between the Ohio city and Buffalo went down.

“This was a technical issue that impacted WUTV from approximately 7 p.m. to 8:40 p.m.,” wrote Magnini. “Our tech team fixed it and we were back up. Even the best systems occasionally have issues.”

So because WUTV's Buffalo control room is in Ohio, their dedicated viewers missed one of the season's most anticipated shows. And good luck keeping away from the ending off the Internet. 

This is what happens when ownership groups, in this case the somewhat infamous Sinclair, decide to consolidate operations for a number of stations in a single city. It's a lot easier to put the metaphoric plug back in the wall if you can just run into the next room to do it. Getting to Dayton in time was apparently a little bit too far. 

This is nothing new, of course. U.S. rules allow stations to not even be located in the area they serve. But letting down your viewers like that is a sad commentary on the new reality of broadcasting. And you can bet it will happen again. 

WUTV viewers will get a chance to see the entire two hours after Fox gave the station special permission to show it again this weekend. But it shouldn't have happened in the first place. If that control room had been in the right place, first.

WUTV to re-air 'The Masked Singer' Saturday after Wednesday's fiasco