I'm not writing this to make fun of CTV Toronto's ongoing issues, which have been detailed here all week. But I've worked in television news for 25 years and I have never, ever seen anything like I just did on CFTO's noon news. And I actually feel horrible and commiserate with those who had to sit through this hour behind the scenes. 

It was just incredible. It started with live viz of the torrential rain. At first, it seemed like they were simply covering the storm, which was a huge story in Toronto. But then it went on. And on. And on. For 12 minutes straight, we saw nothing but live shots of two different areas - Nathan Phillips Square and The Lakeshore near Ontario Place. 

The anchors, Michelle Dube and Nathan Downer, ad libbed endlessly about what was on screen, which was the same shot for what seemed like an eternity. They threw to Jessica Smith, with an elongated early weather hit, then went back to the poor duo, who kept on talking about how wet it was. 

It soon became apparent to even non-TV news people that their playback machines were either not working or unavailable and they were going to have to go live as long as that issue lasted. 

Finally, about 15 minutes into the thing, they managed to throw to reporter Natalie Johnson, who was supposed to do a report on a meeting about Toronto traffic congestion at City Hall. But with her story apparently unavailable and the graphic under her constantly changing from "Congestion Crisis" to "Torrential Rain Hits Toronto," she took her live camera on a tour of a soaked City Hall interior, even at one point using her pass to take us into a stairwell and then bizarrely, a washroom on the second floor - all live, with nary a tape in sight.

Finally, after about 3 minutes of prattling on about nothing. she managed to throw to the first actual tape of the newscast - now some 17 minutes into the show! She even referred to her fellow reporter Beth McDonnell, who had a story about a government official, but was forced to quote him instead of showing what he actually said. More ad lib filler followed, as everyone involved was obviously told to S-T-R-E-T-C-H. And stretch they did. 

Next, McDonnell finally came on and had the longest intro to a piece in TV history, before her story miraculously played. 

After that, there was a time filling Q&A with Scott Hirst about the Republican Convention. Still no real tape or clips. 

When Jessica Smith's weather came on after a spot break, it was around 12:36, with only three actual stories covered. She motor mouthed on endlessly, as well, trying to stretch out the segment. 

It got a bit better after the break, but it was obvious whatever happened had killed the entire show. As I said, I'm not laughing. That must have been torture for the crew and I'm sure 1 PM could not have come fast enough. Except for some reason, they stayed on until 1:06, before the thing mercifully ended for good. Oh to be a fly on the wall in that control room and studio when the credits rolled!

And one more sidebar to Ms. Smith: please, please, please stop telling viewers that when the big storm is over it will be "like it never happened." She says this after every rain event. Tell the people whose cars were flooded out that it "never happened." Say that to the people who are dealing with flooded basements. And tell those who couldn't get to their subway stations filled with water or who got soaked by the deluge and had to work in drenched clothing. 

She does this a lot. And believe me, it DID happen. 

Anyway, I hope CFTO cures whatever was plaguing it on Tuesday afternoon. Otherwise, I might recommend cancelling the 6. Because no one deserves to go through that again.

Aren't there two Big Bang Theory episodes you can sub?