MLB playoff game interrupts 'Star Wars' marathon and fans lost their minds
The Nationals League Division Series between the St. Louis Cardinals and Atlanta Braves has had more plot twists than a “Star Wars” movie.
And if you ask Star Wars fans who were planning on watching a marathon of their favorite motion picture franchise on TNT on Monday afternoon, that’s at least one plot twist too many.
When Game 4 of the back-and-forth series overlapped with the beginning of Game 4 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Washington Nationals, Turner Broadcasting was forced to call an audible. While Cardinals-Braves remained on TBS until its conclusion, Dodgers-Nationals began on TNT. Without warning, fans who were watching the Star Wars original films “A New Hope” on the West Coast and “Return of the Jedi” on the East Coast went from staring into the eyes of Darth Vader into going face-to-face with Max Scherzer.
Not that’s there much difference if you ask most MLB hitters.
Unfortunately, Star Wars viewers didn’t find much humor in the situation. They were, in a word, angry.
Star Wars fans lose their minds
Within seconds of the switcheroo, complaints started filtering in on social media.
Many of those we cannot show. But here’s a taste of the anger based on those we can.
Whyyyyy would you completely preempt a Star Wars marathon for baseball, @tntdrama? Why even schedule a movie if you’re not going to show the whole thing? Grumble.
— JSD (@Sicotte) October 7, 2019
So @tntdrama has decided to deliberately interrupt their regular programming - in this case, THE LAST FIFTEEN MINUTES OF THE ORIGINAL #STARWARS - with a baseball game PREGAME SHOW. Extremely bad form, TNT.
— Jason (@emeraldbeacon) October 7, 2019
@tntdrama how long is MLB gonna be on? tryna watch the rest of star wars a new hope. makin it sound like it was gonna be some highlights 'we'll return to regularly scheduled showing after this' then make it out like you forgot star wars was even on. wtf?
— Dexter (@Dexterc79) October 7, 2019
Thanks @tntdrama for interrupting Star Wars: ROTJ for stupid baseball. If people wanted to watch baseball, they could literally flip to TBS.
— MicahTheManiac (@MicahTheManiac_) October 7, 2019
The timing clearly wasn’t good. As most fans pointed out, the film had only 15 minutes remaining when the feeds switched. The interruption lasted nearly an hour as the Cardinals defeated the Braves 5-4 in 10 innings to force a Game 5 on Wednesday.
But never fear, there were some baseball fans out there who were happy to sarcastically provide spoilers.
Darth Vader kills the Emperor.
— Ben K. (@benyankee) October 7, 2019
Darth Vader is Leia’s father.
— Chuck (@ivychat) October 7, 2019
Not nice, people. Funny, sure. But not nice.
Not an ideal situation
It seems Turner Broadcasting made a poor decision scheduling a Star Wars marathon knowing the dedication of that fanbase while also knowing that baseball games tend to take their sweet time reaching a conclusion. They willingly ran the risk of overlapping and angering some folks, and that risk came back to bite them.
Is it a major crisis? Of course not.
Is it a moment they’d be wise to learn from? Absolutely.
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