Channel 7
Commonwealth Games co-host Joh Griggs has had an impassioned outburst live on air at the closing ceremony.
Cameras showed Griggs and her co-host Basil Zempilas seconds after Sunday night’s broadcast wrapped, and the ‘furious’ pair immediately began slamming the ceremony as ‘rubbish’ for not showing the athletes entering the stadium.
“Look, we understand many people have been disappointed by tonight’s Closing Ceremony,’ Zempilas told viewers. ‘To be perfectly honest Jo, so have we. It hasn’t really lived up to expectations. I’ve got to say it’s about the only thing they got wrong. They did get it wrong tonight.”
It’s then that the normally bubbly and optimistic Griggs lashed out at the Games, in particular the ceremony’s broadcasters.
“I’m sorry, you’re being way too polite,’ she said before defending Channel Seven. ‘People are thinking that Channel Seven has chosen not to show pictures of athletes or not to show the flag bearer, Kurt Fearnley…We can only show the pictures that are provided by the actual host broadcasters. They made the decision not to have athletes enter the stadium. I’m furious. Actually wrecking a tradition that is so important…You want to see the athletes come in. You want to see them jumping in front of camera. You want to see them celebrating 11 days of great sport. We missed out on all of that.”
Griggs added that many athletes decided to leave the ceremony mid-way through.
“There’s no athletes in here. I’ve never seen the stadium so empty,” she said. “It’s so wrong, Baz.”
Many have taken to Twitter to praise the two co-hosts on their brave and honest opinion.
This article originally appeared on New Idea.
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