CBS viewers in the Northeast were livid when technical problems blacked a playoff game out.
With only one playoff game on the slate for the afternoon, NFL fans across the country were gearing up to eagerly watch the Kansas City Chiefs host the Cleveland Browns.
Fans in the Northeast weren’t so lucky as a major outage from CBS blacked out the channel in the opening minutes of the game, causing viewers to miss the Chiefs’ first drive.
Twitter users were outraged as they were left staring at a black screen when the game was beginning with no explanation provided online from CBS about what was causing the problem.
The reaction online wasn’t pretty.
NFL Playoffs viewers roast CBS for Chiefs-Browns outages
Umm @CBS is nothing but a blank screen right now through XFINITY. Every other channel works even the AKC dog show
— Craig Carton (@craigcartonlive) January 17, 2021
How does CBS break? That’s not possible
— Big Cat (@BarstoolBigCat) January 17, 2021
Can we just put the game on Nickelodeon again cause CBS sucks
— Glenny Balls (@Glenny_balls) January 17, 2021
Off to a great start CBS and @DIRECTV!!! pic.twitter.com/a8rilsYpl2
— Ariel Epstein (@ArielEpstein) January 17, 2021
CBS? Hello. Hello?
— mike freeman (@mikefreemanNFL) January 17, 2021
Is CBS down on Spectrum for anyone else??? @Ask_Spectrum - Just before kickoff!!! Fix or I will bring a wrath!!!
— Tommy Smokes (@TomScibelli) January 17, 2021
CBS is blacked out in my house....just in time for the game.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 17, 2021
.@NFL why don't you let @CBS know that the entire Northeast can't watch this game on TV due to technical issues? Asking for a friend.
— Mike Phillips (@MPhillips331) January 17, 2021
The issue is affecting several different cable providers, including Verizon FIOS and Optimum cable. Verizon managed to restore the feed of CBS after Kansas City’s first drive while Optimum is still experiencing outages as of post time.
This is a technical disaster for CBS, the network which will be broadcasting the Super Bowl this year. The lack of communication online has also been quite poor as there has been no mention on CBS’ main account explaining why the technical issues have prevented fans from watching a big playoff game.
Fans still affected by the outage can check out the game on the Yahoo Sports App or the NFL app, but it is a major issue that could impact the ratings of the game when a portion of the country may just tune out for a while in disgust. CBS will need to figure out what went wrong here to avoid any major outages during their two prime-time telecasts of the AFC Championship Game and the Super Bowl in the next three weeks.