Live television has always amazed me. It’s such a common occurrence, but unscripted events rarely happen during live broadcasts.
Enter: Marie Osmond.
On Monday night’s Dancing with the Stars, Marie finished her dance, in which she seemed a little out of sync, and as she was listening to the judges’ reaction, she collapses. Live.
“Alright, we’re going to take a commercial break, and we’ll be right back, and, uh, we’ll be right back after this,” host (and my idol) Tom Bergeron said nervously as he bent down seeing if Marie was alright.
The camera flashed to head judge Len Goodman nodding in agreement, then back to the unconscious Marie on the ground with Tom and dancing partner Jonathan, and finally to an awkwardly silent pan of the audience fading into the commercial.
I didn’t see the live event take place. In fact, I’m ashamed to say I didn’t find out until scanning CNN.com nearly 23 hours later, quickly followed by a YouTube visit. But, and I can say this since everyone is completely fine and healthy, the video is hilarious.
My natural instinct told me this evening to tune in to entertainment shows, a la Entertainment Tonight. I
f you don’t know what the word “exclusive” means, it’s easy to pick up after Mary Hart unceasingly brags about her “exclusive” interview with Marie just “hours after” her “dramatic” tumble.
And now come the rumors. It’s funny – the shows that confirm or disprove celebrity rumors are the same that create them.
“Coming up tomorrow: Does Donny want Marie to drop out of the competition? Was her bitter divorce a reason for the fall? We’ll have the answers tomorrow.”
No you won’t, you heartless bastards. Give the woman some space to breathe. Stop breaking apart her speech frame by tiny television frame just to hear that one little word she spoke that you can twist into a reason for her fainting.
Don’t use this one event to make up stories to fill your airtime. No, she’s not starving herself to fit into those dancing costumes, and she is not suffering from some mysterious medical condition. Get over yourself.
She fainted. She was out of breath. She was gasping for air that wasn’t going to her brain. It’s common science, really.
She collapses, air gets a chance to get into the lungs to be redistributed through the bloodstream, and the brain gets happy once again.
No divorce. No anorexia. No diabetes. Just nature.
Let’s move on to the results show. Live.
