The BRIT Awards was accused of being fixed last night, after an advert accidentally revealed the results of two awards before the glittering ceremony had even begun.
Viewers were left cofused after watching an advert on UKTV that hailed The 1975’s victories some two hours before the ceremony began.
The celebratory advert reportedly described the group as “BRIT Winners” and mentioned their wins for ‘Best British Group’ and ‘British Album Of The Year’ – two prizes that the acclaimed band went on to secure.
The gaffe was noticed by radio producer Kieran Thomson, who wrote on Twitter: “An advert on UKTV Play just said The 1975 won Best British Group and British Album of the Year at this year’s BRIT Awards… which aren’t for a few hours?”
Sharing the clip, Kieran said: “Here be the evidence. That’s either a massive marketing cock-up or management for The 1975 somehow knew already…
“Anyway BRITs fans, spoiler alert, The 1975 win things.”
Here be the evidence. That’s either a massive marketing cock-up or management for The 1975 somehow knew already… anyway #BRITs fans, spoiler alert, The 1975 win things. pic.twitter.com/teYTmW9Q09
— Kieren Thomson (@Kierenisboring) February 20, 2019
Responding to the clip, one user wrote: “So this ended up being true… @BRITs can you explain this? How is it possible that the names of the winners are known before the show starts?”
It’s since been confirmed that there is a very logical explanation, they simply played the wrong advert.
Following a "spoiler" ad going out in error before last night's #Brits, @The1975's label Polydor has told @itvnews that "multiple ads were created to cover each eventuality on the evening. Unfortunately due to human error, the wrong ad was sent to one of the broadcasters"
— Faye Barker (@FayeBarker) February 21, 2019
The controversy came as The 1975 proved to be the standout winners of the night.
Accepting the award, frontman Matty Healy said: ““[Thank you to] Arctic Monkeys for still being such an inspiring and relevant band in 2019,” the frontman said of the Sheffield group. “I know how hard that is.”
Describing the moment as “mad”, Healy concluded: “Thank you so much, we love you.”