The world awoke this morning to the chirping of little birds resembling Kristin Chenoweth and Neil Patrick Harris, perched at a podium in the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, announcing nominations for the 60th Emmy Awards. While most rolled over and tried to get back to sleep, we sat bolt upright as usual and sprinted to the window, our furious note-taking chronicling a few snubs, surprises and plenty of the conventional wisdom we've come to expect from the annual ritual.

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Now that a week has passed since the viral proliferation of novice ABC News Now correspondent Merry Miller's inept interrogation of infinitely patient actress Holly Hunter, ABC is finally ready to share in the laughter enjoyed by untold millions of YouTube viewers, today running a lengthy explanation of the circumstances that transformed a simple satellite chat into (in their words) The Interview Seen Around the World. (We've helpfully re-embedded the clip above so that you can refresh your memory.) The fun began when Miller's ear piece, which normally would allow her to digest each of her subject's carefully considered words on how she came to play such an interesting character and respond with a thoughtful follow-up recognising the scarcity of good roles for actresses of a certain age, failed:

Unfortunately for Miller and unknown to the crew, her IFB failed before she began speaking with Hunter. Another host might have known to alert the crew about the problem and delay the interview while the technical issues were worked out, but the inexperienced Miller gamely tried to speak with Hunter without hearing her responses.

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Generally speaking, the blame for most junket disasters can be assigned to the talent, as the punishing demands of nonstop press obligations often leaves performers a little sleepy or disoriented by a handful of jetlag helpers, suboptimal interview conditions that invariably lead to erratic results. But in the above clip, all of the technical difficulties seem to be affecting only the personnel on hand in the news studio, leaving a game Holly Hunter to suffer her way through four of the more uncomfortable minutes you're likely to ever see.

• TV Disaster [YouTube]