TVNZ system failure sees murder on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

TV One's Breakfast hosts were caught unaware as technical difficulties wreaked havoc with the broadcast.

Disgruntled TVNZ viewers took to social media this morning to vent their frustration at the station's technical issues.

Some Breakfast viewers lost audio for over an hour while segments of the show were interrupted intermittently with images of presenters, unaware they were on air.

Host Rawdon Christie stared blankly into space while Ali Pugh played with her hair.

Meanwhile, over on TV2 a murderous caption appeared during children's programming.

"I heard she got too involved with her cover boyfriend. Percy had to have him killed," showed on screen while an episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse aired, prompting parents to take to Facebook in outrage.

TVNZ apologised for the outage, blaming simultaneous system failures for sound problems and the words "left over" from a programme showing at 3am.

"It's extremely unfortunate that this happened during children's programming and we are most apologetic."

Despite a technical warning issued from presenters, several Breakfast viewers still took to their Facebook timelines to complain. One declared she "couldn't function" without her favourite morning show while others turned to TV3.

"OMG I start ever day with Breakfast. This is so frustrating," wrote one viewer, while another commented that Firstline "seems to have improved".

An investigation is still ongoing regarding the initial system failure.

- nzherald.co.nz