KEY POINTS:
They should have been watching a gutsy race by a Kiwi medal hope.
Instead, a TVNZ glitch left more than half the country facing blank screens.
The broadcaster apologised to viewers last night for the electronic failure that blacked out Moss Burmester's Olympic 200m butterfly final.
Sky, Freeview and South Island viewers missed the race, in which Burmester finished fourth and broke his own New Zealand record.
Karl Burmester, a second cousin to Moss who lives in Methven in Canterbury, had to watch replays after missing out on the live broadcast.
"We were watching the programme when it never happened, so it was a bit of a bugger," he said.
Moss Burmester - NZ's first swimming finalist since 1996 - led for much of the race, which was won by US swimming star Michael Phelps.
TVNZ spokeswoman Megan Richards said it was "dreadfully unlucky" the failure happened when it did.
The problem occurred when the signal "hiccuped" because too much was going on on-screen at the moment TVNZ switched its satellite coverage to the race. The system became overloaded, and froze.
TVNZ's phones ran hot after the cut, which lasted six minutes for Sky and Freeview viewers and eight minutes for South Island analogue viewers. North Island analogue viewers were unaffected.
The state broadcaster has also been facing criticism from viewers upset by what they see as the sidelining of some sports, and illogical jumps between events.
Regan Cunliffe, of TV community website Throng, said the worst example was the coverage of the women's cycling road race on Sunday.
TVNZ followed the race until the final stage, when coverage cut to the New Zealand v Brazil soccer match.
* Herald TV reviewer Denis Edwards writes: Moss Burmester reached a final. Not just any final. This was our hottest moment of the Games, the first swimming finalist since 1996.
It was also one of the main stops on the Michael Phelps express. The world watched Phelps win and Burmester come fourth.
But a lot of us didn't see any of it. Something went wrong. No pictures.
We now brace for, in no particular order, shock, furious letters, possible threats, articulate and semi-articulate rage.
As in sport, the mishap has winners and losers. TVNZ executives lost. Rival networks and talkback hosts can't believe their luck.
It's happened before, and recently. Soccer's Euro 2008 finals lost pictures. Proving it was beyond their control probably kept television executives' heads from ending on pikes.
