A SPANISH national television reporter has gone down in media history for all the wrong reasons – a colleague of household name Carlos de Andrés will never live it down after forgetting to turn off his microphone during a break from covering the Tour de France.
The TVE (channel one) sports presenter – who has not been named - was providing live commentary during on-site coverage of the second stage of the Tour de France, where Julian Alaphilippe emerged the victor and the day's maillot jaune wearer.
About 90 kilometres were left before the end of the stage, shown on the TVE-owned sports-only channel Teledeporte, when Carlos de Andrés' colleague nipped off for a rest break.
The presenter's anonymity will be no barrier to his lasting international fame for providing a one-off soundtrack to the Tour for millions of viewers in Spain: During his visit to the gents', he forgot to turn off his microphone.
Viewers nationwide heard him – loudly and clearly - urinate, flush, and zip up.
Somehow, the sound was edited out on the analogue TVE broadcast, meaning in theory, only subscribers to the paid-for sports channel would have heard it – if it were not for social media, of course.
Twitter can be rather unforgiving when it comes to high-profile embarrassment, and the string of memes, sharing of clips from the show, and commentary meant the unnamed presenter's chances of swiftly sweeping it all under the carpet were virtually nil.
Although most were sympathetic and laughing with him, rather than at him, with several praising the reporter for his 'powerful and healthy plumbing system'.
And at least it serves as a reminder that even those in blue-chip entertainment professions are not immune to blush-inducing mistakes.
It remains to be seen whether the presenter will eventually identify himself publicly and bask in his 15 seconds of fame, taking it all in good humour, or whether he will spend the rest of his career thanking his lucky stars that nobody knew who he was.
Photograph: Screen shot from Teledeporte, TVE's sports-only channel
