Sunrise Blew A $1 Million Adele Interview Because The Host Didn’t Listen To The Album
Adele reportedly walked out on the interview, with Sony later revoking Seven's rights to broadcast any of it.
Weekend Sunrise host Matt Doran has reportedly been suspended by the Seven Network for two weeks after blowing Australia’s only television interview with Adele for the release of her latest album, 30 — which Doran never actually bothered to listen to.
Doran flew to London on November 4 for the once-in-a-lifetime interview opportunity, but reportedly offended the music icon when he admitted he hadn’t actually listened to the album yet. “What do you think of my album?” The singer asked, to which he replied: “I haven’t listened to it,” according to The Daily Telegraph.
Following the comment, Adele reportedly walked out on the interview, with Sony later revoking Seven’s rights to broadcast any of it. However, other sources have told The Daily Mail that the interview was over before Doran made the embarrassing admission, and that the singer didn’t storm off.
The Seven Network reportedly spent a whopping $1 million on a broadcast package that also included the rights to Oprah’s One Night Only interview and concert.
It’s worth noting that the album is only 58 minutes long, while a trip from Sydney to London (via Singapore — the usual route) is a whopping 23 hours and 10 minutes, so it’s not like he didn’t have enough time to squeeze in at least one full listen.
The 37-year-old reporter explained that he is “mortified and unequivocally apologetic” about the massive stuff up.
285398related_articles]“When I sat down to interview Adele, I was totally unaware that I’d been emailed a preview of her unreleased album,” Doran told The Australian. “I have since discovered it was sent to me as an ‘e card’ link, which I somehow missed upon landing in London. It was an oversight but NOT a deliberate snub. This is the most important email I have ever missed.”
While we’ve all missed an important email at one point in our lives, this excuse feels pretty ridiculous considering the entire trip centred around this interview, so you’d think actually obtaining a copy of the album would’ve been something organised well before he arrived in London.
It’s obvious that Doran is extremely embarrassed and apologetic about the whole situation, and it doesn’t seem fair that he now cops a wave of abuse over what was very clearly a mistake. But it begs the question, why did Sunrise send a journalist who does not — and has never — specialised in music for such an exclusive interview?
It’s obvious that Doran well and truly missed the mark here, but Sunrise and the entire Seven Network also deserves its fair share of criticism for this blunder, considering how clear it is that the broadcaster clearly doesn’t value music journalism enough to send a specialist reporter to one of the biggest interviews of the year.