ITV viewers were left baffled and increasingly anxious on Monday evening after the broadcaster suffered a widespread outage.
To make matters worse, the outage happened just hours before the highly anticipated launch of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! South Africa.
The disruption began at around 6:30pm, with multiple regions across the UK reporting issues ranging from missing news bulletins to silent broadcasts and frozen logos.
Instead of the usual evening programming, some viewers were met with blank screens, looping idents, or regional branding cards lingering far longer than intended.
One confused viewer wrote on X: 'What's happened to ITV? They're broadcasting a floating logo for ITV Westcountry instead of the evening news.'
Others described similarly surreal experiences, with one saying: 'Interesting night on @ITV no national news, just the network logo and for those of us watching @ITVWales complete silence, utterly bizarre.'
Another user shared footage of an automated apology message, noting their feed had briefly cut out before returning: 'Same region but mine went for 60 seconds max. Plus an apology for "some of you".'
One post wrote: 'Multiple ITV1 regions are being affected by what appears to be a major fault... the regional news and national news has been largely blacked out in some parts of the country.'
The outage also caused knock-on scheduling issues, with programmes starting late or being partially cut.
One viewer joked: 'Granada was boring too, network ITV logo then just stuck on end card for 20 minutes and cut in The Chase 2 mins late or something.'
As the outage persisted, attention quickly turned to the 9pm premiere of the all-stars edition of I'm A Celebrity, with many hoping the issue would be resolved in time.
'Yeah wtf is going on. Hope it comes back on for I'm a Celeb,' one worried fan posted.
The new series, titled I'm A Celebrity South Africa, sees returning campmates heading into the South African wilderness in a bid to be crowned the 'Legend of the Jungle', following in the footsteps of 2023 winner Myleene Klass.
Hosted once again by Ant and Dec, the pre-recorded series promises even tougher trials than its Australian counterpart, with early teasers hinting at heightened stakes, shocking moments, and plenty of stomach-churning challenges.
Luckily, ITV seems to be back up and running now, with fans crossing their fingers that it'll stay that way for the premiere.
Metro has contacted ITV reps for comment.
Got a story?
If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@metro.co.uk, calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page - we'd love to hear from you.
