Johanna Griggs has opened up about the moment she savaged the Commonwealth Games closing ceremony live on air.
The Channel Seven reporter allegedly warned producers that she was about to ‘go rogue’ seconds before leveling a savage rebuke at Games organisers for what was widely regarded as a lackluster closing event.
‘I’m giving you fair warning, I’m gonna go rogue, standby,’ Griggs said into her intercom as she prepared to give her coverage from the commentary box of the closing ceremony on the Gold Coast, News.com.au reports.
Johanna Griggs has opened up about the moment she savaged the Commonwealth Games closing ceremony live on air, as she allegedly told producers ‘I’m gonna go rogue’
‘I keyed onto the bosses and said to my producer, ‘Athletes are now walking out of the stadium… the crowd’s leaving the actual stadium… There’s no way I’m gonna stand up at the end of this and say I think it’s a great closing ceremony” she recalled.
The producers, somewhat unsure of how it might look if their host commentator publicly slammed the event, consulted Seven’s big bosses for direction.
That direction was given in the form of a simple instruction to Griggs: ‘Go your hardest.’
The ex-athlete proceeded to launch a searing reproach of the closing ceremony that grabbed national media attention: castigating the organisers and host broadcasters for allegedly ‘wrecking a tradition’ and not showing enough of the athletes.
‘I didn’t write it down. I just thought about the key things I wanted to say,’ she recalls.
‘One, it wasn’t our fault. Two, I just wanted the athletes to know. And three, it was just the wrong thing.’
Griggs says she has no regrets about the incident, revealing that even Seven’s bosses were congratulating her in the wake of her scathing and impromptu critique
Griggs says she has no regrets about the incident, revealing that even Seven’s bosses were congratulating her in the wake of her scathing and impromptu critique.
The network’s billionaire chairman Kerry Stokes is said to have approached her at a function after the ceremony to express his pride and support for what she did.
‘He said, ‘I’m just so proud of what you’ve done, you have my total backing’,’ recounted Griggs.