A closer look
A television network accidentally convinced half the country the world was ending because nobody bothers to read the TV Guide. Blurring the lines between news bulletins and scripted fiction, early BBC drama productions unwittingly sparked localized hysteria as viewers genuinely believed nuclear armageddon was unfolding live on air. Telephones jammed and emergency services were flooded with panicked calls, purely because a few late-tuning viewers completely missed the opening credits. It forced broadcasters to radically rethink how they visually styled fake news to avoid starting actual riots.
