Playing Off a Huuuge Mistake

carnation · #1 10-07-2006, 08:08 PM

One of our daughters was in the homecoming pageant at her university this week. The announcer was a senior who knew all the contestants and said, "And for the last finalist--Jennifer SoandSo!" They gave the girl her flowers and he looked again and said something like, "Oh, I'm so sorry. It's not Jennifer Soandso, it's Jennifer Smith!"

The girl had to give back her flowers and go offstage.

Last year at cheer regionals, one daughter's squad was announced as one of the 4 who would go to State. For ten minutes, they cried for happiness and jumped up and down and rejoiced, then suddenly someone announced,"Sorry folks, wrong school. It's not RHS that's going, it's LHS." You;d think by that point, they would have let both go--it was awful. The seniors came apart.

How on earth would you play off something like either one of these? Correct it right off? Pretend you didn't mess up? Try to get somebody else to fix it?

highflyerlaura · #2 10-07-2006, 08:40 PM

oooo..... thats a nasty situation to be in, for all concerned. I feel for both lots of kids, as I've been in similar situations before....

I do a lot of horse-riding stuff and at a local Pony Club event earlier this year there was a major mix-up in the pointscores of one of the events, resulting in a correction having to be made. I was having a short break at the time and I got back while the other club executives were trying to decide what to do. I told them to quit fooling around, otherwise I'd make the decision myself and put it out via the PA system. Anyway two minutes later I saw the parents of both kids walking towards the Announcers box and I said to the others "Ok, times up, we've got parents and officials on the way from the two different clubs looking as if they are both going to protest. I'm taking this matter into my own hands and declaring them both joint-winners of the event. If you don't like it you can go and set up the jumping course again so that they can have a run off, because I'm not in the mood for protests at the moment".

Considering that I had the microphone in hand and both parties were nearly to us, they agreed and thankfully the two other clubs were happy with the announcement too.....

SoCalGirl · #3 10-07-2006, 08:43 PM

Correct it ASAP.

FSUZeta · #4 10-07-2006, 09:07 PM

carnation, that is awful on both accounts. too bad that the authorities did not use the good judgement highflyerlaura did!!

i remember attending a local beauty pageant as a child when there were two contestants whose first name was ann. one of the ann's was incredibly popular and sweet and the whole crowd was pulling for her. as the finalists were called, the announcer began,"and our next finalist is ann..." and the crowd begins to roar their approval, and drowns out the last name. popular ann steps out to join the other finalists, but before she reaches her place, the emcee says, excuse me, there seems to be a mistake-the finalist is ann #2. of course, popular ann took her original place and ann #2 stood with the other finalists. popular ann held her composure until the curtains were drawn, and then broke down. it was awful. everyone felt bad for popular ann, but also for ann #2, who also had to deal with the ackward situation.

valkyrie · #5 10-07-2006, 09:40 PM

LOL this happened on The Bachelor (it pains me to admit that I've ever watched that show) once -- the guy was handing out roses to the women who were to continue to the next round, and he called the name of a woman he didn't want. He realized his mistake and let her continue anyway, and she did -- they were all very gracious, but I think she was eliminated the next week.

I think that letting the "faux winner" continue is a good option. Does it really hurt anyone?

carnation · #6 10-07-2006, 10:23 PM

Probably having a faux winner wouldn't hurt in most cases unless some of the parents or contestants got hold of the score sheet and found out that they or their child scored a whole lot higher that the faux. Then you'd have all these people threatening to sue, no doubt.

I'm thinking of all those high school seniors who got acceptance letters from UGa last year and soon afterwards, they got letters from UGa saying that it was all a mistake--I can't remember any more details but it seems that these kids were at the bottom of the applicant pool. I thought for sure we'd hear about lawsuits from the briefly accepted ones and also from people who were rejected but knew they had better SATS and grades than the "fauxs". Apparently, UGa managed to keep it all under wraps if there was a stink.

CutiePie2000 · #7 10-11-2006, 12:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by valkyrie

LOL this happened on The Bachelor (it pains me to admit that I've ever watched that show) once -- the guy was handing out roses to the women who were to continue to the next round, and he called the name of a woman he didn't want.

Ha ha...that was Jesse Palmer. HA HA!