OTTAWA – A Québécois TV channel was found by the CBSC to have breached the CAB’s Code of Ethics for displaying the wrong answer to a math question on a contest program.
The CBSC released a decision today that concluded an episode of L’instant gagnant broadcast on V on September 17, 2012 breached the CAB’s Code of Ethics because the solution to a mathematical game displayed on screen was incorrect.
L’instant gagnant is a contest program in which hosts invite viewers to telephone the program to solve various games and puzzles in order to win a cash prize. Each call to the show costs $1 regardless of whether or not the caller gets the chance to solve the puzzle. The CBSC received a complaint from a viewer who complained about various aspects of the program, including the telephone selection system, comments made by the hosts and solutions to certain puzzles.
As in previous decisions relating to programs of this genre, the CBSC explained that it had no jurisdiction to comment on the telephone system or other off-air elements of the program. It also found no problems with the behaviour of the hosts.
The mathematical puzzle, which did breach the contest provision of the CAB Code of Ethics, involved the addition of all numbers in an image. The final answer displayed at the end of the game was 1,643, but the actual total of the numbers displayed was 1,743. V later explained that the graphic artist who prepared the image of the solution had inserted one extra “100” by mistake.
The CBSC Quebec Regional Panel found a violation for the broadcast of the error, but noted that V and the producer had ceased broadcasting this particular type of puzzle and had agreed to reimburse participants of episodes that had been the subject of a previous CBSC decision.
