8 of the Weirdest TV Hijacking Stories to Ever Happen

Television is one of those steady constants in our lives that we feel like we can always count on. We turn on the TV, and there will be something predictable to watch. Sports on ESPN, reality shows on HGTV, news on NBC, and children’s shows on Cartoon Network.

But what happens when something unexpected makes its way onto our televisions? Over the years, a number of people have managed to pull off TV hijacking stunts and take over a channel for a short time. Read on to learn about some of the strangest of these incidents.

Max Headroom

If you’ve heard about any TV hijacking incidents, you’ve probably heard about the Max Headroom incident. Considered one of the strangest incidents in television history, the clip that interrupted an episode of Doctor Who in 1987 featured a man disguised as popular television character Max Headroom. The strangest part is that no one ever figured out who orchestrated this hijacking.

The clip, which ran for a full 90 seconds before broadcasters were able to shut it down, featured a man moaning and screaming nonsense. The feed is distorted, so it’s hard to understand much of what he says, but among the phrases that did make it through was “I stole CBS!” The video concludes with the man being spanked by a woman dressed in a French maid’s outfit.

Zombie Alert

In 2013, the Steve Wilkos Show, a tabloid talk show, got an odd addition. Some viewers in Montana were happily watching the show when one of the standard public service announcement interruptions started playing. But it didn’t take long to figure out something wasn’t right.

The computerized voice that came on the channel wasn’t talking about severe weather alerts. Instead, it warned viewers of the impending zombie apocalypse. The transmission said the dead were rising and attacking the living and advised viewers to avoid the zombies, as “they are considered extremely dangerous.”

Captain Midnight

Next time you feel like complaining about Netflix’s subscription rates, you should take a look at the Captain Midnight broadcasts. These took place in 1986 when an electrical engineer named John MacDougall got fed up with rising cable subscription package prices.

MacDougall managed to hack into the HBO signal and broadcast a message that introduced himself as Captain Midnight. He talked about how high HBO’s prices were and said that he was coming for Showtime too. Shockingly, he managed to maintain the signal for a whole five minutes; later, he was caught and fined $5,000.

Super Bowl Porn

If you live in Arizona, you may very well remember this famous incident during Super Bowl XLIII. Comcast customers were watching the 2009 game when their broadcast suddenly got switched out for something far more ribald.

Viewers were treated to 37 seconds of a hardcore porn movie called “Wild Cherries 5” before Comcast was able to get control of the broadcast again. The man responsible turned out to be a liaison with Comcast and had to pay $1,000 in fines. And we thought the Justin Timberlake/Janet Jackson incident was bad.

Playboy Gospel

While the church has never been a fan of porn, some evangelicals decided they needed to be a little more proactive in reaching out to sinners in their area in 1987. American Ecstasy was showing on the Playboy Satellite Network when a very different message came across the channel.

Viewers found themselves listening to an evangelical broadcast encouraging them to repent and keep the Sabbath holy. The perp escaped for three years before police identified him as an engineer with the Christian Broadcasting Network. How would you like to have a battle like that going on your digital antenna?

Hezbollah Threats

This next incident isn’t so jovial or harmless as the last several have been. In fact, it’s unique in large part because it’s one of the few acts of war that will appear on this list. The Hezbollah threats took place in Lebanon in 2006 during the Israel-Lebanon war.

Israeli hackers took over Al Manar TV, a channel run by Hezbollah, a militant group and political party based in Lebanon. They broadcast a lot of anti-Hezbollah propaganda, including direct threats to the leader of Hezbollah at the time. The transmission ended with three gunshots and a voice saying “Your day is coming.”

Mayday TV Hijacking

In 2007, Australian viewers had their broadcast of Mayday interrupted by a bone-chilling message. For six solid minutes, the same prayer played on repeat before the broadcast company could get control of their channel back.

The clip consisted of a voice saying over and over again, “Jesus Christ, help us all, Lord.” The creepiest part? The voice wasn’t engineered for the broadcast; it was a clip from a news story showing a civilian begging for his life while rebel soldiers shot at his truck.

Southern Television Broadcast

If you believe in aliens, this next story may give you goosebumps. In 1977, the Southern Television broadcast in the United Kingdom got a visit from an otherworldly voice. Or so it seemed, anyway.

A voice came on the channel claiming to be from an Intergalactic Association. It said that we had weapons of evil that had to be removed and that we would only live in peace for a little while longer. The transmission went on for a staggering six minutes, and no culprit was ever identified. 

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TV hijacking incidents are always super creepy because it’s the one thing we expect to be constant. We don’t know what it is, but when a man comes on our TV screen shrieking about someone coming for him, it gets our hackles up. Maybe it’s the possibility that the transmission really is coming from aliens.

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