During its coverage for the 65th Grammy Awards, the popular British news channel displayed a picture of 'The First Lady' actress alongside a headline about 'Beyonce's Big Night.'
- Feb 7, 2023
AceShowbiz - BBC News has issued an apology after accidentally using a picture of Viola Davis for a headline about Beyonce Knowles. Making use of its Twitter account, the news channel claimed that the error "fell below the BBC's usual standards."
"We apologise for the mistake last night when our news channels briefly showed a photograph of Viola Davis from January's Golden Globes alongside a headline about Beyonce at yesterday's Grammys," read the statement. "This fell below the BBC's usual standards."
Meanwhile, one BBC journalist pointed out in a now-deleted tweet that the error came as part of a "sequence about the other Grammy winners," which is why it had indicated "Beyonce's big night." He denied the Oscar-winning actress had been misidentified.
During its coverage for the 65th Grammy Awards on Sunday, February 5, the popular British news channel reported about "Beyonce's Big Night", referring to the "Cuff It" singer's history-making wins at the ceremony. However, instead showing an image of Queen Bey, the news channel displayed a picture of "The Woman King" actress from the 2023 Golden Globes.
Fans quickly roasted the channel as a screenshot of the error went viral on social media. "Who's gonna tell @BBCNews?" one person said. Another naysayer wrote, "How in the entire f**k you make THIS mistake? How racist you have to be @BBC?"
"...Beyonce morphing into Viola Davis is the only news. Did BBC do this & has it been corrected?" a critic wrote. "They do that s**t on purpose to disrespect black people. All they had to do was Google," someone else said.
The snafu aside, the 2023 Grammy Awards was indeed a big night for both Beyonce and Viola. After receiving her 32nd Grammy for the best dance/electronic album for "Renaissance", Beyonce is officially the most decorated artist in history. The pop icon broke the record set by the late Hungarian-British conductor Georg Solti for the most Grammy wins of all time.
Meanwhile, Viola achieved the EGOT title after she took home the award for Best Audio Book, Narration, and Storytelling Recording for her memoir "Finding Me". The "Fences" actress won an Emmy for her role in "How to Get Away with Murder", an Oscar for "Fences", and two Tony awards for "King Hedley III" and "Fences".
