MSNBC Technical Snafu Knocks Brian Williams Off Air For 23 Minutes

Something weird happened on The 11th Hour with Brian Williams Wednesday night on MSNBC, which resulted in an awkward opening shot of the top of Williams' head, followed by Melissa Rehberger and Lawrence O'Donnell covering for the 23 minutes it took to work around his non-responsive control room.

At the 12:31 mark in this clip, Williams returns to the air, saying "I indeed did not ask for 23 minutes off tonight. A brief explanation of what happened to us: our central control room appears to have gone the way of the Texas power grid. We have lost all of the incoming guest remotes from most of the people we were supposed to talk to tonight. Lawrence O'Donnell will get a little something extra in his paycheck at the end of the week for stepping up and stepping in and helping us out. He just thought he was out of the woods, but he's going to stick around for our discussion."

Williams also explained that his earpiece was "rendered inert" and he would have to listen to the broadcast via speakerphone. 

Andy Hunsaker has a head full of sitcom gags and nerd-genre lore, and can be followed @AndyHunsaker if you're into that sort of thing.