Check out Shelli Russell’s (@SalineShelli) all encompassing coverage of the Hogs turning Smurf blue during the Arkansas vs. Southern Miss telecast last Saturday. Enjoy her report: ‘If You Didn’t See The Hogs LITERALLY Turn Blue…..’ here, and check out her complete blog offerings at: www.mysaline.com
by Shelli Russell on September 14, 2013 at 3:00pm View Blog
Halfway through the Arkansas Razorback game against Southern Mississippi’s Golden Eagles, *something* happened with the video feed on KATV, and ..everything…turned…blue.
The normally red Razorback uniforms were dark blue, the opponent’s uniforms turned from gold to aqua. The Hog painted on the field was dark blue too.
If all that wasn’t weird enough, when the camera switched to the sidelines, the faces of the coaches and cheerleaders were also blue!
Social media went nuts talking about it. Comments like “Blue Pig Sooie” and hashtags like #BlueOfA showed up quickly. And it only got worse as the TV station worked restore the color. Read on…
Here was the talk when the colors changed just before halftime:
Sam Collier @iSam2k Did Kentucky hack the Hogs game? My TV just went blue…
Jessica Duff @jduff84 don’t be blue, coach. you’re winning RT @SportingLifeArk: Smurf Bielema. pic.twitter.com/zLJPeClaqw
Kevin Kelly @kkelly16 Is it just my TV or did the #Hogs turn blue right before the half? #Arnews pic.twitter.com/CkNpyKj6Q4
Audreya @audcole And now the screen is blue. The aliens are on their way, y’all. #WPS
The Tolbert Report @TolbertReport Anybody else have the Hogs turn blue on their TV’s? #WPS
Todd E. Jones @tejones “@doc_harper: The TV color screwed up and the Hogs are wearing blue and I don’t understand anything and want to cry” LOL LOL
Justin Nickels @JustinNickels #sec football is better when everyone has blue skin
J4HAWG @j4hawg Filter issue turns Razorback red to BLUE for last :05 of 1H. Weird never before seen images! Red or blue, #WPS #NeverYield ! GO HOGS!
David Couch @arkrzrbck @SportingLifeArk blue man group pic.twitter.com/gaVwtlcqFo
LANDERS AUTO SALES @landersautosale Blue Pig Sooie? or what?
People began to figure out that everyone has the problem and we could be stuck with it for a bit.
Wally Hall @WallyLikeItIs If you are watching the game on Comcast in LR, your TV is fine. The game is a blurry blue. Thanks Whit for sharing picture.
Andrew DeMillo @ademillo Go Blue Hogs!
One central Arkansas blogger of politics was jokingly blamed, since he runs a site called The Blue Hog Report, or 
.
Austin Kellerman @AustinKellerman Today’s game picture sponsored by @BlueHogReport#WPS #NeverYield
J. Tyler Henderson @tyler_h Theory: @BlueHogReport has somehow hijacked the SEC live feed on @KATVNews. What viral marketing! #BlueOfA #ARpx #Hogs
And the blue chatter went on…
- Justin Nickels @JustinNickels Little known fact the #Razorbacks are changing the uniforms to blue
Greg Henderson @jgreghenderson Allen hurt, player passing out, helmet stuck on Collins, now blue jerseys. Strangest game ever http://instagram.com/p/eQAEiBTWSB/ 
ArkSt_com @ArkSt_com ABC used to be the Blue Network. Broadcast history trivia
Paul Strack @pstrack That’s it. I’m having a Blue Moon.
As *something* went on behind the scenes to try to recover, things got even worse! Now the wrong game was suddenly on TV instead of our Hogs!
- J4HAWG @j4hawg @KATV gonna have some HACKED OFF viewers: 1st Hog game turns blue, then turns into Neb vs UCLA! C’mon, man! #BigTimeFail #ABC #fb
Joshua Shannon @ninjps Dear KATV, please put the Razorback game back on! Also make it less blue. Thanks and now! @katvnews
THV Hog Zone @HOGZONE Blue hogs are better than no hogs! #WPS
Bryan Jones @bryanjones I would rather watch the Blue Razorbacks than the BlueCornhuskers, who can help a brother out?- Kevin Kelly @kkelly16 So now ABC switches the game to UCLA vs Nebraska and they’re blue too. What the heck is going on???? #HOGS #ARNEWS
KATV did finally get things sorted out, but it took doing something that robbed us of watching a touchdown. I’m on antenna, so I thought for a second that it might be only my TV that went black. But no…
BJ Maack @bjmaack So I lose my entire signal, miss the TD and now the blue is gone. I guess they did CTRL+ATL+DEL to reboot
Finally, when the Hogs were back on the screen and they were back in the right color, we saw a short sentence from the News Director at KATV that said it all. He surely felt the stress of the situation, although it’s not really his job to make sure the colors are right, and he likely wasn’t at the station anyway. But right after the picture was fixed, we watched as the now-Golden Eagles very nearly made a touchdown, and this tweet popped up.
Nick Genty @KATVNIC Maybe we need to go back to blue.
Whether we were watching in red or blue or the wrong game or not all while it was off the air, it matters not at this point to Hogs fans, as our boys were oblivious to the viewing snafu and kept the lead to finish the game winning 24-3. Go Red & White (and sometimes Blue)!
