Adele’s team did not go easy on an Australian TV reporter who failed to listen to her new album before interviewing her ahead of its release.
Matt Doran, the host of Channel 7’s “Weekend Sunrise,” made the long trip with a crew from Sydney to London on Nov. 4 for what would have been the British superstar’s only Australian interview.
After Doran told Adele during the interview that he hadn’t listened to “30,” Sony Music, which reportedly had veto rights on the interview, withheld the footage, refusing to let Channel 7 broadcast it. At the time Doran and Adele spoke, just one track from the album, “Easy On Me,” had been publicly released.
Doran said he was “mortified and unequivocally apologetic” for the blunder, and explained that he’d missed an email containing an early preview of the album.
“It was an oversight but not a deliberate snub,” he told the newspaper The Australian. “This is the most important email I have ever missed.”
The interview was reportedly part of a deal that cost Channel 7 $1 million ($722,000 USD), including broadcast rights to Adele’s “One Night Only” television special, which aired on the network.
Doran reportedly did not appear on Channel 7 for a weekend after the snafu, though he denied that he’d been formally suspended.
He caught heat over the incident on social media, where he’d posted a photo to Instagram from London teasing something “pretty special” in the works.
“Photos taken minutes before disaster,” reads one of the top comments.
The incident prompted much commentary among Australian journalists and media personalities, many of whom criticized Doran’s conduct.
“Who walks into an exclusive interview with a world famous musician without listening to their album?” wrote Women’s Agenda Editor-in-Chief Tarla Lambert. She described Doran’s behavior as “privilege personified.”
Meanwhile, a different Australian reporter, also by the name of Matt Doran, asked for lenience after some of the flak was mistakenly directed at him on social media.
“Go easy on me...” he tweeted.
Adele’s long-awaited fourth studio album was released on Nov. 19. It is her first new music in six years.