'We have nothing to play to air': The Project hosts scramble amid tech issues

Sometimes live TV just doesn't go quite to plan.

Thursday night's episode of The Project demonstrated just that when a "massive technical issue" left the hosts scrambling for content.

"Downstairs, the hamsters are having massive technical issues," host Waleed Aly deadpanned to the audience.

No stranger to telling it like it is, co-host Carrie Bickmore explained the screw-up in layperson speak.

"We have nothing to play to air for the next half an hour of the show," she said.

Being a news show, the panel had no option but to act out the day's biggest headlines…and the results were, erm, interesting.

In one moment, Waleed resorted to a strangely spot-on Michael Jackson impression – crotch-grab and all.

Viewers took to social media to share their views on how the hosts filled in the awkward standby time. See some of the best tweets below…

Executive producer Craig Campbell later explained that the issue came down to one failed switch.

"A switch that connects the edit suite to the control room malfunctioned so we couldn't get our packaged material to air," he said.