--- title: People Are Mad That PBS Aired Boring Old Fireworks on July 4th description: During the channel's live broadcast Monday night, "A Capitol Fourth," viewers called out the network for splicing in old fireworks footage. canonical: https://time.com/4393159/people-are-mad-that-pbs-aired-boring-old-fireworks-on-july-4th/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-07-05T15:07:11.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:34:01.933Z og:title: People Are Mad That PBS Aired Boring Old Fireworks og:description: The network admitted to splicing in old footage of better-looking fireworks. og:url: https://time.com/4393159/people-are-mad-that-pbs-aired-boring-old-fireworks-on-july-4th/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7f1a32d677a7f228/69889a9d3c1639074845de98/washington-dc-fireworks-2016.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5388 og:image:height: 3031 og:image:alt: Independence Day fireworks on the National Mall. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: People Are Mad That PBS Aired Boring Old Fireworks twitter:description: The network admitted to splicing in old footage of better-looking fireworks. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7f1a32d677a7f228/69889a9d3c1639074845de98/washington-dc-fireworks-2016.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # People Are Mad That PBS Aired Boring Old Fireworks on July 4th > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=b0538d33-522a-4b54-9240-23adb736a64a&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1)  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Jul 5, 2016 3:07 PM UTC  WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 4: Patrons, reflected in a rain puddle, watch near the Washington Monument as the Independence Day fireworks go off on the National Mall in Washington, DC on Monday July 04, 2016\. (Photo by Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images) WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 4: Patrons, reflected in a rain puddle, watch near the Washington Monument as the Independence Day fireworks go off on the National Mall in Washington, DC on Monday July 04, 2016\. (Photo by Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images) The Washington Post—Getty Images  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Jul 5, 2016 3:07 PM UTC On Monday evening, PBS surprised some eagle-eyed viewers of the [annual Washington, D.C. fireworks](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7q4RIf6Anrk) show on the National Mall who noticed some of the footage being played on “A Capitol Fourth” seemed… off. In certain shots, the evening sky was clear. But on the fourth of July in D.C., low-hanging clouds obscured most of the sky (and swallowed up some of the pyrotechnics). Further, the Capitol building is currently swathed in scaffolding — which were seemingly absent in some of the aired shots. An official Twitter account for the programming, [@July4thPBS](https://twitter.com/July4thPBS), quickly admitted that their feed of the fireworks was actually a mashup. “We showed a combination of the best fireworks from this year and previous years,” a Tweet read. “It was the patriotic thing to do.” Viewers, though, weren’t so quick to agree with the “patriotic” assessment of the situation, calling out the network on Facebook and Twitter. > [](https://twitter.com/ThomasRainerDC/status/750140122155347968) > [](https://twitter.com/kristin%5Friver/status/750138657999323136) > [](https://twitter.com/texasinafrica/status/750137927234191364) Fireworks were only part of the programming: [singers like](http://www.pbs.org/a-capitol-fourth/concert/performers/) Gavin DeGraw, Smokey Robinson, and Cassadee Pope also performed live for the holiday special. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4393159/people-are-mad-that-pbs-aired-boring-old-fireworks-on-july-4th/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4393159/people-are-mad-that-pbs-aired-boring-old-fireworks-on-july-4th/"},"headline":"People Are Mad That PBS Aired Boring Old Fireworks on July 4th","datePublished":"2016-07-05T15:07:11.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:34:01.933Z","description":"Viewers didn't love the mashup","url":"https://time.com/4393159/people-are-mad-that-pbs-aired-boring-old-fireworks-on-july-4th/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Television","viral"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7f1a32d677a7f228/69889a9d3c1639074845de98/washington-dc-fireworks-2016.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7f1a32d677a7f228/69889a9d3c1639074845de98/washington-dc-fireworks-2016.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Independence Day fireworks on the National Mall.","caption":"Independence Day fireworks on the National Mall.","creditText":"The Washington Post—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4393159/people-are-mad-that-pbs-aired-boring-old-fireworks-on-july-4th/","name":"People Are Mad That PBS Aired Boring Old Fireworks on July 4th"}}]}] ```