History Main / CoincidentalBroadcast

* ''LightNovel/DenpaTekiNaKanojo'': This happens a lot in the two [=OVAs=]… until you realize that the BigBad of the first OVA invoked this trope when a magazine mentions the mysterious SerialKiller as [[spoiler: the first step of the EvilPlan to get the protagonist LuredIntoATrap]]. All of the other cases play the trope straight.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': The episode "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E8TimeEnoughAtLast Time Enough at Last]]" manages this trope with a ''newspaper''. Henry Bemis opens the paper to see that the top headline on the first page (which actually has a realistic layout) is '''"H-Bomb Capable of Total Destruction"'''... [[TemptingFate and you can guess]] [[NukeEm what happens next]] Probably justified, since a hydrogen bomb being completed is pretty big news.

* Early in ''WesternAnimation/Incredibles2'', the kids are watching ''Series/TheOuterLimits'', a show which starts with the opening Kayfabe-ing [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou hijacking your transmission and controlling everything you see and hear]]. It's a very old show, and probably the only reason it was on is because later on in the movie a new villain named 'Screenslaver' operates by hijacking video transmissions to {{Brainwash|edAndCrazy}} people.

* Justified in ''The Osterman Weekend'' (1983) where a 'news article' on the illicit use of Swiss bank accounts appears on television as part of the MindScrew tactics being used against the protagonists. It's actually being sent via a video feed by the CIA surveillance team.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

** {{Lampshaded}} during one invention exchange, with a special radio that only used channels from old movies and TV shows, including the "Incredibly Plot Specific News Station": "The Harlem Globetrotters have been missing at sea and are thought to have washed up on some [[Series/GilligansIsland uncharted desert isle.]]"

* In ''Series/TheXFiles'' (season 1 finale), Mulder watches the news informing on the case he's about to investigate. Justified because he got an echo from Deep Throat, his secret informant.

* Used both obviously and subtly in ''Series/{{Sherlock}}''; at the beginning of "The Great Game", John turns on the TV just as a news story about a Vermeer painting changes to a broadcast about the explosion that has just occurred at Baker Street. The convenient Baker Street story is of immediate relevance to John, but the Vermeer news later turns out to be just as important.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' episode "Time Enough at Last" manages this trope with a ''newspaper''. Henry Bemis opens the paper to see that the top headline on the first page (which actually has a realistic layout) is '''"H-Bomb Capable of Total Destruction"'''... [[TemptingFate and you can guess]] [[NukeEm what happens next]]
** Probably justified, since a hydrogen bomb being completed is pretty big news.

** In [[Recap/SupernaturalS02E20WhatIsAndWhatShouldNeverBe "What is and What Should Never Be" (S02, Ep20]], while in the Wish!Verse, Dean channels surfs only to see a broadcast about a memorial for plane crash victims, who were saved in the regular timeline.
** In [[Recap/SupernaturalS05E03FreeToBeYouAndMe "Free to Be You and Me'' (S05, Ep03)]], Sam works at a bar where there is a news broadcast about various apocalypse-related phenomena, the very apocalypse a guilt-ridden Sam started.
** In episode [[Recap/SupernaturalS09E01IThinkImGonnaLikeItHere "I Think I'm Gonna Like It Here" (S09, Ep01)]], a news broadcast about the global meteor shower plays with footage of the falling angels in Sam's hospital room.

** Repeatedly invoked in another episode, in which Timmy switches voices with Chip Skylark. Every time Timmy and/or his fairies get stuck on what to do, they turn on their TV and invariably get a broadcast telling them exactly what they should do. This culminates in a ''Series/WheelOfFortune'' parody with (almost) the right solution appearing on the puzzle: "GET CHIP SKYLARK TO SAY I WISH I HAD ''TOMMY'' TURNER'S VOICE".

* Used a lot in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries''.

* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'':

** In another episode the group wonders what to do to give Chip Skylark back his original voice, after a wish by Timmy had it switched with his. They turn on the TV and the first thing on screen is a ''Series/WheelOfFortune'' parody with (almost) the right solution appearing on the puzzle: "GET CHIP SKYLARK TO SAY I WISH I HAD ''TOMMY'' TURNER'S VOICE"
** In another episode, Timmy walks across a TV showing a broadcast saying everything wasn't fine immediately after Timmy said everything would be fine.

[[folder: Fan Works]]

* ''ComicBook/AlphaFlight'' started this way.

This is also rapidly becoming a DiscreditedTrope considering how many sources parody this convention, even if the rise of 24-hour rolling news networks makes it much easier to HandWave nowadays, plus smartphones are becoming the preferred way to receive news on the go. Can be an example of WorstNewsJudgementEver, if the story doesn't merit its place in the headlines.

* In the ''Series/BreakingBad'' episode "[[Recap/BreakingBadS5E15GraniteState Granite State]]", Walt finally emerges from the mountain cabin where he's been hiding out and goes to a bar. What pops up on the television mounted above the bar? Naturally, a PBS interview with Gretchen and Elliott Schwartz, Walt's old partners and co-founders of Gray Matter.

* During the premiere of the ''WesternAnimation/DonkeyHodie'' episode "Art Show Today; The Lavender Lights" on PBS affiliate WNET, a local ident with a rocketship flying played right before the show began. The episode's second segment involved Duck Duck getting over her fear of rocketships.

** Speaking of Godzilla, [[Film/Godzilla the very first film]] has a good example. As Dr. Serizawa laments on what he should do with his Oxygen Destroyer, his television broadcasts footage of a choir group of children singing for peace and hope, finally encouraging him to use his device to kill Godzilla. Its especially noticeable because the television WASN'T EVEN ON, and no one was close enough to switch it on either.

* In ''Film/UHF'', George is in a seedy bar ready to begin a new career in drinking after reaching his DespairEventHorizon. But the bar's TV happens to be tuned in to Channel 62 and the patrons are watching the show George just casually put Stanley Spadowski--the station's janitor--in charge of. Their enthusiastic reaction to Stanley on the air convinces George to race back to the station, and it's the turning point of the story.

* Slight variation in ''Anime/FutariWaPrettyCure'' episode 36 where the Guardian's description of a place full of flowers happens to match a newspaper article in front of them instead of a news broadcast.

* In ''Amazing Franchise/SpiderMan'' #43, Peter Parker and ComicBook/MaryJaneWatson are watching a music program which is suddenly interrupted by a special bulletin with breaking news of Rhino's rampage.

* Examples from ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' stories:

* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'':

* A non-news example occurs in ''Film/TheGame''. Sitting in a diner; with his ex-wife, Nicholas sees Jim Feingold (the man who administered the Game's exams earlier in the film) playing a television-commercial "doctor" on the place's TV. At first thinking that the Game runners have found him, he quickly realizes that "Feingold" is a TV actor (of course, given that the Game runners ''have'' been watching him and are always [[XanatosSpeedChess one step ahead of him]], it's quite possible that the broadcast isn't as "coincidental" as Nicholas thinks it is).

* Often seen in ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends''. It was {{lampshade|Hanging}}d once when Jon says something about "I wish I was more X...", immediately followed by a commercial "Do you wish YOU were more X?" and Jon says "How come my TV always knows what I'm thinking?"

* On January 9, 2022, ABC News fittingly broke into ''Series/AmericasFunniestHomeVideos'' to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zk0DYARJ6Xw announce the death]] of comedian Bob Saget.

->''"Has anyone ever noticed Fry always turns the TV on at ''just'' the right moment?"''