This is a slightly longer version than the above and shows the audience's reaction. I wonder what was said between Murdoch and the ex-winner in their exchange in the background at the end of the clip.

Maybe I am cynical....but I am not 100% convinced by the sincerity / genuiness of this false announcement.

a lot of people are suggesting elsewhere that this 'error' was deliberate to get unpaid publicity for the programme and I'm cynical enough to believe it 

Aww, the losing winner took it very well, I thought!

Indeed, a nice (and very quickly organised if I say so myself) compensation package of $12,000 and trip to New York, 2 prizes less than the winner. Big smiles all round!

I tend to agree - this looks very suspicious. It's not the first time that the wrong winner of a competition has been announced, but normally you'd have a producer immediately screaming down the presenter's ear and the whole thing would be cleared up very quickly. For example, remember when Wogan announced the wrong winner for "Song for Europe"? (Mind you, he had the safety-net of a co-presenter then.)

I really can't understand why this "mistake" was allowed to drag on for around a minute before being corrected, so yeah: smacks of set-up to me...

or sheer incompetence..wouldn't be the first time

Why did it take almost a minute for the mistake to be noticed.  Surely as soon as the presenter said the wrong name someone (producers) should have been shouting in the ear she had said the wrong name.

It's not the things that Murdoch gets wrong I worry about, it's all the things he gets right!