By: Scott Johnson on February 12, 2013
While a record number of people tuned in to watch The Walking midseason premiere on Sunday night, two Montana TV stations might have had some believing a real zombie apocalypse was coming on Monday. During a broadcast of Steve Wilkos show on The CW and a commercial on KRTV, someone hacked into the emergency alert system and issued a warning about a zombie apocalypse.
As the familiar emergency alert tone sounded, a voice broke in over the show saying, “Civil authorities in your area have reported that the bodies of the dead are rising from their graves and attacking the living. Follow the messages onscreen that will be updated as information becomes available. Do not attempt to approach or apprehend these bodies as they are considered extremely dangerous.”
There was even text that scrolled across the top of the screen issuing local area emergency warnings for Powell, Broadwater, Jefferson, Lewis & Clark and Meagher counties in Montana.
While some have speculated that it was a viral marketing campaign for AMC’s The Walking Dead, KRTV has stated that it was the work of hackers. On their website, KRTV posted, “Someone apparently hacked into the Emergency Alert System and announced on KRTV and the CW that there was an emergency in several Montana counties. This message did not originate from KRTV, and there is no emergency. Our engineers are investigating to determine what happened and if it affected other media outlets.”
