QVC Turns 40: Hosts Recall the Most Viral Moments from the Shopping Network

The Hollywood Reporter gathers a group of QVC hosts to discuss their biggest on-air failures, mishaps, and blunders.

QVC hopes that life really begins at 40.

Next month is the Home Shopping Network's (the network that's not the Home Shopping Network; QVC bought HSN for $2.1 billion in 2017) ruby jubilee, and QVC is celebrating with the docu-series premiere of A QVC Story, which premieres tonight. This documentary covers the entire history of QVC, which stands for "Quality, Value and Convenience," which was founded in November 1986 by Joseph Siegel and is headquartered in West Chester, Pennsylvania.

Rick Domeier, a former actor (Evil Dead II, Die Hard 2) who has hosted QVC for 32 of its 40 years, narrates this documentary that shows the good, the bad and the ugly—and I'm not just talking about grandma's pretty jewelry. Dumayer is retiring from QVC in December, so he has nothing to lose by talking candidly with The Hollywood Reporter — well, his son works there now, so maybe as well — as do Tony Brattin, Shawn Killinger and John Battagles.

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When one thinks of QVC, one probably thinks of dazzling clothing, the latest releases in home technology, and/or Chris Moran's fall from the Telesteps 12 1/2 aluminum telescopic ladder while touting its quality and versatility. (Poor caller Renee from California — at least her apartment has vaulted ceilings.) This story is more about the latter category: QVC's Viral Bloopers.

For most of its life, QVC was a 24/7 commercial-free channel - it's show business - now it's a 24/7 live channel. The large amount of unedited airtime puts QVC hosts in a perfect position to put their orthotics in their mouths. It's a wonder there aren't more viral lice.

The hosts told us that's because of two things: 1) for the first half of QVC's life, YouTube didn't exist (Dumayer says the breakdowns were saved and aired at Christmas) and 2) for the last decade of QVC, The Soup has been off the air.

But no one gets in and out of QVC without at least one embarrassing mistake. Domeier's most memorable case came when he was selling the new Amazon Echo.

"I'm selling this thing in the middle of the night ... and it has a new skill. You always have new skills," Domeier told THR. One of the new skills was being able to order pizza from Domino's (using your voice). great, great So at midnight, “Hey, brand new today! Special value monitoring! Oh my god, Amazon Echo! You're 50,000— QVC customers already own and love five Amazon Echo pizzas. We are ordering a new Alexoni pizza for you. "Domino."

"It's selling like crazy. It's amazing," Dumayer continued. "At the end of the hour, the coordinating producer comes out. He says, 'They love it, but stop ordering pizza.' We complain about customer service."

You can probably see where this is as I can. My Echo Dot is maybe 12 feet away from receiving our Zoom call and responding to Domeier's request.

"My voice comes over the TV speakers and I order a pizza," he recalls. "And so... 'ding-dong.'

Yes, Domino's was delivering pizza to QVC viewers who already had an Echo in their (digital) TV. You can imagine the confusion and abundance of pepperoni pizza.

Tony Bratin can claim QVC's last viral moment. Just last summer, Brattin was sporting one of her many Salon Select wigs. The best way to do this is to wear it, which she did on our Zoom.

"I like to show the texture and this wavy pattern," Brattin said live on the QVC+ streamer, teasing the wig with her hand. "Again, it looks like you went and had a drink in your parlor—a blast in your parlor."

Brattin, who had his back to the camera, almost died.

His co-host, Terry Kahn, tried to ignore the faux pas and broadcast the moment live, but Brattin instinctively dropped to the floor and hid behind the show table.

"Our brains are kind of on autopilot. I can't tell you how many times we do our plans, right?" Brattin told THR. "I'm always trying to describe [the wigs] and I'm always thinking, 'Were we supposed to go over the colors?' Do we do models? When are the models coming?'

Brattin eventually decided that his Freudian slip was good television.

"It really promoted QVC — our entertainment on the network," he said. "It promoted brand awareness and also just [the wig industry], but more importantly, the world got a big laugh."

When Jimmy Fallon played this clip on The Tonight Show, the world had a great laugh. The next night, Fallon was an unusually good sport on his NBC late-night show.

Killinger's favorite (on any other channel) was himself. Well, it really was designer Isaac Mizrahi - mostly.

As he and Killinger sold their passionate designs, the topic of the moon came up. Mizrahi insisted that the Moon was a planet, which it most certainly was not. Killinger replied that the moon was a star: 0-2. The moon is a natural satellite, Google explained to them live on air. Neither Killinger nor Mizrahi knew what to make of it.

Killinger calls it "chicken of the sea," a comparison to Jessica Simpson's most famous statement (and Nick Lachey's most famous reaction) from MTV's Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica. That happens, Killinger said.

"It was terribly embarrassing and surprising, but things like this happen all the time," Killinger said. "It sounded so bad and dumb and spacey and airy."

He said that you go on live television for four hours straight without a script or a teleprompter and see how it goes.

"You say stupid things, or you say things you don't think are stupid in the moment," Killinger said.

John Battagliase is the new kid on the block, but the lifelong QVC fan is having a (small) viral moment of his own right now.

Pressing Slaktin + Co.'s Homeworx candles, Battagliese struggled to find the words "piña colada." What came out was "penis".

At first, Battaglise was worried he would be fired. It was Bratin's viral mistake that gave him the courage to post his own gaffe on Instagram.

"I was sitting on it for a year," he told THR. But when the "Bennyjob" video came out, I said, "We're just going to see how it goes."

"I think in this creative economy and short-term economy, [sharing these moments] would be a misstep," Battagliese said.

Battagliese says her flub raised her profile online — she said RuPaul's Drag Race's Trixie Mattel was in her comments and messages — as well as at a recent influencer event in London. (Although he admitted that even there almost everyone wanted to talk to him about Brattin's slip.)

And then there's Rosalie's moment. Each of the hosts that THR spoke to (individually) for this story loved this story in particular.

It was time for Lee Williams to sell jeans and partners, and a kind old lady named Rosalie was "very anxious to order [her] clothes."

Rosalie said she doesn't go out shopping much because the South Island of New Jersey, where she lives, doesn't have many stores. As he informs Williams of his hopes for a good match, a mysterious person chooses the wrong moment to compete for Rosalie's attention.

"Can you see me talking on the damn phone!" Rosalie yells at someone else in her house.

"It's live TV, and Rosalie didn't want to be interrupted," Williams says with a laugh.

Each of these moments only "reinforces" the QVC brand, Domeier said, calling them "lovely."