Overview
- The BBC used a greenscreen Houston skyline with added mountain peaks during a studio segment promoting Houston, a graphic that viewers flagged as geographically wrong.
- Reed Wilburn first highlighted the image on X and the clip spread quickly on social platforms, where fans and commentators amplified the error.
- Local teams including the Houston Rockets and Houston Dynamo publicly mocked the image with their own edited posts, turning the mistake into a wider joke.
- Houston sits on the Gulf Coastal Plain at roughly 50–105 feet above sea level so there are no nearby mountain ranges, which made the graphic an obvious mismatch with the city.
- The gaffe renewed criticism of the BBC's use of virtual backdrops for World Cup coverage and, according to one report, the broadcaster corrected the background after the image went viral, though no formal public apology has been reported.