However, this year, PBS’ A Capitol Fourth came under a little criticism for choosing not to air the live fireworks during the broadcast, showing old fireworks footage, instead.
After enough people complained about the fake fireworks, PBS finally came forward, noting that the A Capitol Fourth chose to splice up footage from previous events with footage from this year’s event so that the viewers at home would get a more spectacular fireworks demonstration.
It honestly looks as if the network tried using the planned live fireworks footage, first, but it just wasn’t popping onscreen.
Because this year’s fireworks were difficult to see due to the weather, we made the decision to intercut fireworks footage from previous A Capitol Fourth concerts for the best possible television viewing experience.