
After showing an episode on submarines in the aftermath of the Titan submersible disaster, an Australian children’s television show has come under fire.
Play School, which has been on the air since 1966, is an educational broadcast produced by the ABC and the country’s longest-running children’s show.
However, over the weekend, the show showed a part that chronicled the sea floor exploits of two ocean explorers, which many criticised for its poor timing.
The segment, which aired on June 24, has hosts Kaeng and Rachel taking toys Jemima and Kiya into the ‘cold and dark’ nighttime zone of the ocean.
A cheerful Rachel informs viewers that they would be ‘heading to the bottom of the sea,’ before cutting to a close-up of the dolls speeding down into the ‘ocean’ in a submarine-like prop.
‘They’ve made it all the way to the bottom of the sea floor,’ Rachel said, before adding it was ‘very dark’ and questioning if they would see any bioluminescent sea creatures.

After taking the submarine to explore glow-in-the-dark jellyfish, Rachel breaks into a singalong with the lyrics: ‘Two explorers went to sea sea sea to see what they could see see see see. But all that they could see see see was …’
Co-host Kaeng then jumped in to demonstrate some torch fish, and the song was then performed multiple times as the dolls found other species that reside on the sea floor.
The segment then ended with Kaeng saying they would have ‘so much to report when they get back’.
Many people pointed out that the occurrence came just a few days after the ‘catastrophic collapse’ of the Titan submarine, which killed five people as they journeyed to the depths of the Atlantic to inspect the Titanic ruins.
Taking to Reddit, several people started threads, with one titled ‘Bad timing for the scheduling this morning Play School’ picking up more than 4,000 likes and over 300 comments.
While many people said the timing was likely a simple mistake and ‘probably a coincidence’, others joked that they thought ‘someone behind the scenes has a dark side’.
‘This was no mistake’ someone else added, while several others said it was ‘too soon’ to play the episode.
Other comments, though, supported the children’s show, with one asking, ‘You do appreciate how long in advance these are shot and planned, right?’
One person sarcastically wrote: ‘Yea (because little Timmy is gonna be remotely interested in the news and understand why it’s badly timed.’
However, someone else wrote that in light of the tragedy, airing the episode was ‘probably a bit insensitive right now’.
The US Coast Guard announced yesterday that it will concentrate on the’recovery of things’ from the ocean floor following the implosion.
Captain Jason Neubauer, who is leading the US Coast Guard inquiry into the event, said at a news conference in Boston that his crew was ‘taking measures’ in case victims were discovered on the ocean floor.
‘I am not getting into the details of the recovery operations but we are taking all precautions on site if we are to encounter any human remains,’ he said.
‘At this time a priority of the investigation is to recover items from the sea floor.’
On board the submersible, British millionaire adventurer Hamish Harding, French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, his 19-year-old son Suleman, and OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush were all murdered.
Play School airs on ABC in Australia.