But this is part of the reason why this episode is not among my favourites: we are supposed to think Kay is competent, but this decision is so bad that I have trouble accepting her as being competent in the first place. I suppose the point is that she's a good 'number two' but not cut out to be number one - but apparently the Valerie Kirk show was always supposed to be live, and the bosses went along with this the whole time??

It's a little like the mistake the chess champion Emmet Clayton makes when losing a match in the simultaneous chess tournament when Columbo is bugging him: it's the shortest checkmate possible. I can accept that he would be distracted into making a mistake, but not that particular mistake.