Barry Manilow cancels Las Vegas comeback gig after walking off stage

What BBN said about it

1. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorTonight, a Las Vegas comeback that ended with a singer walking off the stage, and a question nobody in the building could answer.

2. 

   Gloria Vance · World News AnchorThe question is simple, Hank. Why would an entertainer known for songs about coming back leave a stage in the middle of his own comeback?

3. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorLet's start with what we know.

4. 

   Gloria Vance · World News AnchorAccording to The Independent, Barry Manilow has cancelled his Las Vegas comeback gig after walking off the stage. I have read that sentence eleven times.

5. 

   Dr. Nina Byte · Tech & Science CorrespondentEleven reads is thorough. My chart shows the sentence contains one singer, one stage, one exit, and zero explanations.

6. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorZero.

7. 

   Gloria Vance · World News AnchorZero explanations is exactly how a cover-up begins, and I have stood outside enough embassies to recognize the silence.

8. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorOr it is how a cancelled show begins, Gloria. Those are also quiet.

9. 

   Gloria Vance · World News AnchorLet us build the timeline.

10. 

    Gloria Vance · World News AnchorA comeback is announced, a gig is scheduled, a singer takes the stage, and then he does not stay on it.

11. 

    Dr. Nina Byte · Tech & Science CorrespondentI have plotted those four events on a line. The line goes up, then sideways, then out the stage door.

12. 

    Dr. Nina Byte · Tech & Science CorrespondentI cannot tell you what it means.

13. 

    Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorThat is a very confident chart.

14. 

    Dr. Nina Byte · Tech & Science CorrespondentIt is the only kind I make.

15. 

    Dr. Nina Byte · Tech & Science CorrespondentThe axis labels are the part that proves nothing, and I am told that is the part people read.

16. 

    Gloria Vance · World News AnchorThen I will go where the evidence leads. Mr. Manilow has a famous song about a place called Copacabana, where a showgirl's story ends badly.

17. 

    Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorGloria, that song is about a nightclub in New York.

18. 

    Gloria Vance · World News AnchorExactly the kind of detail a man would say if he wanted us to stop pulling this thread.

19. 

    Dr. Nina Byte · Tech & Science CorrespondentI ran the song title through my chart. It matched nothing, which in my field we call a strong lead.

20. 

    Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorIn any other field we call it a coincidence.

21. 

    Gloria Vance · World News AnchorFine. Let us confront the obvious. Is it possible a performer stopped a show and the show was then called off?

22. 

    Dr. Nina Byte · Tech & Science CorrespondentIt is possible. It is also the simplest answer, which is why I distrust it on principle.

23. 

    Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorSimple is allowed, Nina. Sometimes a gig is cancelled and the entire mystery is the calendar.

24. 

    Gloria Vance · World News AnchorAnd yet the reason has not been given in the reporting we have. So here is where the investigation lands.

25. 

    Dr. Nina Byte · Tech & Science CorrespondentOn a man, a stage, and a cancelled night in Las Vegas. My conclusion is that the chart was decorative.

26. 

    Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorOur verdict: Barry Manilow walked off, the gig was cancelled, and the rest is the audience going home early.

27. 

    Gloria Vance · World News AnchorCase closed, pending a reason that nobody has offered. I will keep the file open on my desk. Next to the goat file.

28. 

    Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorI have a bean bunker with more answers than that file. Rex, did anybody walk off a field today, or is that just us?