A quiz show host was left baffled as a heckler in the audience interrupted a segment of the hit ABC programme

A heckler interrupted an ABC game show (Image: ABC)

A hit ABC quiz show was interrupted by a heckler, leaving its host baffled as he tried to calm proceedings down. New Zealand comedian Guy Montgomery was doing his best to avoid chaos on his show Guy Mont-Spelling Bee this week as celebrity contestant He Huang struggled with one of the questions.

She was presented with international flags and tasked with identifying the country and then spelling it – leaving her scratching her head. Her only clue was: “This country has a lot of world’s heaviest animals because a lot of them are still carrying the psychological weight of World War Two.”

Guy Montgomery was left stunned (Image: ABC)

He asked Guy: “Does it start with G?” but it was a member of the audience who responded, yelling: “Poland!” and shocking everyone else into silence.

Guy told him: “That is absolutely illegal,” as his co-host Aaron Chen joked: “Don’t worry Guy, I’ll go sort this!” He jokingly pretended to apprehend the heckler – and the bizarre moment made it into the final edit of the show because of how “incredibly unusual” and “kind of funny” it was.

He was allowed to spell Poland and kept the point. But Guy told news.com.au that the rules in place for the audience are “pretty clear”.

The comedian said: “The show does draw an audience of word nerds or people who believe in themselves as spellers, so there is a sense of excitement and frustration that can occur when they’re watching a contestant who is so close to approaching a word.

“One [motivation for heckling] might be sympathy and that you’re wanting to help them. You think ‘I can get them over the line here.’”