Viewers outraged after NBC cuts away from Olympics closing ceremony

(CNN) -- NBC was pummeled by viewers who took to social media after the network cut away early from the closing ceremony of the London Games on Sunday to air a new television show, drawing outrage from those who tuned in for the highly anticipated musical spectacle. The Twitter-sphere exploded, with "#NBCfail" and "#closingceremonies" trending worldwide, after NBC cut out performances by Ray Davies, Kate Bush, The Who and Muse in favor of a commercial-free airing of "Animal Practice." "I still don't understand, it's a tape delay, so can't you do the math in advance? Why do you need to cut off the closing ceremony? #nbcfail," Raj Sarkar wrote on Twitter. Meet the man who started #NBCFail Actor Nate Barlow posted to his Twitter account: "Why #nbcfail ranks last: no better way to turn people off a new show than to preempt @thewho & other rock legends for it." #NBCFail? Olympics close with fireworks display Looking back at London 2012 The network was under fire for much of the 16 days of the Games by viewers who took to Twitter and Facebook to complain about its tape-delayed coverage of big-ticket events, which NBC has said was necessary to maximize its prime-time audience. Earlier in the Games, NBC came under fire for filing a complaint over tweets by Guy Adams, the Los Angeles-based journalist whose Twitter account was temporarily suspended after he criticized NBC for its Olympics coverage. In one tweet, Adams provided the company e-mail address of an NBC executive and urged followers to send him messages complaining about the tape-delayed coverage.