Having done my own bit in historical archaeology (no aircraft unfortunately, just kilns, apothicary wholesaler, and a lot of back gardens) I don't know how the live broadcast could have been reasonably expected to turn out any other way.
Most archeology is hours and hours of painstaking dirty work that doesn't really come together until it all goes in the lab. The live televising must have been akin to the early space program "T minus 38 minutes and holding for something or other 2 hrs 14 min 34 sec into the hold" Then Walter Cronkite does another interview with Von Braun or somebody. At least Cronkite knew what he was doing.