Really?

It's unlikely that they "sat there laughing" but it's not inconceivable that they could have been fascinated by its dying; in which case I would have preferred that the contestants acknowledge that it was their responsibility to finish it off and that they failed to do so in a timely or efficient manner. Ultimately, neither this article nor the sources really explains what happened, and the show's viewer base does not seem to include anyone who comments on Wikinews, so all we can do is discuss possibilities, and it's easy to run away with assumptions like I did when I opened the thread. I admit I had a bit of a knee-jerk reaction.