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Ben Winston deletes tweet on airing One Direction's unseen 'Carpool Karaoke' footage, fans say he's chasing clout

The co-executive producer of 'The Late Late Show with James Corden' responded to a 3-year-old fan tweet and confirmed the surprise telecast of the footage

Producer and director Ben Winston, known for co-executive producing 'The Late Late Show with James Corden', sent One Direction fans into a tizzy after confirming the surprise telecast of the boy band's unseen 'Carpool Karaoke' footage.

Responding to a 2017 tweet by a One Direction fan which read, "Now can you confirm you'll release the 1D McDonald's footage," Ben Winston, three years later on September 9, 2020, replied, "Ok. Tonight," before deleting the tweet, but not long before his name started trending worldwide.

To make things clearer, One Direction, the massively popular boy band consisting of Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson and Liam Payne, made an appearance on the 'Carpool Karaoke' section of 'The Late Late Show with James Corden' back in 2015. The segment, which till date remains the most watched segment on 'Carpool Karaoke', had unseen footage of the boy band with James Corden at a local McDonald's that fans have been wanting to see since the 'Best Night Ever' hitmakers announced indefinite hiatus back in January 2016.

Now, with Winston's tweets arriving out of nowhere as a reply to a question asked by a fan three years ago, Twitter went into a frenzy. One Direction fans, who recently celebrated the 10th anniversary of the boy band's formation, started to believe that there's surprise 'Carpool Karaoke' material airing on 'The Late Late Show with James Corden', but once Winston's tweet was deleted, their spirits were dampened.

A fan of the boy band, disappointed with Winston for deleting his tweet and messing with emotions of the fans, wrote, "If i haven’t seen a video of one direction placing their orders in a McDonalds drive through by the end of the night I’m fighting Ben Winston."

Detecting the randomness of the announcement, a fan of One Direction tweeted, Jjames corden and ben winston randomly at night: tee hee we're giving you unreleased one direction footage from 2015."

Fans were quick to point out the tweet sent out by Winston couldn't have been a mistake as he replied to a question from 2017. Observing this, one fan wrote, "Seriously though there’s no way Ben Winston could’ve seen a tweet from 2017 unless he specifically searched 'one direction carpool karaoke footage'."

Similarly, understanding the strangeness of the situation, another One Direction fan echoed similar thoughts and tweeted along with screenshots, "Did Ben Winston really just come on twitter confirm a release tonight of unseen footage with one direction during carpool karaoke at McDonald’s and then leave?"

Many of the fans were angry at Winston for playing with their feelings. One such fan accused Winston of chasing clout and expressed their disappointment by saying, "Goodnight please mass report ben winston for using mcdonalds, larry and one direction for clout."

Winston has been the director and producer of the 2011 TV movie documentary 'One Direction: A Year in the Making'. He has also produced 2013's 'One Direction: This Is Us', 2014's 'One Direction: Where We Are — The Concert Film' and 2015's 'One Direction the London Sessions'. He has also executive produced 2017's 'Harry Styles: Behind the Album' documentary, and the 60th and 61st Annual Grammy Awards.