Going to a remote is not the same thing as backup/redundancy within the studio. The broadcast was never interrupted. The latency between remotes can be mindnumbing, and with inexperienced reporter/anchor stepping over each other unable to sit through the delay it's pain inducing for the viewer. But that's an unrelated tangent
Like this exchange happens all the time:
"and now we're going to our on site reporter, Onda Premises"
<45s silence>
"Oh, it appears we've lost them for now, we'll cycle back later. In our next story...."