Apple TV generation 3 shorted my television

My Dad has a Vizio flatscreen with the 3rd generation Apple TV plugged in and one day his TV stopped working, he would turn it on, and the Vizio logo would flicker for a second, then it would power down. He bought a new TV and gave me the Apple TV console for my (different) Vizio television. I brought it home and just left it in my closet for a couple days, I was playing video games on my Television and figured I’d take a break and finally set up the Apple TV. Everything with my television was completely fine, and hadn’t had a single issue until I plugged in the Apple TV. The second I plugged it in, my Vizio television did the same thing my Dad’s did! It flickered the vizio logo for a second then powered down. Now I can only see the picture if I hold a flashlight to the screen. So my question is, did the Apple TV simply put our televisions in sleep mode and we need the (missing) Apple remote to wake them, or did it fry the backlight on both of our televisions somehow?