CNN 'Early Start' Hosts Dial Wrong Number, Wake Up Stranger (VIDEO)

CNN's Ashleigh Banfield and Zoraida Sambolin accidentally woke up a random stranger early Monday morning.

The "Early Start" co-hosts were trying to call comedian Chuck Nice for a phone interview at 6:40 a.m. They got a groggy man on the line instead.

Banfield, who thought she was speaking to Nice, joked, "Chuck, this is the FBI calling." Sambolin realized they had called the wrong person after the man asked, "¿Perdón?" Banfield gasped in horror and proceeded to crack up. Then she got up, telling Sambolin, "You're taking this one."

Sambolin told the cameras, "¡Disculpe!"

Related on HuffPost:

The biggest media gaffes of 2011.

Comments

[corpusWalt]

11:27 PM on 01/31/2012

cnn early start is not news, and is not entertaining. Ashleigh Banfield has to be sleeping with the shows producer, she is a twit. Bring back the news or go out of businesss, what are they thinking at CNN?

[dbrett480]

04:30 PM on 01/21/2012

Someone needs to tell these two knuckleheads that they work for a news station, not a morning radio show.

[happycat]

04:11 PM on 01/11/2012

How does Banfield still have a job? That was really really horrendous.

[Denise Krivitsky]

04:36 AM on 02/03/2012

Oh please....I think there are far more horrible things in our world today. Lighten up!!

[cybolt]

12:03 PM on 01/11/2012

Dear Moderator: Ive reviewed your guidelines and this comment seems in keep with all of them. Would you please review and post? Thank you.

After the Kerry Kennedy fiasco and Stewart's skewering, you'd think Banfield might respond with something along the lines " Hey, we know the stuff we do is fair game and after a few hiccups, maybe we need to rethink (retool, refine, reevaluate­) the segment."

To avoid doing so is tacit acceptance and approval.

And to think that somewhere in CNN, there is a producer, an executive producer, a managing editor, a news director and a vp of news who signed off on this.

[Marvin Hadley Jr]

08:44 AM on 01/11/2012

Two clueless Kim Kardashian wannabes, eh?

[Brian01]

08:27 AM on 01/11/2012

Prank calls, really? Are you sure this isn't a Fox News broadcast? What the hell is wrong with CNN?

[Southrnbelle]

07:55 AM on 01/11/2012

Bubble Heads!

[rt1027]

01:29 AM on 01/11/2012

so prosecute that woman

[morphinesushi2]

12:27 PM on 01/10/2012

Ashleigh Banfield can wake me up anytime.

[ladyangelnyc]

11:33 AM on 01/10/2012

Hahahahahaha, those poor hosts! Whoever dialed that number is gonna have a producer breathing down his neck!

[ae12wrangell]

11:15 AM on 01/10/2012

The BIGGEST gaffe was on the Today Show;

Meredith Vieira was interviewing Eve Ensler and Jane Fonda. The subject they were discussing was the female's body. Okay, I have no problem. But, Eve Ensler did not say it, Jane Fonda did; the "C" word -refer's to the vagina. After the interview, a 5 minute local news break. Then it's back to Today, and instead of Matt Lauer saying anything, Meredith went to the camera's and apologized for the use of the "word" on national television. That had/has to be the BIGGEST gaffe in television.

[scififan7]

11:35 AM on 01/10/2012

What do you expect from Hanoi Jane?

[ae12wrangell]

12:00 PM on 01/10/2012

Every single telephone at 30 Rock was ringing with complaint's. I was out of the room for a few minute's. I mean, it was Fonda and Ensler, so I did not care. Then I am assuming at the commercial, my son chose to come to the kitchen as well. I left him to watch TV. Never expecting he'd hear such a word. He come's into the kitchen and ask me what a "C" is. Now I was mortified. A 2 year old asking me something I had no way to explain,without doing any further damage to his little mind. He and I went back and changed the channel to Sesame Street or cartoon's or whatever. Today need's a 5 second time delay just like Saturday Night Live, and the Academy Awards have. Remember the Academy Awards last year? Whoever won B Supporting Actress said the F word, it was deleted, and nobody at home heard it, but we knew, just the same

[TheTRUTHbyGod]

09:56 AM on 01/10/2012

The should would be much better if the Ashleigh and Zoraida spent the first hour of the show making out. Everyone I correspondent with agrees this would vastly improve the show's quality and content.

[meljorma]

09:32 AM on 01/10/2012

I think the funniest part was where she said this is the FBI. lol .. lol the line goes dead.. ha ha ha

[Jennifer Kley]

11:06 AM on 01/10/2012

Right.
I still think it would've been quite funny if they did indeed reach Chuck Nice because I'm sure he would've said something insane about the Eff Bee Eye calling him. Something completely irreverant and hilarious.

http://thecubiclerebel.wordpress.com/

[connie4815]

09:26 AM on 01/10/2012

Oh my goodness, people - lighten up! We all need to laugh more. These people are human, just like the rest of the world.

[Barbara A Yates]

01:52 PM on 01/10/2012

It's called 'not having a life' my dear, so forget it, they will rant until the sun goes down. And, Hanoi Jane, please. I'm just happy that SOMEONE in this lost country will tell the truth about the US War Machine. Watch out, Iran is next!

[PSchurman]

09:17 AM on 01/10/2012

Like both of these women. Ashley is refreshing...don't know Sambolin yet. Will wait to pass judgement in a few months. Got to give it a chance to work out the kinks.