T.J. Holmes Recalls His ‘Most Embarrassing’ Blooper as an Anchor: ‘I Was Physically Under the News Desk’

TJ Holmes recalls his “most embarrassing” mistake as a news anchor.

Speaking during the latest episode of his and girlfriend Amy Robach’s podcast, Amy & TJwhich was released on Tuesday, the 46-year-old broadcaster revealed that he had a creepy moment with a teleprompter during the early days of his career when he filled in for a main host.

“I just got to San Francisco… KNTV, in the Bay Area. I was there less than a year, maybe a couple of months,” Holmes said. “I was the five o’clock anchor, so the big thing is always replacing the main 11 o’clock show. Big deal. Made it, five of the best on the market. I am 26, 27 years old, at 11 I will replace the main guy. This is my moment. Occurs.”

However, the former GMA3: What you need to know The host went on to explain that when the music and teleprompter started, he realized that the prompter was still showing the name of the host he was coming for.

TJ Holmes on ‘Good Morning America’.

Paula Lobo/ABC via Getty Images

Exes Amy Robach and TJ Holmes, Andrew Shue and Marilee Fiebig seen together at JFK airport

“Now, of course, the prompter has all the stories you have to read, but there’s a kind of template at the top that never changes. And the names of the hosts or the show tags stay there and not be touched,” he said. “It wasn’t touched for the new guy who was in place, so the names on the teleprompter were still the names of the two main hosts, not the fill-in guy.”

Holmes continued: “The play starts, the hostess says, ‘Good evening, I’m blah, blah, blah.’ I say, ‘Good evening, I’m Alan Denton.’ ”

Robach, 50, burst out laughing at Holmes’ revelation and asked him: “What did you do afterwards? Did you start laughing? Did your co-host start laughing?”

“No,” said Holmes in reply. “This is the first broadcast I’ve done where I was physically under the news desk the whole time.”

TJ Holmes and Amy Robach attend the 2023 iHeartRadio Jingle Ball.

Jesse Grant/Getty

Amy Robach says marriage to TJ Holmes is ‘on the table’: ‘We didn’t get into this relationship for fun’

“Is that why you never read the prompter now?” Robach asked, to which Holmes replied, “You know what? You’re right. I don’t believe it.”

Robach then recalled how the duo worked together at ABC GMA3Holmes would never put his script into a teleprompter.

“I’ve always been in awe of you because we all wrote our scripts, we’d put them in the prompter and we’d be in the studio and we’d read our scripts off the prompter, and you never did,” she said. “You could have a minute-long introduction that had a lot of details and numbers and things that you don’t want to mess up and you’d rather memorize it or have it in your head than read from a template, and that could be the root cause of that.”

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

“Trauma is what it was. It was trauma. I don’t even trust my own name,” Holmes laughed in response. “But yeah, they left it in and I think I tripped over it and ended up saying my name.”

“Everybody has a moment on TV,” Holmes added. “You can laugh at some of them.”

The pair’s podcast launch on Dec. 5 marked exactly one year since ABC News president Kim Goodwin called for the duo to be put on hiatus as news of their business romance surfaced.

“December 5th of last year, exactly one year ago today, was the day we were told not to come to work,” Robach noted in the launch episode.

“We never got an invitation to come back,” Holmes laughed, while Robach added, “That’s true. It was the opposite.” Holmes also described them as “people who have lost jobs that we love because we love each other.”

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education