CNN Guest Falls On Face While Attempting Backflip on Live TV

One Savannah Banana failed at his usual acrobatics at the worst possible time.

Robert Anthony Cruz, a member of the touring Savannah Bananas baseball team, was set to make his intro on a CNN piece about the Bananas by doing a live backflip, only to faceplant hard into the floor.

🚨#BREAKING: Watch as a Savannah Bananas baseball player performer attempts a backflip during a live segment on CNN, only to face plant hard in front of the live cameras. The unexpected slip left anchors stunned pic.twitter.com/DQRWud8yp0

— R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) July 24, 2025

The Savannah Bananas play a type of baseball deemed “Banana Ball,” where the players dance, do sketch comedy, and exhibit general showmanship during innings. Many of the players are former professional or college baseball players, with current MLB players appearing occasionally as special guests.

Cruz was a good sport about the incident, posting several behind-the-scenes videos of the incident and telling viewers they “have my permission to laugh,” noting that “the sound makes it 10x funnier.”

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A post shared by RobertAnthony Cruz (@coach.rac)

In a separate video, he explained “what actually happened.”

“For those of you that don’t know me, I do flips all the time—while catching a ball, mind you,” he said in an Instagram Reel. “Also, a couple months ago, I was at ESPN headquarters and on NFL Live I caught a football on live television while doing a backflip. I have done 10s of 1000s of backflips in my life. I had zero reason to doubt my abilities.”

Unfortunately, the bright lighting in the CNN studio made him lose track of where he was in the air, so he under-rotated and flubbed the landing.

“Next thing I know, I am on the floor, and I’m rattled. I was pretty confused,” he said, while adding he had “blood dripping down” his face.

Cruz suffered no serious injuries, however, just a couple stitches to his lip and chin.