Good Morning Britain presenter Ed Balls was forced to apologise profusely on air on Wednesday morning after a major maths mistake while discussing the Turkey and Syria earthquake.
Ed was joined by co-host Susanna Reid in the studio as they provided the latest updates on the 7.8 magnitude quake, which struck in the early hours of Monday while residents were sleeping.
GMB aired video footage of the search and rescue operation underway, as the death toll reached 8,700, with numbers expected to rise.
Former MP Ed and Susanna were joined in the studio by journalists Kevin Maguire and Andrew Pierce as the news came in.
The Mirror’s Kevin described the numbers as ‘incredible’ as he noted the death toll had already doubled that of 9/11, which killed 2,977.
He said: “Sometimes when I go to football or the rugby and you look at the stadium, and there will be 40,000 people there and you think ‘that section is already gone’. Died.”
The comparison prompted Ed, who is the former Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, to claim in relation to the Turkey earthquake: “It’s already 80 Wembley stadiums that have died already.”
Yet Kevin looked immediately flummoxed by the claim, which would put the death toll in the millions. Kevin questioned: “80 Wembley stadiums? Is it 80,000 at Wembley?”
Ed furrowed his brow as he turned to Susanna and said: “I think…” before abruptly interrupting himself to say: “No, no, no, I've got that wrong.
“That was my mistake. Bad calculations. Sorry, sorry, sorry.”
This comes after it was reported the show's host Susanna has confronted bosses over 'stupid' blunders on the ITV breakfast programme.
Presenter Susanna, 52, is reported to have been left fuming after a number of mistakes ‘made the show look stupid’ and confronted senior executives over the errors.
And just days after Susanna's reported frustration over the errors, the executives risk another confrontation from Susanna over a new gaffe.
On Monday morning, the voiceover introduced the show with a different date to the one which was written on screen.
As the titles ended, Susanna and Ben Shephard appeared on screen and the pair managed to make light of the error.
Yet a show source has claimed to The Sun the mistake left the duo ‘stunned’ following the string of errors the week before.
The insider said: "Susanna and Ben were stunned, especially after last week’s mishaps.
"To get the date of the show wrong is pretty poor by anybody’s standards — it was the worst possible start to the week."
