BBC News interview interrupted by a random woman joining Zoom

An interview on BBC News was interrupted in the middle of the broadcast after a random woman joined a Zoom meant for a professor being interviewed.

On Wednesday, host Rebecca Jones began interviewing University of Essex professor Lorna Wood on online safety via Zoom when suddenly an unexpected guest popped up in the Zoom room.

As Wood was responding to a question from Jones, a small window appeared showing the face of a random woman who sat quietly at the top of the screen as Wood gave a thorough answer regarding social media platforms and online safety.

At one point, the unexpected guest walked away from her camera and toward the back of her room then returned, causing Wood to look on with confusion.

Less than a minute into Wood's answer, Jones interrupted announcing they had to cut the interview short.

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"Professor I've got to interrupt, I'm afraid. Somebody else has joined the Zoom meeting," Jones said. "So, we're going to leave it there."

Before the Zoom meeting disappeared the woman gave a small wave to Wood and BBC News.

This is not the first time a BBC broadcast has been interrupted over Zoom. In 2020 and 2021, children of reporters and government officials were notorious for barging in on Zoom interviews.

Like Jon Ashworth's daughter who 'Zoom-bombed' him during a BBC interview last year.

On Twitter, people laughed at the TV blunder.

"secretly inviting a random stranger to my meetings could be my new hobby," Mathias wrote.

"In a piece about online harms .." NBC reporter Matthew Mulligan wrote.

Apparently, the woman was not totally random as she was meant to be a guest on a different piece but was given the same Zoom link as Wood.

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