CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Seems Bewildered by Nathan Fielder & ‘The Rehearsal’ Chat – Fans React (VIDEO)

Amanda Bell May 29, 2025, 2:56 pm

As if he didn’t already stick the landing, in more ways than one, with Sunday’s daring finale of The Rehearsal, comedian Nathan Fielder then took his signature dry wit to CNN’s The Situation Room on Thursday (May 29). The interview was ostensibly scheduled for him to discuss the topic of airline safety — particularly, how his HBO Max series exposes a hidden danger in the current regulations — but Fielder’s deadpan approach sparked quite a reaction from viewers.

Fielder’s fans had a field day over the 17-minute sitdown with anchors Wolf Blitzer and Pamela Brown, which seemed to leave Blitzer somewhat bamboozled.

Fielder was joined for the interview by John Goglia, the former member of the National Transportation Safety Board who appeared in the HBO Max series, to discuss The Rehearsal Season 2’s central premise that communication issues between pilots can be a factor in airline crashes.

At first, the cohosts tried to play along, with Blitzer noting, “For those of our viewers who have seen the show in this interview, I’m going to be the first officer,” and Brown adding, “I’m gonna be captain.” Brown also correctly noted that that bit of role-playing was necessary to the discussion of The Rehearsal.

It didn’t take long, though, for things to go off the rails, with a 737-hatted Fielder insisting upon a comparison of the situation of copilots to the co-anchors.

“So I assume between you two,” he started. “We like each other, we talk to each other,” Blitzer quicly said in response. “But there’s things you probably don’t share, too,” Fielder continued. “So that’s a good way of the audience understanding the dynamics.”

Then, when Blitzer asked Fielder why he decided to investigate this issue for the season, he said his interest came, in part, because, “Well, I don’t want to die.” He then struck a more serious tone and pointed to the research he came across before turning the mic to Goglia, who backed up his thesis: “When he first came to me and mentioned that to me, it immediately caught fire with me because I’ve seen it. I’ve flown in many, many, many cockpits. I’ve seen the scenario that he presented over and over again. And in fact, I want to take his scenario — I teach school at Vaughn College in New York City, an aviation school — I plan on taking that show that my students.”

Brown then presented an official statement from the Federal Aviation Administration in which they said currently, regulation “mandates all airline pilots and crew members to complete interpersonal communication training” and they aren’t “seeing the data that supports the show’s central claim, that pilot communications is to blame for airline disaster.”

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In response to that, Fielder said bluntly, “That’s dumb. They’re dumb.” He then went on to note, “I trained to be a pilot, and I’m a 737 pilot. I went through the training. The training is someone shows you a PowerPoint slide saying, ‘If you are a copilot, the captain does something wrong. You need to speak up about it.’ That’s all. That’s the training. And they talk about some crashes that happen, but they don’t do anything that makes it stick emotionally.”

When asked by Blitzer if he thinks that communication issues cause crashes, Fielder responded awkwardly with, “Well, yeah, that was my whole thing. That’s the whole show.” He then went on to, once again, compare the power dynamic at play to Blitzer and Brown.

“The issue that we talked about in the show is people not wanting to share their feelings with each other, copilots, because one might be of higher [stature with] more experience than the other, so they might know the thing that will save the plane from crashing, but they might not want to communicate it,” Fielder said. “You’re Wolf Blitzer, right? So you’re like, your name is first on the thing. So I’m sure, Pamela, at times you might not want to say, ‘Oh, Wolf wants to do something. [I] don’t think it’s a good idea.” You might not want to express that always.”

That led to both cohosts going on a bumbling defense, with Brown insisting Blitzer doesn’t have an “ego” and that she feels free to speak up, but she admitted, “I take your point.”

Brown then turned the subject to the part in the series when Fielder channeled Captain Sully Sullenberger, and Fielder noted that he did so because he saw where the “Miracle on the Hudson” pilot differed from others on communication issues. He later referred to his own ability to land a plane as the “Miracle Over the Mojave” more than once.

To close the interview, Fielder offered a bit of tongue-in-cheek praise for his interviewers, saying, “This is just something I think is important to say because I think these days, a lot of people will go to alternative news sources or comedy podcasters to get the word out about stuff, like Joe Rogan or Theo Von, but for me, it’s still CNN all the way.”

For those who understand Fielder’s particular brand of subtle humor, the interview was a true hoot… and the perfect way to follow up on the jaw-dropping finale, that saw him piloting a real-life plane, including landing it.

“Nathan Fielder going on CNN in a 737 hat and absolutely confounding Wolf Blitzer is one of the funniest things he’s ever done. In awe of this man,” one fan wrote of the exchange. “Nobody blurs the lines like Nathan Fielder. Cause it’s both A. a great point and B. ridiculous. And you know — on CNN,” another added.

“Nathan Fielder talking on CNN about how he saved 150 lives in the Miracle Over The Mojave is peak television,” said a third. Another commenter added, “Every clip i’ve seen of nathan fielder on cnn just makes me so confused like did they not look into who this man is before having him on.”