Sports Host Cari Champion Laughs Off 'Power' Actor 'Shooting His Shot' Live On-Air

One would think, particularly in this day and age, that most celebrities would refrain from hitting on hosts during live interviews. However, Power star Gianni Paolo apparently did not get this memo during a recent sit-down with former ESPN host Cari Champion. However, Champion managed to handle the situation with ease and humor.

Although Champion spoke with Paolo on her Amazon Prime Video Sports Talk series The Cari Champion Show back in May, the 45-year-old just posted a clip from Paolo's TikTok account on Wednesday. "Why am I like this," Paolo captioned his original video, for reasons that will soon become evident.

"Y’all [Gianni Paolo] was ready… BRAYDEN is about that life," she wrote, referencing the 27-year-old's character on the Starz crime drama and its spinoff, Power Book II: Ghost, in which he currently stars. "Very kind."

"This was hilarious... but I wasn't about to let it slide," she added in overlaid text.

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After realizing that they were both at Kobe Bryant's final game with the Lakers before retired in 2016, Paolo "shot his shot" with Champion, as he put it.

"You were there? Damn, well I wasn't on the show then, so she didn't know who I was," he said, gesturing to Champion. "I couldn't have shot my shot back then."

"Nope, no, no. Listen, I wanna know—is this your thing?" she fired back. "Is this how you flirt all the time?"

"No, I actually don't do this all the time," Paolo responded, laughing. "I just actually got here and I was like, 'Wow, she's stunning,' you know?"

Just before the video cuts off, Champion looked off camera and quipped, presumably to her producer, "Colleen, you didn't tell me I was gonna have someone flirting with me—"

At any rate, considering the fact that Champion shared the video on her own account—albeit a couple of months after the fact—she seems to have a good sense of humor about it. And who knows, maybe she'll decide to give him a chance eventually after all! Talk about a meet-cute.