Balloon Boy's Parents Busted In Hoax

"Balloon Boy" is child in middle. Photo courtesy ABC.com.

Falcon Heene's eccentric family busted on live CNN broadcast.

The six-year-old boy who was thought to be trapped in a homemade storm-chasing balloon on Wednesday was first missing, then found safe and sound in his parents' attic. His parents are known for pulling wacky network TV stunts...and in a live CNN broadcast Thursday night, the six-year-old accidentally rats on his parents.

The public seemed to be drawing that conclusion. How did an entire nation think a kindergarten-age child was inside a flying balloon at an altitude of 10,000 feet, moving 25 miles per hour for sixty miles? The Colorado family who declared the boy missing Thursday afternoon insisted that first he was in the balloon, then when the balloon descended he was nowhere to be found...until they checked a box in the attic?

Appearing on Larry King Live, six-year-old Falcon spills the beans, looking at his parents and saying, "You guys said that we did this for the show."

Both parents freeze, and the dad says, "Man." The mom responds with an uncertain "No."

The family has a history of strange television appearances, having appeared two times -- including the "classic" 100th episode -- of ABC's primetime reality show Wife Swap. The father is reportedly a storm chaser with a bad temper, the mom doesn't seem to say much, and the children are "science-obsessed." Huffington Post has compiled the following info regarding the family's previous television experiences:

When the Heene family aren't chasing storms, they devote their time to scientific experiments that include looking for extraterrestrials and building a research-gathering flying saucer to send into the eye of the storm. In this ultimate swap, the Heenes swap lives with a psychic mom who speaks to the dead and can control the weather, her husband and her children -- who believe they are destined to be stars. This show will feature aliens, punk rockers, past-life regression and, for the first time ever, the children from the two families will face off in a kids' table meeting. "Heene/Silver," the 100th episode of Wife Swap, destined to become a classic!

The mother who was swapped out to mother the children for a week described them as "rambunctious" children with an overabundance of comfort with gastrointestinal function. Clearly they love gas, but not helium. At the end of the day, Falcon Heene had never set foot inside the balloon.

Check out CNN's hilarious chat with the Heene family here at TMZ, and our video of his confirmed "rescue," below.