Porn airs on CNN in Boston

There are reports that people in Boston enjoying Thanksgiving dinner were instead treated to hardcore pornography on CNN.

Thirty minutes of hardcore pornography allegedly aired on news channel CNN in the US city of Boston on Thursday night.

The incident reportedly happened when CNN was slated to air a repeat of the Anthony Bourdain culinary travelogue series Parts Unknown.

CNN initially issued a statement blaming cable company RCN and asking for "an explanation," but two hours later reversed its position.

"Despite media reports to the contrary, RCN assures us that there was no interruption of CNN's programming in the Boston area last night," CNN said.

After indicating earlier in the day that his company saw no evidence of the alleged porn but was researching the incident further, Jeff Carlson from RCN Boston, released a statement.

"Regarding the reported incident involving CNN in Boston, RCN has no evidence this occurrence took place on the CNN feed.," the statement said.

"We have not had any other reports of this incident other than this single customer's tweet.

"Our review of network operations and our call centre phone logs during the last evening show no indications that this event occurred on the CNN feed."