ABC reporter Elias Clure drops an F-bomb live on air

An ABC journalist has vowed to save his profanities for the next “bloody roller coaster” after an awkward slip of the tongue on live TV.

An ABC journalist has apologised after a clip of him dropping the F-bomb was presented live on-air this afternoon.

Elias Clure was providing an update on the Victorian hotel quarantine drama from Melbourne for Ros Childs’ News At Noon program when he let out a frustrated “f**k it”.

The broadcast journalist was mid-sentence, before he started again and then let the tongue slip.

“Alfred Health contracted staff to conduct cleaning, but also — Victoria’s problem plagued hotel system is back in the spotlight, after it revealed … ahh f**k it,” he can be heard saying off camera, perhaps revealing the country’s ongoing frustration with the quarantine scandal.

The live version then cut to the ever-professional Childs, who continued the program smoothly.

“Apologies for that,” she said. “We’ll try to see what happened and fix it.”

RELATED: Why Exelby isn’t haunted by blooper

Multiplatform reporter Elias Clure has apologised for the slip of the tongue.

By the time the program was loaded on ABC’s iview streaming site, the gaffe had been edited and the F-bomb had disappeared.

Clure jumped on Twitter this afternoon to apologise to viewers and explain the mix-up that led to the awkward slip of the tongue.

“My sincerest apologies to our great @abcnews viewers,” he posted.

“My little moment of frustration was a prerecorded out-take and never meant to go to air. However good lesson for me to NEVER swear in front of an open mic.”

The multiplatform reporter then fired off another tweet.

“I’ll save my profanities for the next time I’m on that bloody roller coaster,” he said, accompanied with an upside down smiley face.

My sincerest apologies to our great @abcnews viewers! My little moment of frustration was a pre-recorded outtake and never meant to go to air. However good lesson for me to NEVER swear in front of an open mic!!

— Elias Clure (@EliasClure) October 1, 2020

Dropping the F-bomb live on television isn’t ideal but there has been worse.

The incident takes us back to ABC News 24 presenter Natasha Exelby, who was busted daydreaming during a live bulletin.

In a 2018 interview with news.com.au, the reporter who went viral explained the fateful evening.

“It was late on a Saturday night, I think it was the 11.30pm bulletin,” Exelby said.

“I had some things going through my mind at the time and then it happened so quickly. I was next to the sports presenter, Meredith Sheehan, who I’d never met before then but strikes me as a lovely creature. And after it happened I felt pretty sick and Meredith just said, ‘it’s a Saturday night, don’t worry, no one will be watching.’ I thought to myself, it just takes one.”

When Exelby woke up on Sunday morning, she already had a few text messages from friends about the blooper. But that was just the tip of the iceberg.

The footage spread like wildfire on social media and Exelby told news.com.au that “not in her wildest dreams” did she think it would travel so far and wide.

“I turned my phone off because it was going ballistic and as a general rule I don’t ever read stories about myself because it generally leads to chocolate binges,” she said.

“I was pretty embarrassed with what had happened and my mother said something to me that she had never said in my life. She said, ‘Tash, I think you should jump on Twitter because it’s going to make you feel better’.”

When Exelby checked the social media site, she was shocked to see the hashtag #PutYourBloopersOut trending as media personalities from around the world starting sharing footage from their slip-ups on TV.

“I knew that quite a few journalists and people in the media had my back but I still grapple with how many people who have such busy lives were tweeting to support me,” Exelby said.

“I was fielding media requests from Russia. I’ve got friends who were working in Iraq at the time and they’d seen it. China, Norway … everyone had picked up on the clip.

“I think I probably owe a bit of that to Russell Crowe because when he tweeted about it, that’s when it really tipped the viral scale. I’m yet to profit any money from it but if I do maybe I should be looking at giving Russell a cut.”