AJ Clemente has gone from anchoring at a tiny station in North Dakota to appearing on NBC’s The Today Show in a matter of days.

But he didn’t get a promotion – he got fired.

Clemente, unaware he was on the air, appeared to say ‘gay fucking shit’ at the start of his very first newscast as weekend anchor at the Bismarck station KFYR-TV.

He told Today’s Matt Lauer and Savannah Gutherie he was struggling to practice the name of London Marathon winner Tsegaye Kebede, mangled it, then said the expletive.

‘I would never use that slur and I definitely want to make sure people know that,’ Clemente said.

But the swear words, he did say.

‘It’s inexcusable to even say those word,’ he said. ‘I fully expected that they would fire me. … I’m looking forward, moving forward. You have to have a tough skin in this business. It’s good to laugh at yourself.’

The incident has gone viral and was even part of David Letterman’s and Jimmy Fallon’s opening monologues this week.