NBC News correspondent Ken Dilanian shook up the morning routine at MSNBC with anchor Craig Melvin appeared to utter something profanity instead of relaying news. But what exactly did Dilanian see on his phone that caused him to release the string of cuss words?

Melvin was going to a segment on the Trump administration's refusal to work on the presidential transition with Joe Biden's team, when he asked Dilanian, "Ken, what have you learned, sir?"

NBC journalist

Dilanian, possibly thinking his zoom connection had been lost and not realizing he was on camera, could be seen and heard whispering to himself "Sh-t" and then "f-ck." All Melvin could say was, "OK, I think we lost Ken for a second" as producers went back to him. The look on Melvin's face is just amazing.

TV reporter apologizes for gaffe

Later, Melvin brought Dilanian – who covers national security and intelligence – back on the air, saying they'd earlier experienced technical issues. The correspondent "sincerely apologized" to viewers for any profanity they may have heard, then went on with his report.

"Hey, Craig. First, I want to sincerely apologize to viewers who may have heard me use profanity at the top of the last hit," Dilanian replied. "What we're learning today is the potential impact of the resistance of the Trump administration to acknowledge the Biden win in the intelligence arena specifically."

While the MSNBC spokesperson did not comment further on the incident, but the incident was taken over with plenty of humorous (and relatable) reactions on Twitter.

However, this is nothing new. When a television anchor curses while being on-air, he or she becomes the night's top sensation. In August, Lana Murphy, a Nine News Melbourne journalist, had to apologize on social media after she was caught on camera using a swear word during a live broadcast. The television reporter was talking about the spread of the coronavirus in Victoria when she stumbled mid-sentence, laughed and was heard muttering "f**ck my life" causing the camera crew to break into laughter.

She then tried to keep calm by laughing it off and fixing her hair in preparation for another take, when the camera quickly cut back to the studio where anchor Alicia Loxley took over without reacting to the incident, which had already taken over the social media by storm till then.

'Mic left on'

In a post on Twitter, Dilanian elaborated on the cause of his on-air mistake. "I was experiencing some technical difficulties and mistakenly hung up on the control room, though my mic still was on," he explained.

Dilanian also has been reporting on the transition, including President Donald Trump's decision to fire Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, and Attorney General William Barr's memo that laid the groundwork for investigations of electoral fraud, even though there is little evidence of any systemic cases. The top Justice Department official overseeing the voter fraud investigations unit then resigned in protest, the network reported.