Top 10 Best NSFW Moments Accidentally Aired on Live TV

Live TV is a risky, risky thing. There are plenty of things that can wrong when the cameras are rolling on an anchor who is trying to keep up with a breaking news story (even worse if it’s an outside broadcast) or a commentator watching a sports game. Although there’s been plenty of unexpected incidents involving horrific injuries, suicides and even assassinations over the years, this list focuses on the more entertaining side of NSFW live TV moments.

10. Bouncing Penis in Dallas Cowboy’s Locker Room

Sports fans got a little more than they were expecting when they tuned into Dallas news channel WFAA to hear some post-match commentary about the Dallas Cowboys losing to New England.
Cutting from the studio to some prerecorded footage of the players holding their heads in their hands in the locker room, WFAA accidentally broadcast some pretty blatant male nudity. As the camera focuses on a despondent player with his head looking at the floor, one of his teammates walks by in the background and the camera almost perfectly frames his bouncing penis. It’s unbelievable that the professionals in post-production somehow managed to completely overlook this as it’s really hard to miss. Unsurprisingly, this isn’t the first NSFW moment that has been captured in a post-game locker room, but the perfect juxtaposition of the foreground and background definitely makes it one of the funniest.

9. Reporter Messes up on His First Day

Few careers have ended as quickly as A.J. Clemente’s. On the first day of his new job as an anchor for North Dakota’s KFYR (an affiliate of NBC), Clemente and his co-anchor were preparing to read the evening report. Before the NBC logo had even dissolved away to reveal the studio, Clemente could be heard clearly muttering under his breath “Gay…fucking shit”. As his co-anchor Van Tieu valiantly soldiered on and welcomed the network’s newest addition to the team, Clemente stood mumbling and staring down at his notes. When he was introduced he managed to stutter something about graduating from West Virginia and “being used to being from the East coast”. On-air nerves had clearly got to Clemente and he royally screwed up his shot at the big time as he was fired shortly after the broadcast. However, he became a viral sensation, even appearing on the Today Show and David Letterman, and somehow managed to land other jobs in broadcasting.

8. Comcast Broadcasts Pornography in Arizona During 2009 Super Bowl

A prank which took over the airwaves in Tucson during the 2009 Super Bowl made Janet Jackson’s ‘wardrobe malfunction’ 5 years earlier seem like a load of fuss over nothing (which it was). A malicious prankster managed to disrupt KVOA’s signal for ten seconds with footage from the porno ‘Wild Cherries 5’. Comcast was forced to give its 80,000 subscribers in the area a $10 credit to their bill for making the mistake and Frank Tanori Gonzalez, a former cable employee, was apprehended 2 years later following an investigation by the FBI. (source

7. Anchor Accidentally Shows a Penis on an iPad

The Denver Fox 31 news team learned a valuable lesson about social media in March 2014 when they were covering a breaking story about a helicopter crash in Seattle. Using an iPad to broadcast photographs of the crash site which users had uploaded to Twitter, the anchor goes from an image of billowing smoke in front of the Space Needle to a picture of Edward Scissorhands. Some Twitter users were presumably misappropriating the hashtag or just sending random images to the news team, so the anchor tries to find more photos of the crash site by swiping past the next random image of a cake. Unfortunately he then lands on a very explicit dick pic. The broadcast quickly cuts away from the iPad back to the studio as the clearly shocked anchors attempt an apology.

6. Banker Caught Looking at Porn at Work

Despite knowing that his company had a news team in to interview an executive, one banker at the Australian firm Macquarie Private Wealth just couldn’t resist going through some of his NSFW emails. While his colleague gives a televised interview to the 7 News studio, a man in the background can clearly be seen loading up a risque image of model Miranda Kerr. He spends a good 10 seconds staring at the image (during this time another co worker is talking to him behind the monitor) before he loads up another one. And then another. Just as the interview is coming to a close, the man spins his head around with a rabbit in the headlights look and realises that he has been on air the whole time.

5. Cricket Fan Flashes During a Test Match

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRJU897RxPk

Countless streakers have managed to get their genetalia on live TV by interrupting sporting events, but few are as rewarding as this clip of an exhibitionist cricket fan. During a test match between England and the West Indies, the camera pans to two girls in the crowd. Without giving it a second thought, one of the blonde beauties pulls up her vest top and reveals her breasts. The camera quickly cuts away but it’s a little bit too late. The commentator has nothing to say while the rest of the crowd goes completely nuts and starts applauding what they’ve just seen on the broadcast television screens. It’s without a doubt the most exciting thing to ever happen at a cricket match.

4. Booker T Calls Hulk Hogan the ‘N Word’

Before the World Championship Wrestling (WCW) big Spring Stampede event in 1997, allies Booker T and Stevie Ray called out Hulk Hogan in a backstage interview. At the end of his particularly animated trash talk session, Booker T momentarily forgets he’s on live TV and ends his rant-fuelled speech by calling Hogan the ‘N word’. Although the interviewer doesn’t miss a beat and swiftly turns to Stevie Ray, you can see the instant regret wash over Booker T as he shakes his head and put his hands up.

3. Muse Replace their Lyrics with a lot of Fucks

Annoyed that they were specifically told not to swear during a live performance on Spanish Radio 3 in April 2001, British rock band Muse decided they wouldn’t be censored and did the complete opposite of what they had been told. Just over a minute and a half into their performance, lead singer Matt Bellamy changes the beginning of the verse and just says “fuck” over and over for 5 seconds. The best part about it? The song – Feeling Good – doesn’t have any expletives in it anyway.

2. Anchor is Pranked into Unintentionally Swearing

Reporting on the crash of Asiana Airlines Flight 214, the anchor of KTVU San Francisco reads out the names of the four pilots who died in the crash. Accompanied by onscreen graphics, the news anchor reads out the names she has been given: “Captain Sum Ting Wong”, “Wi Tu Lo”, “Ho Lee Fuk” and “Bang Ding Ow”. Remarkably, she doesn’t realise that the names are completely fake – even after reading out “Ho Lee Fuk”. The gaff was made because a NTSB intern jokingly emailed the names to the news outlet (he was later fired). Somehow, the clearly false names were okayed by at least 4 people in the newsroom before it was passed onto the graphics department and given to the anchor to read out.

1. The Max Headroom Incident

The ‘Max Headroom Incident’ is arguably the most well-known broadcast signal intrusion ever made. On November 22, 1987, WGN-TV in Chicago was disrupted during the evening news and had the signal replaced by a 15 second transmission of someone wearing a Max Headroom mask and jumping around. After the hijack had been stopped, the signal returned to sports anchor Dan Roan who said “Well, if you’re wondering what’s happened, so am I.” Two hours later during an episode of Doctor Who on station WTTW, the signal was again hijacked by the same person for almost 90 seconds. During the broadcast the prankster made weird noises, flipped off the camera, complained about his piles and had strange things to say about the Chicago Tribune. He then lowered his pants and had his bare ass spanked with a flyswatter by a woman wearing a French maid outfit before the transmission returned to the Doctor Who episode. Almost 20 years on, no one knows who carried out the hijack and it is still one of the most bizzare things to happen on broadcast television.