Who says that there are no second chances and American public life? Recently fired rookie news-anchor A.J. Clemente continues his tonight, when he appears as a guest on the Late Show with David Letterman. Let's just hope Letterman's producers have the bleep button on standby.
A.J. Clemente is guy who had what is probably the most well documented terrible first day on the job in history.
In the first 2 seconds of his first day as the new anchor for North Dakota's NBC station KFYR, Sunday April 21, Clemente made one of the biggest rookie mistakes possible - he cursed, using the two of the most FCC-prohibited (and publicly ineffable) curse words in the book: the f-bomb and the s-word, in a row. His helpful colleague tried to ignore the blunder and move on, and Clemente attempted to introduce himself to the viewing audience, but the damage had been done.
Watch the clip below (obviously the clip invovles NSFW and not safe for children language).
As he explained on the Today show this morning, it was a mix of nerves, unawareness, and frustration, as he had several difficult names to pronounce in his first segment and was clearly nervous to start his first broadcast. And he didn't know he was already on-air. He was quickly fired afterwards on Monday, but Clemente says he understands the decision and that he feels no malice towards the station.
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But the clip of his gaffe went viral soon after, being posted on blogs and spawning hashtags (and titters, mixed with sympathy) on Twitter. And now he has been given fame and a media tour that would have been unlikely for such an unfortunate newsperson before the internet existed.
His next big appearance is on David Letterman's talk show tonight on CBS, at 11:30pm ET and 10:30pm CT. Clemente, recently unemployed but a fresh face in the business, is still looking for another job. But with this much attention, his mishap may have been the best thing to happen to his career.
(via Mediaite)
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