Singapore - A television presenter has apologized for uttering an expletive during an episode of an Olympics news programme, MediaCorp said on Wednesday.

Jade Seah, who thought her microphone was switched off as she was off-camera, said the expletive after stumbling over the pronunciation of an athlete's name.

"I sincerely hope viewers will give me a chance to improve," said Seah.

The 25-year-old Seah continues to co-host the programme Today In Beijing.

"Under normal practice, after the presenter has delivered a link into a video or graphic insert, the presenter's microphone is immediately switched off," said Kenneth Liang, executive vice president of programming and production at Channel 5.

"In this case, there was a delay switching the microphone off and it caught the presenter's reaction to a fluff she had made," he noted.

Measures have been put in place to prevent further occurrences, he said.

Some viewers complained Seah was the wrong choice for the programme. (dpa)