Looks like WNBC-TV news anchor Sue Simmons forgot one of the golden rules of on-camera reporting: If you don’t have anything nice to say, make sure your mic is off!

In a live teaser for the 11 p.m. news broadcast featuring herself and co-anchor Chuck Scarborough, Simmons went from blandly discussing the rising cost of Cheerios to droppin’ the f-bomb all over the hizzouse!

Okay, so that’s a bit of an exaggeration.

What really happened is that while Simmons was delivering her intro to the grocery story, accompanying footage of a checkout line inexplicably flipped to that of a cruise ship that lost a passenger overboard.

Rather than attempt to cover the snafu with a joke or even some nervous stammering, Simmons let her sailor mouth take over and blurted out, “What the f*** are you doing?” likely to which ever poor numbskull was responsible for the gaffe.

What followed after the bomb was dropped was 8 seconds of the most shudder-ific silence imaginable, in which we imagine Sue’s stomach began to do some serious pyrotechnics.

In penance, the seasoned anchor offered an apology on the 11 p.m. broadcast (that’s the one with the grocery / cruise ship story), saying: “I have to acknowledge an unfortunate incident…I used a word that many people find offensive. It was a mistake I made and I’m truly sorry.”

You can see the supremely awkward moment and subsequent serious-faced apology on TMZ.com.

The WNBC network is putting a kibosh on further discussion of the story, but we couldn’t help reveling in its hilarity one more time. We also couldn’t resist posting another of Sue’s on-air antics in which the dignified, blazer-sporting anchor fakes falling asleep when one of her co-hosts gives a particularly coma-inducing diatribe on dental floss. Awesome.

Check it out, and try to stay awake. While we don’t necessarily approve of prime-time potty mouth, we do get a kick out of seeing News Anchors Gone Wild.